A Life Wasted

Travel Companion

After we checked in I gave the guy his room key and said good night. As I suspected he would, he asked if I happened to have anything to drink. He looked at me like I had two heads when I told him I didn't drink. This wasn't actually the truth as I had taken to drinking a little too much since my escape. It started as a remedy for the pain from frostbite then continued out of habit after I didn't hurt anymore. Eventually I realized this and stopped drinking, well mostly stopped. Either way, I wanted this guy to believe I wasn't a drinker.

So after talking about it, I pretended to realize he needed a drink so I told him I would go find him a six-pack if he'd take a shower. When he knocked on my door twenty minutes later I had a pizza and two six packs on ice. We ate, drank, and bonded. After he had downed ten beers, I told him that I was hiding from the IRS while my lawyers sorted out a little tax problem I had, so I was sort of on the run from them. I also mentioned that I didn't like checking into motel rooms out of fear that the clerk would spot me from the IRS flyer. Then I made him an offer. Travel with me and rent two motel rooms for us every night. Do that and I would pay for the room and his food, and give him $50 a day on top of that.

The guy wanted to do it but he repeated what he said about not having an ID. I said I have a guy that can fix him up with ID; all I needed was his picture. So I took his picture with my digital camera and he took the rest of the beer and went to his own room. That night I made a dozen sets of ID's for him, all from different states. The next day I drove us to a city a few hours away then had him wait in the car while I ran into an office building. I didn't want him to know I could print Driver's Licenses so I told him that was my lawyer's office. When I returned and handed him a driver's license with his picture on it he was thoroughly impressed.

So we did as I proposed. I drove and went about my business while he was kept in the dark. It worked beautifully. I could go to sleep in a motel room without fear of anyone recognizing me and he had a roof, clean clothes (I had to buy clothes for him), food, and all the beer he could drink, which was quite a bit. Periodically I'd change out his ID, which he was always amazed by my ability to do this. There were problems though. I didn't want to go out, but after the third day that's all he wanted to do. He wanted to go to bars and restaurants, which I always said no to. He had spotted a movie theater with "O' Brother Where Art Thou" on the marquee and he wanted to see this. This I agreed to because it was Saturday night and I didn't want to risk that he might watch America's Most Wanted. I did tape the show so I could watch it later. The movie was about three guys who escaped from prison, so I liked it. The irony was not lost on me.

Eventually our deal came to an end one night when he had a fit about going out to a bar. I said go ahead and gave him two hundred dollars. As soon as the cab picked him up I left. I liked this idea, but it just didn't work out. I tried it one more time with another vagrant, but in the end I realized there was a reason these guys were out on the road with no money and no home. If they wanted structure, there were groups that would help them. They didn't want structure and they didn't want help. Like the hobos of the old days, these guys loved the freedom and struggle of the road. They couldn't be harnessed with my promise of a roof, food, and money. It looked like a hard life to me, but I understood how they felt.