Chapter 17 Part V Sections 72-73

All that was left was Rebecca. Tom drove a long black sedan outside Rebecca's cabin.The sound startled her, and she walked to the door with a half-smile on her face and a hint of worry in her eyes. "Hey, beauty," he said. "Hey, You." "Is Mitchell okay?" "Mickey he-" Mickey appeared.He came running around the house from the garden, followed by a dirty little white dog.Except for a pair of torn shorts and a muddy body, Mickey was as naked as a peeled banana.He saw Tom, and with a yelp of delight, threw himself into his father's wide open arms, while the little thing barked at Tom's shins.Father and son kissed and hugged for a moment, until Mickey writhed and tried to break free.Tom took something out of his pocket and handed it to Mickey, "Give this to your mother, will you?"

It was a check, made out to Rebecca, for the exact amount that was in the account before it was emptied. "I said I would pay you back." "thanks." She and Tom were still five yards away from each other, without any contact.Tom could not read in Rebecca's face what she thought of him.He had sent her a telegram as soon as he had confirmed the oil discovery, but hadn't heard back.Even in the midst of his brilliant success, he was extremely uncertain about the thing that mattered most to him. "I bought you something else." He threw her a small jewelry box, and she caught it lightly.Inside the box is a diamond ring, a single large diamond, well cut.She put the ring on, the size was just right, the diamond reflected the dazzling light in the sun.Her smile widened.

"I never had money to buy you nice things before. Now I have." "very beautiful." "Really? You like it? Is it too..." He shrugged. "I don't know. You like it?" Without ruining your own life again. Rebecca looked at him teasingly.She enjoyed his uneasiness, though briefly.She shook the ring at him, "Are you an oilman so proud that you don't need to give me a kiss?" "Oh, Becca! Unless you want to be an oilman's wife!" They hugged and kissed.Mitch jumped on them, clamoring to be included.Tom puts out an arm and lifts him up, so it becomes a family of three kissing and hugging.The little things were also jumping and clamoring, so this became a family of four again.

When Tom and Rebecca went to bed that night, Mitch was snoring in the cot at their feet, and Rebecca ran her hand over her husband's cheek. "Tommick?" "Ok?" "I'm so proud of you," she whispered, "you've done an amazing thing." He kissed her hand.Yes, he is proud of himself too.This great success erased the terrible failures of the past, especially the failure on Signal Hill and the abandoned years after that.There will be many challenges ahead, but he is already a man who can meet them. Like for the first time in his life, he was evenly matched with Allen.Even better than Allen.

Bertie Johnson has lost half his sight.He has a kerosene lamp but never uses it unless he has company.He fumbled for the match with one hand and tried to adjust the wick with the other. "No, put it down," Allen said, "Let me do it." He cleaned the wax from around the wick, adjusted the black wick head, then lit a match and brought the wick to light.The light was very dim, but at least Alan could see his surroundings clearly.Bod's hut was very clean and neatly stacked with firewood.There was bread and gravy on the table, and the house smelled of apples. "Merry Christmas, Bod," Ellen said when they were seated.

"Oh, Merry Christmas to you too, sir, it must be a wet Christmas, I suppose." "Have you got everything you need?" "Yes, sir, thank you." "Any good plans for tomorrow?" "Maggie Davis promised me a meal. Pork, I think. Great pork." "That's great, and maybe some applesauce?" Bertie Johnson chuckled. He liked the idea. "I hope so." "Very well...Listen, Bod, I've come to ask you a question. About an event that happened a long time ago, or didn't happen at all." Bod straightened up a little as he sat at the little table.His hands, warped with rheumatism with age, were now almost fixed in the shape of holding a pair of invisible bridles, just as he had done when he used to ride long hours in the carriage to and from Winchester when he was the village deliveryman.There was a evasive look on his face.

"yes?" "No one will blame you, Bod. No matter what happens, no one will blame you." "No, sir." "You must remember Tom Cleary." "Of course, Jack's son, a good boy." "Well, you should also remember that he was lost in the war and presumed dead. I used to think so, my father and mother used to think so, and Jack used to think so." Bod nodded.His blind eyes didn't make eye contact with Alan's, but perhaps there was a hint of stiff embarrassment in his eyes too?It's hard to say.Allen continued. "Now, for some reason, I don't accept that anymore. Maybe I should, but I don't. Anyway, I started looking into it. I went to the War Department and the Red Cross. But I also asked my A friend in Germany helped. He investigated the German war files and it turned out that Tom was indeed not dead. He was locked up in a place called Hetst and lived until the end of the war. This is what I have learned so far the whole situation."

The old man nodded.His hands moved to the bread and gravy bowls.He broke the bread, but only fiddled with it mindlessly.His eyes were white, as if covered with a film. "Now, let me tell you what I thought was bound to happen. We had an argument shortly before he disappeared, and I know he had an argument with Guy. For a long time, I I didn't think it would have much consequences. Tom is short-tempered and forgets after an argument. But now I have a little change of mind. I think that, for whatever reason, Tom must be more serious than I thought. Angrier, maybe he doesn't want to see me again. But you know, Bertie, it seems to me that he's going to do whatever it takes to get to his daddy. I think he came back, not long after the war, in Dec '18 or It was January '19. I think he knocked on this door, and I think he walked in and saw you."

Bod was as stiff as a goalpost.His opaque eyeballs looked straight ahead.His hands are steady. "I just want to mend old rifts," Allen said gently. "Nothing is ever over. Even now." "There are promises here. Once made, they cannot be broken." "Even if those promises hurt the person asking for them?" "A promise is a promise, sir." "And a life is a life, Bod." There was a moment of silence.Johnson exhaled heavily, and Allen knew he had won. "He came back for his daddy, yes." "And you told him?" Johnson nodded slowly. "Die from the flu, like many people."

"anything else?" Johnson looked ahead silently again, struggling with his conscience. "He's angry. He's gone again." "On the same night?" "yes." "Make you promise not to tell?" "yes." "Do you know where he went?" "I don't know, he didn't say." A short pause.The fire in the fireplace gradually died down, and Allen added some firewood to it, poked the ashes, and rekindled the fire.When he stopped, the hut was as silent as an ancient well. For a moment, Allen felt the familiar disappointment again.Whenever he approached Tom, Tom disappeared into a blur.Gone, and there is no clue as to where he went...

But this feeling lasted only for a moment.Where could Tom be?The answer is only one possibility.United States!As soon as the idea came up, it was instantly believable, and it made sense from every angle.Tom has always been very American.He was too classless, too energetic, too rebellious for England. And oil.The United States is still the world's largest oil producer.No other place on earth offers as many opportunities for independent oilers as the United States.If Tom wanted to get into the oil business, where could he be as successful as he was in America? So, if Tom was in America, Alan would go there to find him.There are various ways to track down someone.Questions of cost, reliability, and time ran through his mind, but he pushed them aside.None of this matters.It doesn't matter now.Never matter anymore.The world has changed; totally changed. Tom is alive and the world is a good place. "Thank you, Bod," he said, "and a Merry Christmas to you." Three months later, in March 1931, Tom and Teach Harrelson met in Dallas.Harrelson is already scouting for investment in a new Wildcat well near Eldora, on the Arkansas state line.Much of his money has been spent, but the Wildcat Driller looks ten years younger drinking root beer and trying to convince Tom to lend him money. "Oil is so easy to find now," he complained, "the price of oil is going to fall." "Maybe," said Tom. "Possibly? Bullshit! Look at what we've found. Look at what's happening in Eldora--going to happen, I mean. Look--hell, what's the name of that Brit's company-- The one that found a lot of oil in the Middle East?" "Iraq?" "How the hell do I know? That company in Persia. It's called Alonzo, or something like this idiot name." "The Allen Soup Oil Company Discovered a Lot of Oil in Iraq?" "Yeah. Oil is so easy to find now. We're not going to see a dollar a barrel again. Not in Texas, not anywhere. When I find oil in Eldora, it'll be fifty cents a barrel." Barrels count as luck." The rest of the conversation is all drunk chat. The news made Tom freeze.Freeze, then anger.Tom discovered the largest oil production since Signal Hill—and possibly the largest in U.S. history right now—but Allen had the same feat in Iraq.Old grudges are back.Allen has the pedigree, the money and the oil rights to one of the most oil-rich countries in the world from the start.Oil was found in his second well too!His second bite!Who ever heard of oil so sweet and so easy to find?Now, when he wants to expand production, how does he do it?He stepped out of the British Empire, went to another country, and got oil rights there for himself.Where is the competition?Where is the struggle? The more he thought about it, the more the old anger grew.Tom wouldn't -- wouldn't -- allow himself to be surpassed.This determination was like a fire burning in his heart, fierce, blue, concentrated, hot.Either the fire finds its target, or it burns itself to ashes.Or maybe both. When Rebecca saw him later that night, she was taken aback. "You look like you've seen a ghost," she said. She was right.He has seen the devil.