The Oasis
The needle had been threatening to
drop below E for a half hour when Jared finally saw The Oasis. He relaxed as the
sight of gas pumps shimmering under the heat banished undesirable outcomes from
his mind. He glanced over at Tina, who
would not have hesitated to make everything his fault in a dilemma. But even she seemed tranquil, so he exhaled again
and pulled into the station. The station
looked about thirty years old, free of trash but devoid of life. Despite the lack of a canopy, Jared eagerly hopped
out into the withering sun to start pumping.
As he approached the handle, a voice stopped him.
“Hold on there, sir, you’re at a The Oasis and we are a full service
station.”
An almost smiling man separated
himself from some statues near the door of the adjacent store and came
over. Dressed in cowboy boots and jeans,
his steady glance seemed to barely regard Jared much before he remarked, “We
don’t see people from the city here often.
You folks lost?”
“No, we’re heading back home the
back way,” said Jared, hoping to avoid the stereotype of the millennial seeking
an authentic experience.
“Well you won’t see much this way,
just oil fields and scrub brush. You
better get some water while you’re here, too.”
Walking a short distance away, Jared took another look at the sign. After wiping the dust from his eyes yet
again, he noticed an interesting message painted just below The Oasis. In faded green cursive letters, it promised
“Free Lunch When You Fill Up.” Tina
probably wasn’t hungry, but when else would they ever try the cuisine of this
dried up county? Reassured that this
whole venture might yet yield a drop of authenticity, Jared approached the pump
and, despite the attendant’s ignoring him, asked, “So is there lunch available
today?”
“Fresh out of lunch, sorry bud.”
“That’s a bummer. But is there any food at all?”
“We have sodas and soft pretzels
for two dollars each. There’s cigarettes
and other snacks too. Go ahead in and
have a look.”
Walking into the store, Jared
passed between two wooden statues: one of growling bear standing on two legs
and the other of an Indian casually looking toward the horizon. The two statues threw a shadow over the attendant’s
chair. Jared emerged with two bottles of
water, disappointed by how boring his idea had turned out. He thanked the attendant and asked his name
to be polite.
“I’m Ray James. Thanks for stopping by The Oasis. Have a safe
trip.”
“I appreciate it. Before I go, is there anything worth seeing
around here?”
“The old Stevens family oil fields
are off to the right a few miles down the road.
They slowed down fifteen years ago and haven’t produced a barrel in
five, but they sure used to be worth seeing.”
“Sounds good, thanks Ray. Take care.”
Back in the car, Tina remained as
unenthused for this stage of Jared’s plan as she had for each previous stage. He offered to get on the highway at the
next opportunity and that at least got a nod of approval. The engine started and Jared’s stomach sank
as the reality of work on Monday mingled with three more hours of flat
interstate. But as he pulled off the
lot, he heard something snap in the engine and the car stopped
accelerating. Tina looked beside herself
as Jared stared perplexed at the dashboard of the stopped car.
“I told you this car wouldn’t make
it all the way. We should have rented a
car,” she snapped, putting in headphones and refusing to say another word. Figuring it would be unwise to point out that
it was lucky to have a breakdown at a gas station, Jared just hopped out again
to ask Ray to help him push it back onto the lot. Once it was safely in a rare shady spot, Tina
turned up her music and checked out. Ray
took a quick look at the car and saw which belt snapped.
“That’ll do it,” he said. “It might be a little while before we can get
one like that in here. I’ll go make a
call though.” Waiting for Ray, Jared
glanced at the statues again. The bear
looked characteristically savage, while the Indian looked dimly aware of the
world’s existence. It looked like he
knew something but that it was too late. Ray came back out with his calm fully restored.
“McIntyre Auto Parts will be out
here in two hours with the belt you need.
They’ll check everything else too.
It’ll be $15 for the belt and $15 for the service.”
“Thank you, that sounds
amazing.” Work on Monday was beginning
to sound increasingly pleasant. Ray grabbed
an extra chair and then sat down.
“So, Ray, do you see a lot of
business out here?”
“Back when those oil fields were
operating you had to get here early just to get gas. The vehicles filling up here in the morning
ran us dry a few days a week. The
Stevens family operated the fields and their kid ran this station. He got kicked out of school so they stuck him
here to grow up a little. They came up
with the free lunch idea to try to get people to wait until the lunch break to
mob this place. But that kid didn’t
care. He resented his parents for
something but really only had one way to get at them. He never ordered enough lunch stuff so after
a few free sandwiches, the counter had to close down. He would stand out there himself to
personally tell the oil workers that there wasn’t any lunch today. I think it was the only part of life he
enjoyed. And he enjoyed it for fifteen
years. It took that long for them to
give up on him.”
Ray fell silent as stronger curses
festered unsaid. Bitterness and dusty
heat flooded Jared’s mind. Ray’s eyes
and lips may have forgotten the feeling of humidity, but Jared’s protested
constantly. Time started to slip
away. The lines on the Indian’s face
deepened as Jared imagined the Indian gazing at the old boss abusing his tiny authority
to irk those around him. The bear,
mad as always, held no specific grudge.
But the Indian had identified the problem. As Jared gazed off into the distance, he was
startled by a door opening.
“Visitors! What can we do for you today?” A man wearing a polo shirt tucked into khakis stood before them. He
went straight to Jared and introduced himself as Ryan Woodley, the
manager. “So you guys had a breakdown,
huh? Well I hear Ray took care of it for
you. Rachel McIntyre is the real deal,
I’ve never had a complaint. She’ll get
you back on the road.” Ryan might have
had something to say about belts, but Jared cut him off.
“So after this oil field dried up,
what happened to this place?”
“Well I wasn’t technically here at
that time, but it certainly had a slowing effect on the local economy. We hadn’t seen a regular tourist presence here
in decades and with the oil workers gone, well, it just all dried up. But here we are today, reinventing ourselves
again!” Seeing a chance to poke at Ryan’s façade, Jared posed another question.
“Did you take over for the previous
owner’s son?”
After a pause, Ryan erupted
again. “Technically, Mr. and Mrs.
Stevens handled the affairs of The Oasis
for a few months after the oil field shut down.
But their son and I were friends back in school, so when they ran into
me at the town parade that year they offered me this position. I had recently left a job and gotten
divorced, so the opportunity was much appreciated. I moved in to help my parents out and then I
got a job right here in town. What a
gift. They’re great people, the Stevens’.”
As Jared nodded, Ryan’s phone went
off. “Oh! That’s Mr. Stevens. I’m going to have to take this.” Ryan walked back into the building,
discussing the latest dilemma facing The
Oasis. Glancing at Ryan’s back as he
disappeared, Ray spat on the pavement.
“That man is either deaf or
stupid,” he snapped. “Anybody with a
round head around here knows that that kid was stealing from the drawer to buy
cocaine for his girlfriend. She got him
kicked out of school in the first place.
But he never got over her. Back when
she had something going for her, she would lead him on for fun. But then her life fell apart and the two of
them collapsed back together. She never
quit the cocaine though, and maybe got him to try it too. When the oil workers stopped coming around to
ask about lunch, he started disappearing for days at a time to go to Vegas with
her. It spiraled from there, until the
fields stopped making money and he was stealing so much out of here that
his parents told him to go to hell and took the place over.” He spat again, adding, “But I’ve been here
for it all. Every damn minute.”
Silence fell again, but not for
long. McIntyre Auto Parts showed up,
opened the hood and had the problem taken care of in twenty minutes. Ryan came back out to see if they needed
anything else, and Ray sat there the whole time doing nothing except quietly
chatting with the mechanic and confirming that their lives remained the same.
The car started up again. Tina had taken a nap and seemed satisfied
with Jared’s desperation to just get back on the highway and get back to work
on Monday. Jared went out one last time
to shake hands with Ray, back on duty in his chair. Next to Ray stood the bear and the
Indian. The bear looked mad as always. But now he saw a trace of a smile on the
Indian’s face.
