With each passing year, Desmond was given more responsibility, put more in harm’s way. He broke his right arm outside Abilene when he was eleven, his leg near Galveston the following year. In May of ’95, at a rig outside Nacogdoches, a roughneck who was high on cocaine dropped a swivel on Desmond’s foot, crushing it. Orville beat the man to within an inch of his life. They never saw him again, on any job anywhere.

When Desmond got out of the hospital, his uncle welcomed him home with a pint of cheap whiskey. It was the only thing he had for the pain, and Desmond drank it down. It was disgusting at first, but no worse than the throbbing in his foot. It got easier to drink after a while.

To his surprise, his uncle didn’t desert him. He brought food to his room and took him to his follow-up appointments. Their relationship changed even more after that.

At thirteen, Desmond started high school. Thanks to his time on the rigs, he was big and broad-shouldered, with arms like a thoroughbred’s legs. He was still a loner at school. He didn’t fit in with any of the groups, and he had stopped trying years ago. He was stronger than the farm boys and varsity football players and smarter than the kids who lived in town, whose parents owned the shops and had gone to college. Thanks to the library system, he knew more about history than most of his teachers. And there was a lot of math on the rigs. It wasn’t calculus, but he picked that up quickly. He could attend half the year and pass all the tests. School became like visiting a prison camp on a foreign planet. People gossiped constantly. Football dominated everything. Everyone was always looking forward to the big game. Desmond only looked forward to his next book arriving—and his and Orville’s next job. The locations fascinated him. Louisiana and South Texas were colorful worlds all to themselves.

He cut school more and more. When the teachers began complaining, Orville visited the principal and explained that he needed his nephew’s help on the rigs and that the boy would pass all his tests. An agreement was made, and from then on, Desmond attended only enough to pass a few standard tests that would appease the school board if anyone came looking.