The Hitch-Hikers
By Eudora Welty, first published in The Southern Review
A traveling salesman picks up two hitchhikers and ends up regretting the decision after his night turns to chaos when one man violently injures the other.
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Summary
Tom Harris is a traveling salesman on his way back home from a trip up North selling office supplies when he passes two hitchhikers on the side of the road. They are both men, and one holds a giant, yellow guitar that catches Harris' eye. He stops to pick up the men and continues down the road. The man who carries the guitar seems easily amused and constantly comments on the obvious. The second man, Sobby, sits in the back and appears angry and withdrawn. They stop for food and eventually decide to sleep in a town Harris is familiar with called Clearwater.
He leaves the hitchhikers in the car and goes into the hotel to ask Mr. Gene, the proprietor and his friend, for a room for the men. Before they can make arrangements, Mr. Gene's old dog, Mike, starts barking. Harris heads outside, and a crowd has formed around his car, with two men holding up Sobby. He is informed that the quieter of the two used a broken beer bottle to smash into the guitar player's head. They take the injured man to the hospital and lock Sobby up in the hotel because the one-room jail is already complete. The hotel is the only place with rooms and keys to keep the seemingly dangerous man. Harris is worried about the guitar player and hopes he will survive.
A woman he is friends with in Clearwater gets word that he is in town. He calls her, and she invites him to a party he attends. The people there treat him as a local celebrity and are very impressed with all his travels and the stories he has from them. At the party, he meets Carol, a young lady he met years earlier in his sales travels and forgot, but she remembers him.
After he leaves the party in the rain, walking back to the hotel, Carol shows up to check on him. They get coffee at a 24/7 cafe and talk until 2am. When he gets up in the morning, Mr. Gene informs Harris that the guitar player has died and Sobby will be charged with murder. A young boy asks Harris if he wants the man's guitar. Harris says no and gives the guitar to the boy before heading on the road and leaving the town behind.