Project Gutenberg's The Odyssey of Sam Meecham, by Charles E. Fritch

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Title: The Odyssey of Sam Meecham

Author: Charles E. Fritch

Release Date: July 8, 2009 [EBook #29355]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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_This story may, in a sense, be tongue-in-cheek. But the underlying
struggle, if you look into the characters' hearts, is terrifyingly
real and human--the kind of struggle so many of us go through. But
Sam Meecham was lucky. He not only got what he wanted, but something
he hadn't realized he wanted._

the
odyssey
of
sam
meecham

_by ... Charles E. Fritch_

Sam Meecham did not realize that his chance discovery of unlimited
power would bring back that which he had lost eight long years ago.

To look at Sam Meecham you'd never have dreamed he was a man of decision
and potential explorer of the unknown. In fact, there were times when
Sam wouldn't either. He was a pink, frail-looking person with a weak
chin and shoulders used to stooping, and stereotyped thinking
immediately relegated him to the ranks of the meek and mannerly. These,
oddly enough, happened to be his characteristics--but that was before he
discovered the hyperdrive.

In his capacity as an atomic engine inspector, his work was most
uncreative. He was a small cog in a large cog-laden machine. A
government worker helping to produce engines that would send supplies
and immigrants and tourists to the U.S. Sector of the Moon Colony.

Day after day, week after week, freshly made engines would come sliding
down the conveyor belt. And mechanically Sam Meecham would attach to
each two wires that led from a machine by his side, flip a switch, and
if the dial on his machine read at least fifty, he could pass the
machine on as being adequate for the job of Moon ferry. He'd been
attaching those two wires in place and watching fifties for five years,
and it looked as though he'd be doing it for fifty-five more.

Then one day a defectiv