Chapter 2, Summer 1998

In the end, Missy searched the garage and found an old camp bed neatly stordd away.

"Sheldon must have put this up," Missy told Vicky as they undid the sheets of cellophane. No dust or damp - ideal for an emergency, such as a friend turning up with her possessions in a holdall - and Vicky assembled it while Missy found sheets and blankets and a spare pillowcase.

"You look exhausted," Missy added, as she made the camp bed. "You got work ij the morning?"

"Yes," Vicky told her. "Mr. Ford told me he expected to see me as usual, so I guess my father couldn't ruin my job like he did my lease."

"He went to Barnett Oil, didn't he?" Missy asked, as she began to undress, pulling an oversized t-shirt on after kicking her work suit into a corner. "That aint gonna go down well with the management at Eagle, their biggest rivals poaching their chief engineer."

Charmed them into taking him, that's what her father would have done - he'd done it before with Shell and BP, and again to Eagle Star once he had discovered he couldn't live without the glamorous Marlene.

"Here," Missy added, handing Vicky a toothbrush still in its wrapper and a brand new toothpaste. "My mom keeps spares in case of unexpected visitors." She then handed her a towel.

"Have a shower now, or in the morning, strawberry shortcake shower foam is mine, use that."

"Thanks," Vicky told her, and half an hour later, being dressed in pyjamas, left the towel over the side of he bath and exited the bathroom in pyjamas. What was the point of Missy making a new bed up for her if she was grubby from the eviction?

"If you put your clothes with mine, I've got a wash to put on Saturday."

"You're being very kind to me," Vicky told her, as she lay down the not too uncomfortable camp bed. Missy had turned off the main light and flicked on a small desk lamp which shone dimly between them. "Why? We haven't known each other long."

"I did your induction - I'm Eagle Star's deputy personnel manager," Missy told her. "And we've had lunch together 'most every day since you got here."

It was true. Oil companies had few women, and apart from the elderly twins Ruth and Prudence, nieces to the founder of the Eagle Star company, who had been in charge of the typists since 1944 and nominally in charge of the computer systems which replaced the typists since 1987, although they could no more programme or use a modern PC as pick one up and use it as a discus.

"It's true; I'm glad we took lunch together. And you told me about your family."

"And yours," Missy reminded her friend,"Your mom particularly." When Vicky didn't reply, Missy added, "You don't have to talk."

"Thanks, it's OK," Vicky replied, and meant it. Like a pre-teen sleepover, chatting to someone felt soothing, even if she did have to get up and face her colleagues in the morning ejo had witnessed her father tell the world she was a disgraceful daughter and was cutting her off.

"Their faces…her dad! Who had led them through three years of change, had doubled the share price of Eagle Star, who had ttansfirmed the company. He had shouted at her, humiliated her, and watched as the leaseholders of her flat gave her ten minutes to pack and remove all of her belongings.

"Well, goodnight," Missy said, at last, as Vicky's silence persisted.

"Night," Vicky replied, and she lay in the darkness for a few moments as a door clicked and muffled talking could be heard. A flood of light spilled onto Misdy's bedroom carpet as a switch was put on, then, almost as suddenly was extinguished.

Then a thought occurred to Vicky, which could not wait until the morning, and she reached over to her work bag and sought her purse. Not her handbag, but the small, leather container that zipped up and had money in it.

Not even Missy's almost-snores were going to stop Vicky rousing her friend.

"I must give your mom something for this." She found Missy's hand in the darkness and thrust what she knew to be her hand.

"Not right now," Missy told her. "You have your job - you know he can't take that away from you." She pushed Vicky's hand with the dollar note gently back towards her friend.

"I just feel so…" Vicky began, her discomfort at everything she had been through beginnjng to swirl in her stomach again.

"...hollow? I get it, I was like that when my dad died. My mom did not gehave like your dad though."

"That must have been good," Vicky told Missy, softly. What the hell was she going to do tomorrow, though? How could she face them all?

"You can stay as long as you like, it's mom's house," Missy told her. "If Georgie and Mandy can live here with CeeCee, so can my friend. Only difference is, I didn't knock yer up."

Vicky laughed at this for a second, at the kindness of someone who was really just an acquaintance.

"I will pay her - "

" - when you can," Missy told her, sympathetically. "I'll explain the situation. Anyway, my niece liked you, so did my Meemaw."

"Meemaw…?

"That's my grandmother, Connie, and little Constance, she's Constance Cooper, so everyone calls her "CeeCee"."

"She's your brother's daughter?"

"Ah, the smart one, in Pasadena?" Missy shook her head.

"Na-ah, my big brother, Georgie's kid. Meemaw lives with us since the tornado - it ripped her house clean through and she didn't have insurance."

"...and Georgie and his wife live… " Vicky prompted.

"Na," Missy told her, "Mandy and Georgie are divorced now, Mandy lives in Houston with her new husband. CeeCee lives here, with us, with Georgie."

"You have a nice family." Vicky shifted in her bed.

"Supportive," Missy replied, quietly. "It's just been rough."

"I was a fool. I listened to my father, but he was stringing me along, lying to me."

"And you can't go home? Back to England?"

"There's nowhere to go home to, that's the problem." Vicky shifted again, uncomfortable about the whole situation. "My father's claiming my mother's house, even though she had bought him out of it when they got divorced. So I need to earn money. As you know, I've got 6 months on my working visa. If Eagle Star is supportive of my staying another year, I can have another year. I need it; got nothing to go back to now, especially if my father's going to be stubborn about the house, which he will be. Unless he wants something, and then he'll be nice. For five minutes."

"What does he want?" Missy turned over and was facing towards Vicky.

"To move to the west of Texas, to join him at Barnett Oil and live with him and his new wife. Pretend my mum never existed."

"That terrible."

"So, I've got to do this on my own; if I do this, I could move to other oil companies…I need a reference: it's tough being a woman in the oil industry."

"Relax, after what your dad did to Eagle? You've got Fordy on your side."

…but I want it to be because of what I achieve, not because of what my dad did to the company…

There was silence for a moment, when all that could he heard were the chirruping of crickets and cicadas in the Coopers' garden.

"Missy?"

"Yes, Vicky?"

"Can I get a lift in with you tomorrow?"

The silence was Missy making a few calculations.

"Course. As long as you sit and talk English to CeeCee tomorrow."

"And your mother's happy for me to stay?"

"Oh, she's delighted. She went searching in tbe cupboards for the Liptons."

Vicky closed her eyes, with the thought of a tea brand no one ever drank in England appearing in a cup in her mind's eye, the last thing she saw before falling into a heavy sleep.

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And Victoria was right: Robert Ford, her middle-aged boss had waited for her by the main gates the next morning and welcomed her back, checking she was OK.

"She slept at my place," Missy Cooper told Mr Ford, getting out of the car, her long legs, tight skirt and stilettos hitting their intended targets. By contrast, Vicky was wearing her usual long sleeved top and trousers. Missy's choice would have been completely unsuitable.

The workers from Vicky's division were hovering around Mr. Ford, who took a few steps and rested an arm around her shoulders.

"Your dad defected to Barnett - you got nothing to worry about, Vicky." He nodded to Missy. "Staying with the Coopers - noted."

And after that, it was as if nothing had happened. Robert Ford thrust a map into her hand of the rock she was in charge of.

"Hurry up! he added, and nodded to the resources hut, where Vicky would find her hard hat, overalls, torch, gloves.

"See ya at 6?" Missy was leaning on the door of her car, smiling.

"6," Vicky nodded. She had picked herself up - there was work to be done.