To Daddy, Who I Never Loved (ePub)

As Hell Creek High School finally integrates in 1967, Curtis Pye, a fifteen-year-old sophomore of indeterminate race, is hyper-literate, the smartest kid, has already read a quarter of books in the library, and befriends the first black girl to transfer into his high school. However, he falls hopelessly, hormonally, despairingly infatuated with the prettiest girl, O'Murphy Scott. Curtis doesn't act on his desire. Murph is a flirt, but every time she isn't with Scooter Anderson, her thuggy boyfriend assumes she's with Curtis. Although Scooter and his brothers, Spit and Pickle, pick a disastrous fight with Curtis, he's ordered not to return to school. After a yet another fight with his brother, Curtis swallows a bottle of aspirin. Suicide fails, so Curtis hitchhikes to California, where he hopes to find his ex-Marine father and learn how to fight. Along that 1,700-mile odyssey, Curtis sleeps in trucks, in a ditch, on a rooftop, learns to take care of himself, and receives advice from dozens of mentors, including truck drivers, a college student and a soldier. Hippies on their way to the Summer of Love happening direct Curtis to Palo Alto. Curtis doesn't know his father's address, so he waits near the post office box and hopes each day his father, whom he hasn't seen in six years, will come for his retirement check. Curtis finds a temporary home, acceptance and friends at the Full Circle, a communal restaurant in Palo Alto where he can work for meals and a place to sleep. There Curtis also meets Brother Love, a postal worker, street preacher and psychologist who completes Curtis's education and arms him emotionally to finish his hero's journey, fight his own battles and understand his life. Curtis finds nothing he sought in California, but instead discovers his own courage, independence, confidence and redemption.