Description
As his high school integrates in 1967, the hyper-literate Curtis "Cutie" Pye, a 15-year-old of indeterminate race, lives with his mother, Ginny and brother Biggy in Hell Creek, Oklahoma. As sophomore year begins, Cutie falls for the new girl, O'Murphy Scott, but her mouth is set for the wrong sort of boys: Scooter Andersen, an abusive biker boy; and Richie, a banker's grandson who can't be seen with a girl from the wrong side of town. Murph rejects Cutie, but he's nevertheless a victim of mistaken identity. Scooter suspects the often-missing Murph is with Cutie. After a disastrous fight with Scooter and his bully brothers, Pickle and Spit, Cutie is told not to come back to school. A suicide fails so, fleeing physical, sexual and emotional abuse from his whiter brother Biggy, Cutie hitchhikes to California during the Summer of Love, where he hopes to find his Marine father and learn how to fight. Along that 1,700-mile odyssey, Cutie learns from his rides, a series of mentors who include a Cajun truck driver, a van full of hippies, and a defrocked priest who cruises the highways seeking boys. Cutie finds a home at the Full Circle, a communal restaurant in Palo Alto, but he must wait for weeks beside the post office box for his father, whom he hasn't seen in six years. Cutie meets Brother Love, a postal worker, street preacher and psychologist who completes Cutie's education and arms him to emotionally complete his hero's journey, understand his life, and fight his battles. When Cutie returns to Oklahoma, he finds Spit and Pickle assaulting Murph. He fights off the Andersens and earns the respect of Murph and, finally, his brother Biggy.
CHAPTER 1
