Barry Gau

Brushy Cross: a Hill Away Barry Gau

In this highly emotional story, Byron Farkle, a teenager from Iowa, whose age and appearance is not revealed, is sent to summer camp in the Ozarks where his homesickness is confounded by teasing from peers and abuse from his leader, Mr. Van Binnie, and several camp facilitators. In the midst of his helplessness, he is befriended by Holly Pearl, a twenty-something woman spending the summer at a nearby cabin with her life-time friend Tammy Yates. Coincidently, Holly and Tammy came from Iowa to start a new life, when Holly suspects that two of the boys from Iowa were involved in a crime spree in her home town. Wayne Mellonbocker, a 42-year old bachelor and ex-lawyer from nearby Springfield, makes his home at Camp Thunder Hill where he hosts the Swan Boys Club. He owns the tiny cabin where Holly and Tammy are staying. Byron copes with his misery by secretly hiking to the cabin where Holly comforts and makes love to him. Meanwhile, Wayne and a private investigator confirm Holly's suspicions of the two juveniles. Byron finds himself in harms way, and Holly suspects it. But he refuses to let her help him, fearing that their secret relationship will unfold.