The days were long, the work hard, the conditions brutal but the pay was good. Enough to send back home for my ex and kids to have a good life, better than mine.
Maybe it was good I wasn’t around. She did the right thing by divorcing my sorry ass and taking the kids with her. Now they could be happy. God knows, I could never make anyone happy.
I was never a good husband, or father, or even human being. Being out here was my personal hell, purgatory everyday. It was a lonley life, just me and the other guys and the constant ‘swoosh-swoosh-swoosh’. It was always on, thankfully I had the whiskey to help me sleep at night.
The whiskey also helped with the constant stress, the solitude, the rivalry, the competition. You wanted your team to drill the deepest, the fastest, collect the most.
Sometimes it got dangerous and safety and standards went out the window, but we were fighting for bragging rights and sometimes a bottle or two.
Plus, we were on an oil rig in the middle of the Ocean, what could really happen?