The End of the Road

"I was walking with my girl, that's Trish Wellington, across the football field after football practice and I seen him Brian Saunders walking towards us. I wanted to talk to him, polite like, to tell him to stay away from my girl. He got angry and as I walked away from him he up and hit me over the head with a baseball bat. I woked up at Doc Wellington's some time later and told Paw what happened. He went to see Brian and told him that he would be charged with attempted murder and, like the coward that he was, he ran out of town with his tail between his legs."

"Now, could you tell me what happened at the Mt Vernon Hotel on the 13th of July this year?"

"Well, the receptionist at the hotel rang Paw and told him that a man that he was sure was Brian Saunders had just registered at the hotel using a false name. We went to check up on him and as soon as he saw us he, hoping to make his escape, attacked me, kicking me viscously on the knee, causing me a lot of pain."

"Thank you." Hiram stood up to leave the witness stand.

"Will you sit down, we haven't finished with you yet."

He sat, he was confused, all he ever had to do before was to give his evidence, no-one had ever questioned it.

"Tell me Hiram, back then on the 26th of November 1942, you claim that you were walking across the football field with Trish Wellington and the defendant came to you and with provocation attacked you rendering you unconscious, is that what really happened?"

"Yeah, that's what happened."

"Were there any witnesses to this incident?"

"No, no-one saw it."

"Not even the young lady who seemed to have been the reason for this attack?"

"Yeah, she was there."

"Then why isn't she going to give supporting evidence?"

"I dunno, she has her reasons I suppose."

"Could it be that you don't want her to give evidence because she would tell an entirely different story?"

"If she did she would be lying."

"We shall see about that later because we will be calling on her to give evidence, along with a whole lot of other people. Judge, I would like at this time, in order to save the court's time, to produce fifty three signed depositions from prospective witnesses, some to this assault, and these have all stated that it was Brian Saunders who was walking, hand in hand, across the football field with his girlfriend Patricia Wellington, when they were set upon by Hiram Billings. These depositions will also state that Brian Saunders struck Hiram Billings after Hiram had attempted to drag Patricia, Trish, away from him. Homer charged at Brian who ducked and Homer went over the top of him and crashed into a steel upright on the stand. He never lost consciousness and on getting to his feet, ran off. The depositions also state that the injuries that he had sustained in this brief encounter were not consistent with those evident when he presented to Doctor Wellington's surgery. We also have depositions from witnesses to a confrontation between Hiram Billings and his father Homer Billings in which, while beating Hiram, Homer was heard to tell the boy that he'd never met anyone so dumb as to actually attack someone face to face. He was heard to say, 'If you want to hit someone come from behind so's he don't see you.' Now Judge we could call on all of these witnesses, all of whom have volunteered to give evidence to support their depositions, or we can just ask the Sherriff to think about his position and decide whether or not to proceed with this matter."

It was a slow process, for several minutes Homer sat there with his head in his hands before slowly raising it to look at the Judge. For the first time that he could remember he had lost his power base, the people no longer feared him, they had risen up against him. "Judge, on giving this some thought I've come to realize that I should have gotten other witness statements before charging Brian Saunders with attempted murder. I trusted the evidence given to me by my son and ignored the rumors that were going around at the time that pointed to him lying to me. I also can see that we were a little heavy handed in our attempt to arrest the man that we believed to be Brain Saunders, even after he told us that he was someone else. I am prepared to drop all charges and I will be submitting my resignation as Sherriff."

The town of Mt. Vernon was the subject of change over the next few weeks. It seemed to come to life following the departure of Sherriff Billings and his son. For the first time in years the people of this town were not living in fear. They began talking to each other and the main topic of conversation was about this stranger who'd come into town and stood up to Sherriff Billings and his thug of a son, and beaten them, not by a show of physical strength, but by calmly standing up for his rights. The fact that this stranger could possibly be the Brian Saunders of years ago who left town under a cloud of accusations from Homer Billings, added a certain spice to the story.

Trish Wellington added further spice to the story by proudly walking around town in her suggestively decorated cast that told them all that he was Brian Saunders and that he was hers.

Three weeks after the trial the papers arrived from Military archives. It seems that I am Brian Saunders after all, and that I was a Navigator in the Mitchell bomber based in England. The Navigator's role, as well as making sure that the plane found its target and got back again, was to operate the forward pointing nose mounted machine guns. Peter Roberts was the Gunner in the dorsal turret. His job it was to protect the plane from fighter planes coming in from above. He had other things on his mind that fatal day, the woman that he had been seeing, she was the wife of the owner of the large house where they were billeted, had announced that she was pregnant to him and would leave her husband and accompany him back to the US after the war. He could not have this, he figured that his wife might object, so he was looking for the opportunity to get out of this situation. His lack of attention was enough for the Messerschmitt to attack out of the sun and cripple their plane.

There was only myself and another crew member that survived, and I had suffered extensive head injuries. Roberts thought that I wouldn't survive, so he swapped dog tags figuring that I'd become just another combatant killed in action. He would have gotten away with it except for my will to live. At one stage the doctors in the prison hospital gave up hope, but I survived, which is more than I can say for him, he died trying to escape from the prison camp.

"When you returned home did your parents and brothers and sisters recognize you?" Trish asked.

"Now that's another strange thing, when I went to the address that was on my file, I found that it didn't exist, there was no such place. I thought that it was a clerical error but the Air Force checked my enrollment papers and that was the address that he wrote on it."

"So Brian Saunders became dead and Peter Roberts, the man with no friends or relatives got on with his life. The big question now is; do you continue with your current job or do you bow to public pressure and become the new Sherriff of Mt. Vernon? The salary in this job is probably less than as a geologist but the fringe benefits are far greater. You have a lot of friends in this town, you have a family, that's Dad and me by the way, and if I'm not mistaken, within twelve months you will be a father, in fact you'll probably be a father within nine months."

"That's a bit quick isn't it?"

"Do you remember the first time that we made love this time around that I told you that I had a diaphragm in, well I lied to you, I was so sure that you were the love of my life that I'd thought that I'd never see again, that I didn't care if I fell straight away. What do you say, Sherriff?"