A Summer's Night

Randy Banks is a young man just out of high school who is working in the oil business as a driller. He is the son of a man who was reared with crude oil in his veins, and he has been taught to look at women in only one way. He is a boy who learned from his father and the will of the people in the small town where he spent his childhood. Randy is mirrored by a close friend, Summer Williamson, who has the same relationship with men as he has with women only she is the daughter of the wealthiest oilman in town. The unnatural pairing of the two occurs when they are seen by the town as the perfect couple, and it reaches an unforgiving climax on a hot July night when they have both had too much to drink. The unfolding of the relationship, Summer's personal journey, the parallel roles that other people play in their lives, and the negative influence of the search for oil, money, and status takes the reader on a soul-searching journey where there is only one answer. There is also a crudeness to this story of romance that causes the reader to pause in an assessment of how a particular culture can influence and direct the lives of so many willing, and unwilling, participants. Some of it is innocent, and some of it is hard and callous. It is up to the reader to decide where the truth lies and why.