Summary

The chapter opens with a description of the man camp, a place where men have “a comfortable life and the chance to make [a] fortune driving water trucks for the rigs” (95). Joe Baker is working the oil field with a young man named Dustin who he shares a residency with. Dustin is described as “barely twenty-one, fresh out of his parents’ house”, and Joe takes a father-like attitude towards the young man (94). His own son had died in a car accident which left his wife, Mandy, physically disabled and put her into assisted living where she now remains in Greeley. Joe took on the job at the gas rigs to make the “small fortune” needed to pay for Mandy’s long-term care (96). As Joe works, memories flood back to him about the accident and his marriage to Mandy, as he wonders “whether Mandy...