Chapter 1: A Long Night

“The new hand better be on time or their ass is going straight back to the unemployment line,” John groused. Looking around, he noticed a new rig headed his way. “F-250 and it looks like it’s geared out on a work bed, instead of pulling a trailer - good, the last dipshit was towing everything” he commented to his chief inspector.

Jose grunted in an affirmative manner. The aforementioned hand had broken his hitch three times on the trail before dragging up on the job. Looking at his work sheet he picked up this morning he saw the name of the new hand, Alex Moorhead, huh? Well Alex, this is a rough crowd, you better have thick skin with that name John thought. About that time, the rig pulled up next to him. With a puzzled frown, he saw a pixy looking woman with green hair driving. “Looks like this idiot brought his girlfriend out with him. This will be a record for how fast I fire someone’s ass.” he said with a frown on his weather-beaten face.

The rig stopped and out jumped the pixy who walked up to him and said with a smile “You the line boss? John?”

John looked her in her blue eyes and said “Yes.” She noticed his frown, then with a neutral expression said “I’m the new hand, here for testing. Just call me Alex.”

John thought to himself, ‘Those motherfuckers fucked me again or are trying to. Well, that shit ain’t going to happen.”

“You got your papers with you I hope” he ask with as calm a voice as his deep baritone would allow. To which, she stepped back, retrieved a packet from her truck, and handed it to him. Taking a look, he saw she had started out in a Kentucky local hall, and had transferred her book to Vegas recently. Seeing this, he knew better than to summarily run her off as badly as he wanted to. He knew his company had jumped through hoops to settle and pacify the local UA hall with an agreement to hire any hands they had on the bench, even though this job was non-union. One cross word, and there would be picket lines and reporters at the highway entrance 24 hours later.

About this time, one of the crew from the line pulled up. The first thing the dumbass said when he got out was “Hey boss, who hired the stripper?” and followed it with a wolf whistle.

In a raised angry voice John replied “Shut your fucking mouth Mike, if you still want a job tomorrow. She was just sent out here from the hall today.” Mike lost a couple of weeks worth of tan on his face at that.

Turning to Alex, he said, “Sorry about that. I’ll pass the word to the apes to watch their mouths.” Looking back over at Mike he said “In fact, you just volunteered to pass the word, get your ass moving.” Mike left a dust storm as he did just that.

Alex turned her blue eyes up to his and said “Don’t worry about it. I’ve got skin thicker than your boot heels. Where do I test?”

“Jose, set her up next to my rig, then give her the standard coupon test.”

Watching as she moved her truck and backed up next to his, John decided to watch how she set up. After parking she got out, opened up a side of her tool bed, pulled out a pipe stand with a chain clamp almost as big as her, and then proceeded to set it up behind her truck. ‘How the hell did she lift that damn thing?’ he thought to himself in surprise. As if she could read his mind, she looked him in the eye again and said “I grew up on a working farm.”

Looking into the back of her rig, he saw a Lincoln Short Hood welder mounted there with welding leads coiled up neatly. By this time, Jose was back with the weld test pipe pieces. He set them down by her pipe stand, then handed her the ‘weld process specification’ (WPS) sheets, before taking a few steps back. She looked them over, then jumped up into her rig and set up her Lincoln. John noticed the fluidity in her movements thinking she’s done this before for sure.

Looking at Jose she said “I was told the welding rods were to be provided on site, where are they?”

Jose replied “Follow me” then walked over to the job box next to his rig. Unlocking and opening the job box, he reached in and handed her a rod oven. Watching the show, John knew this was a setup for all new hands. Jose closed the box and said “There you go.”

She looked at him with anger in her eyes and asked “Do you think I’m an idiot!?” Alex then popped the lid on the rod oven and looked at what was inside. “At least you didn’t put the 6010 in here, so where are the 6010 rods?”

Seeing a shit storm brewing, John stepped in. “I got this one Jose. How about you go check on the firing line for a few?” Looking at Alex he said, “You passed the first part. You wouldn’t believe the number of idiots that don’t even look at the WPS, much less the rods first.” She looks up at him and said “Yes, actually I would. The state inspectors popped in for surveillance on my last project and shut it down when none of regular hands could answer any questions much less produce a copy of the WPS.” John opened the job box again, pulled out an unopened foil pack of 6010 rods, and handed it to her. He then asked her “You don’t have a helper?”

“Can’t afford to pay them yet. I’ve got a friend I intend to bring down after my first pay comes though.” she replied.

John just nodded and said, “Well, let’s get this going. The unemployment wagon will be along about 17:00 this afternoon, and I’d like to get your test x-rayed when they come.”

Over the next few hours, he watched her in semi-shock as she made one of the best welds he’d ever seen. Alex was long since done when the x-ray truck showed up.

John didn’t much care for the slimy bastard they’d sent out this time. He was known to reject welds on personal opinion regardless of what the code allowed. John walked up to him with Alex’s coupon on his hand and said, “I need this shot before you leave.” The tech nodded then took the coupon and drove up the gravel road to the prearranged test location. It took him half an hour just to set up, and another hour to get it done. John had current American Society for Non-Destructive Testing certifications as he’d been doing that job to fill in when he didn’t have a welding contract to work. He knew the bastard was goldbricking, but resolved to take it up with the tech’s manager tomorrow instead.