Chapter 26

When John woke up in the morning, he saw Marty and Tess wrapped up in each other. The sleeper had the distinct smell of well fucked pussy. Looking at the time, he put on his clothes and climbed out of the truck for a walk around. Nothing was amiss so he climbed back into the driver’s seat. He noticed the smell of coffee about the time Marty handed him a travel mug filled with it. She gave him a kiss and went to the back again.

After updating his log, he started the truck. While the air pressure and temperature came up to operating levels, he removed the privacy curtain. Once again seated, he pulled out of the truck stop and headed for the girls’ hotel.

After arriving, they all went to the girls’ room finding them in the midst of getting dressed. John, Tess, and Marty took a shower together before they all went outside. Standing in the parking lot, John looked at Pixy and said, “I’ll follow you to your parents place, but first breakfast.”

After a stop at a Cracker Barrel restaurant, they proceeded on. After leaving the highway, Pixy led him down a series of country roads, finally turning into a farm drive.

A small split-level home was at the end of the drive, but Pixy turned off shy of the home leading them to a series of camper pads set out in a field. The terrain surrounding the field was all green old forest hills.

John saw Roy sitting in a fold up chair next to one of the larger pads. After greeting Roy with a hand shake, he got back in the rig and backed it over the pad. Dropping the trailer, he went through the set-up procedure again.

Pixy gave her dad a tour doing a good job of explaining everything while John made some coffee in the camper. Sitting down at the table with a cup of coffee, Roy looked over at John and while pointing at the girls said “I’ve heard their version of how this came to be. Now I’d like to hear yours.”

John looked him in the eye and narrated the story from first meeting Alex to the details of the Rodriguez rig. He finished with “That last bit is all under an NDA, so I’ll trust you understand loose lips would cost me and your daughter millions.”

Roy didn’t comment, he just kept starring at John before saying “At least you take responsibility for your actions. I can only hope that rubs off on my daughter. I can’t say I like it, or understand it, but I understand her.

Switching gears, Roy said “You and Alex need to ride over to the hall for a weld test today. They wouldn’t let me do it because of Alex.”

Standing John said “Then we have some work to do to get ready.”

He and everyone else headed for the stairs.

What followed was a shuffle of everything until his pipeline rig was out.

Roy looked at John and said “You won’t be needing this” while pointing at the Ford.

“Maybe not, but it has all our jigs, safety gear, and welding supplies in it.”

All the girls except for Pixy were chatting with Beth by this time.

Roy said “Let’s go”, and hopped into the passenger’s side. Pixy got on her bike instead.

They made the short trip to a nondescript building. After pulling around back, John saw a welding bay in the building.

John looked at Roy, and asked “What are the rules here for tandem buddy welding?”

Roy answered “Two tests. One individual, one paired up.”

The equipment was mixed bagged. Some ESAB, some Lincoln, and some Miller. They were given a choice, but there was only one Miller in the building. John let Pixy pick first. She chose the Miller as she was more familiar with it. John walked over to a Lincoln. “How do we do filler issue?”

Roy walked to the back after waving them to follow.

Unlocking and entering a cage, he turned at the cage window until he faced John and Pixy. “Your test proctor is late” Roy commented.

An old man came walking back from the front. “Keep your shirt on Roy, these today’s victims?” the old man asked. He handed each of them a WPS and a safety check list.

John saw the gas tungsten arc welding GTAW portion had an option for either ceriated tungsten or *thorated tungsten. Looking at the safety gear on the table, he saw the welding hoods didn’t have powered ventilation.

Looking at the old man he asked “Can I assume we will only be using grey tungsten” as he picked up the hood.

“No, you can’t assume that, everything we have here is **red” he answered.

John was really close to walking out, but instead pulled Roy to the side.

“Roy, just so we are clear, I’m here to try to help you out. I’m not here to be jerked around.”

Roy replied “What do you mean?”

“I mean this WPS and the equipment we’ve been given are all bullshit.

The WPS is listing the Tungsten as optional Grey or Red. That violates ASME Section IX essential variables.

The hoods have no ventilation. If you have people regularly using thorated tungsten without ventilation then you’re begging to be fined and shut down by OSHA. So, if this is some kind of noon test, then let’s cut through the bullshit. If this continues, I’m packing up and going back to Oklahoma.”

“Bobby, get your ass over here” Roy yelled.

The old man came walking over with an insolent look on his face. “I heard the baby crying over here. They take the test like everyone else or they don’t use my equipment. This ain’t gonna be like the last time you tested that little bitch of yours.”

Roy punched ‘Bobby’ through the gate window then opened the door for round two.

Three people came running from around the corner squaring up to Roy and John. Bobby stood up “You fucked up this time Roy. There’s nobody but this fucking Indian here to help you this time.

The four moved on John and Roy. Two more came out from the other end of the shop. Those two went to grab Pixy. She stomped the first one’s insole, then palm struck the other assholes nose. Both of them were rolling on the ground screaming about the same time as John and Roy finished with the other four.

The Law showed up about that time. What these assholes didn’t realize was both Pixy and John had on body cams. After reviewing the footage, all six of the asshats were arrested. John and Pixy lost the cameras as they were confiscated as evidence but that was that.