Man Down South Man Down South

by Plicka, Joseph B

In this novella the main character, David Crumm, is getting older and decides not to wait around and die on his frozen ranch, but to retire to warmer climates. He leaves everything with his daughter, gets in his truck and drives south with his dog. In Florida, he accidentally hits and kills a migrant woman on her bicycle. The woman has a young son who survives the accident and, through a number of converging factors, David is compelled to personally take the boy back to his relatives in Nicaragua. The book then deals with David’s experiences as he heads farther south, picking up more passengers along the way including his old friend Tom, on the run from the law; Frank, a strange American ex-patriot; and a beautiful tourist in Acapulco named Sheila.