The Oil Field

South of Odessa, Texas 1982
This is oil country, and if you have any doubt of that just look at any map…the tanks and roads show up like the biggest of cities, all spread out in hundreds of square miles. All of the major oil companies were represented then, Shell, and Mobile being the main concerns. Every where you looked pumps could be seen moving slowly up and down as they pumped oil through underground pipes. In my more morose days these sights of mosquitoes, sipping the Earth’s blood. Dotted among these extensive fields were white storage tanks, about fifteen feet high and about fifteen feet in diameter and each of these tanks had a ladder that gave access to the roof. It was to these tanks that the little pump-jacks, as the mosquitoes are known, pumped their share of oil, and the fact that there were thousands of them in this area of West Texas shows how much oil was laying below the surface. Each dirt road ended at a storage tank.
All the towns of this, the Permian Basin, were places where oil workers lived, and most people went to Odessa for excitement. But if you were broke, as me and my two coworkers were this night, then you might go cruising around the oil field roads, look at the stars. There was no better place for this then the top of the oil storage tanks, away from the dangerous desert crawlers, and high enough to be in the breeze. We drove around until we picked one randomly, but far enough from the highway to make certain that the car’s headlights would not interfere with our stargazing. It was late at night, and very, very dark; we could see the cars on Highway 385 in the distance. We had not been gazing for very long when someone saw the light in the distance.
At first we assumed that there was another car out in the fields, on a different road, headed to a different tank, perhaps even filled with stargazers, like ourselves. Even still, we kept an eye on it; while I had never seen anyone punished for what we were doing, it was technically trespassing, and illegal. Even still, this light was far away, maybe even a mile, and we had no thought that we should move from our comfortable perch.
I do not recall who first noticed that the light had not turned, but seemed to be going in a straight line toward us and that there was only one light, not two like on a car. We decided now that it had to be a dirt bike, though we agreed that it was strange that we could not hear it’s motor yet. We knew about a ravine, about six feet deep, that ran between us the and the motorcycle’s light, and we knew the driver would have to stop or turn to avoid it. But the then the light did not stop and it did not turn; instead it fell into the ravine.
I believe we all yelled aloud at that point, so sure we were that a motorcyclist had just fell head first into a deep ditch. I was on my feet, horrified at what I just saw, and ready to race back to town to notify the police and ambulance, but I had no time to move into action, because the light was suddenly there again, jumping out of the ravine and continuing along its path…straight towards us.
This upset me greatly, because it seemed so impossible, but my two friends were thrilled and cheering. It’s not that I was unhappy that the driver had survived, it was that I did not, could not, believe that there was a driver. This was no craft build by a human being. Now that this light had my complete attention I could tell that it was moving fast; I could see the glow of the light shining on the ground below it…the closer it got the more sure we were…it was floating! About a foot in the air, I could see the ground clearly for the light was that bright. I could discern no structure, just an intense glow of light, and the more I watched the more I began to panic. The thing was headed directly for us, and I estimated that it was the size of our car.
I told my friends that we should move, get out of the way, but they were not frightened in the least, insisting they wanted to wait to see what it was, but I was having none of it. I was completely convince that the light was dangerous and I began to yell at them. They ignored me and I began to beg – if they would not leave for their sake would they leave for mine?
These were my coworkers and friends, and they would normally have obliged any request I asked of them, but not this time…they just stood there, on the top of the oil storage tank smiling at the approaching light like they were hypnotized. My body insisted that I move, and as I crawled down the ladder, I continued to yell to them to follow. I got to the car and could see their silhouette on top of the tank, standing still. Then I threatened them, I was going to drive away without them. The car was not mine and except for a few fun trips on dirt roads, I had never driven at all. But there was no doubt in my mind that I was going to do exactly as I had said…I had to get away from that light. I started the car, and spun it around, honking the horn. I heard yelling, and was relieved with they came down the ladder. From the glow of the headlights I could see that now they were scared, and they jumped in, both shouting for me to drive.
As I mentioned before, each of these roads ends at a storage tank, and leads to the highway so I was able to speed away safely. By the time we got to a place where we could see the light, and the tank we had been on, the light was gone. We went later, in the daylight, to the ravine where we thought the light must have crossed, but there were no tracks, or disruption of any kind. I asked my friends why they had not been frightened at all by the impossible light, and they both agreed it was because it was so beautiful. To this day their reaction on the tank that night was just as startling to me as the strange light itself.
Years later an oil worker told me that he thought the light could have been ball lightning, following an underground pipe of moving oil, which was being pumped directly to our tank. He added that while those storage tanks have multiple devices to dampen sparks and the such, our three bodies on top of that tank may have been enough for that ball lightning to jump past the dampener and onto us.