THE DRIFTER

The Drifter

By Frederick J. Morales



"Through the scope of his imagination and the realm of his spirit, so ever

lasting, the none ending interlude of his mind and body fused. He is one now,

convinced that his future will never be anything like his past and so he

constantly relives his past"


He was replaced in life and did not know how. Flashbacks from the past gave

him visions of memory from time to time of what he once was before a freak

accident changed the course of nature and his life. To find his former self he

had to trace down rumors and try in despair to get answers to questions he had

heard from people he never knew and hitchhike from place to place where he

thought he had been before while having constant nightmares. He would awaken in

some dirty place in a cold sweat and sometimes yelling in the night! He could

only understand that he did not belong in the frequent company of people. For a

better understanding of this drifter one would be inclined to ignore his poverty

and fear him just by having to answer his questions. One would think he had a

deep dark secret he would dread to have exposed. Something familiar or another

would lead him to search the thousand miles distance of highway 101 hoping some

day he would get back his memory. People called to testify at his trial had

somehow come into a little bit of extra money for testifying against him there

by proving him guilty of having killed his wife, probably one of the bar tenders

had something to do with that. For two years now he has been hitchhiking back

and forth on Tennessee highway 101 trying to remember what was said at his

trial. Now he acts on impulse to avoid certain people who show fear at his mere

appearance, like that bar tender at that roadhouse on highway 101. He has a very



bad case of amnesia, a complete loss of long-term memory from a very strong blow

to the head so he could not testify on his own behalf and pleaded temporary

insanity for the mercy of the court. He remembered the testimony of the doctor

who had performed the autopsy stating Samuel and his wife had been very drunk at

the time of the crash.


Another flash back he had was that being a sort of ladies man, but the sound

of a heavy steel jail door closing brought that memory to an abrupt end. They

said at his trial that the accused Samuel L.Sheppard, a young businessman and

his wife Sara set out from New York on a cross-country vacation. They would see

the sights and go dancing at the Rusty Horseshoe once a week. The investigation

also turned up they had a lot of money from withdrawal slips found in their

luggage. They were driving a Lincoln Continental. The flames could be seen for

miles after they hit a very thick tree on Tennessee highway 101. Both bodies

were pulled out of the wreckage but the ambulance medics could only revive

Samuel and Sara died. Even though all of this came out at his trail; Samuel

could not remember a thing so he was paroled after thirty years in the Tennessee

State Prison.


Samuel longed to get his life back including Sara, and he searched the

highway for the place of the car crash. It has been four years now since he was

released from prison. He has become obsessed with finding the crash site. He has

a very long black beard and has not bathed in almost a year, his clothes are

ragged and torn so he has to stop asking people if they have ever seen him

before. He has stopped hitch hiking because he smells so bad no one will pick

him up. He just walks along the highway and sleeps where he falls down. He keeps

trying to remember everything that was said at the trial only to be interrupted

by the loud horn of a large truck. He then realizes he has wondered on to the

highway while daydreaming. One summer day it got so hot that


Samuel found a shady overpass to sleep under so he could walk atnight. This time

there was no loud blast of a horn to distract him

from his flashback so when the Mac truck hit him in the pitch black of night,

he died instantly, about five feet away from Sara.



The End