Dirty Windows

TONY is riding high: he has a great boyfriend in Derek; he’s the star quarterback of the Eagles; he’s the reigning king of Greenwood High School. Then one night he finds himself stripped, gagged, and tied to the base of an ancient, gnarled oak tree. Tony is surrounded by white-hooded thugs, chanting what an abomination he is before the eyes of God. One of the thugs, instead of clubbing him to death with a Louisville Slugger, cuts him free, and Tony takes off into the nighttime woods, leaving behind Derek, murdered and thrown away like so much garbage.

That was January. In August Tony crosses paths with ROB and MATT, best friends since grade school and each separately wondering and worrying about all these carnal urges they’re feeling towards other guys and, more importantly, for each other. One weekend the two best friends come together sexually. They decide they must leave. Rob knows he can't stay, because his father, Elias, who not only has been abusing him for years but also knows, well, everything, will know what he and Matt shared and will consider them abominations for it. Matt knows he has no choice but to leave, because of his dire misunderstanding of an off comment by his father.

Needing little prodding, Tony joins them. The three boys escape into South Carolina’s Uplands.

But the boys aren’t the only ones in the woods that week. DETECTIVE BAILEY and DEPUTY LOGE start gathering clues to the teens’ whereabouts. They also soon realize the urgency to find Rob, Matt, and Tony, because they discover Elias and Elias's KKK cronies are also hunting for the teens. One of Elias’s moles, though, in the sheriff’s office is obstructing their efforts.

Not only does the week become a race against time but also a voyage of self-discovery and revelation, aided by colorful characters along the way. Wild-haired, homeless, drunken KELLY. GEORGE, Elias’s brother, who tries to be the voice of reason but remains driven by guilt.

In the end everything comes back to that gnarled old arthritic oak tree in that far-off hidden field. Elias has the three teens. Hopeless, Detective Bailey has only one person to turn to: the mole, who’s been revealed and who shows no regrets. The teens are hungry, filthy, exhausted, and terrified with nooses around their necks. Only an act of supreme sacrifice saves them all.