Editor’s note: Rodriguez is a graduate student at TAMIU who is pursuing a master’s degree in English. What follows in an excerpt from his recently published novel, “The Grass Beneath His Feet: The Charles Victor Thompson Story.”
Charles Victor Thompson indeed holds a most conspicuous distinction. He is the only prisoner in Texas history to escape death row; although, he was later recaptured. His conviction is not without its controversies. His defense attorney feel asleep in court and evidence suggests one of the individuals Thompson was convicted of murdering actually died as a result of medical incompetence, not the bullet he shot into her face. This is Rodriguez’s second published book. His first, “At Risk: Adolescent Life in the Gateway City” (AuthorHouse) recounts stories told to Rodriguez during his stint as a councilor with Stop Child Abuse and Neglect. Last semester, he and his wife, Victoria, welcomed their son, Seth, into the world. “The Grass Beneath His Feet” is available through Barnes and Noble.
As he prepared to leave, Charles was startled by the fast pace of an approaching siren. He was frightened and for a moment contemplated running. But as he thought about it, the siren seemed to get much further off in the distance. The call was not for him. Charles was dropped off at the store where he used the facilities to wash up, get a drink and went outside. He worked up the courage to call his parents and advise them of what he had done. His parents tried to convince him to turn himself in, but Charles was a free man and to be at liberty is the one instinct of man that cannot be reasoned with. He simply wanted to let them know how much he loved them and the call was ended. By the time Charles hung up, a new opportunity had arisen. A new vehicle had pulled up across the street and the keys were foolishly left in the ignition. Charles knew well that for a driver to have done this, he or she had intentions of returning quickly. He made his move and got into the car. The lack of interest in taking the keys became more apparent to Charles when he tried to turn the key. There must have been a new security device that did not allow for just anyone to turn it. He struggled with it for a moment and was soon distracted by the loud screams of a woman who was startled with Charles’s appearance. By this time, some of the public may have been aware that he was now an escaped convict. The worst part of this scenario for Charles is that he media would have already painted him as a mass murderer on the loose. He did not want to hurt anyone and did not want to be hurt himself. H decided not to pursue his efforts any further, gave the woman her keys in her hand, and ran. [****]Two hours expired and the blanket of darkness covering the Houston night life would serve as an ally for Charles, who embarked once again on a foot journey in the path of the railroad. He crossed the railway overpass, over the freeway, and back up the tracks another 300 yards into a grassy field where he could conceal himself a little while longer. After another half hour of waiting, Charles finally sees what he had been waiting for the entire evening-a north-bound engine. Like before, but with much less strength and energy, Charles ran along side the train, grabbed onto the ladder like a desperate bear clawing his paws onto the side of a mountain. His feet were suspended in the air with a serious risk of them sweeping his entire body underneath the train. Finally, he wrestled with himself to pull his weight aboard the speeding train and had no choice but to position himself on a catwalk between a boxcar and an oil tanker. As he held on between the two cars, Charles had no way of concealing himself from the public eye that he had been so careful to avoid the past several hours. He looked down the streets to determine whether any roadblocks had been set up, but he did not see any. An additional concern was those people lined up at the rail crossing in their own vehicles watching a man in white hang on in between two cars of a train. Certainly, the public had been made aware of the escaped convict on death row by this point. Whether it was fate, luck, or lack of interest by the public would probably never be determined, but to Charles’s knowledge, no one ever called the police to report ever having seen him. Half an hour later, the train would make one of many stops. These layovers were necessary for the making way for another train to pass. This allowed Charles to engage in much reflection as he had done so much since he managed to escape. All that was pure of this man was in his mind and all that was gentle was stored in his thoughts deep in his heart where he stored a profound passion for life and those people he loved. At this particular instance, he especially thought of his grandfather who provided for him some of the fondest memories of his childhood.