A summer job at the enchanting Columbus Park becomes more than complicated when privileged, sixteen-year-old Ellen Green develops a special friendship with a boy from the wrong side of the tracks.
Ellen’s shy, handsome co-worker, Beau Langford, has nothing…or, so it seems. His daddy is the Harrison County bootlegger, and their home is a dilapidated shack overlooking the Mississippi River. Nonetheless, the highlight of Ellen’s day is simply being in Beau’s presence. As their friendship evolves into something more, the well-to-do girl from Hopewell begins to lose every piece of her heart to the troubled but beautiful Langford family residing on…Bluff Road.
As the three of us headed back towards Columbus, this time instead of searching for his truck, I soaked up the splendor and wonder of it all; the tall trees draping the road on both sides like a dark, mysterious tunnel, the enchanting trails carved throughout the woods and the spectacular view every resident possessed of the Mississippi River. Rich or poor, that majestic body of water was at their fingertips. Maybe life on the bluff wasn’t so tragic, after all. Perhaps, Beau Langford embraced every single minute of it…
Snap out of it, Ellen. Your life in Carter County with a blessed family, wonderful friends and Kirk MacCarthy is the only one you’ve ever known, and it’s a good one. Roll the windows down, feel the wind in your hair, and rock out to Steve Miller Band’s smash hit, “Jet Airliner.” So…I did.