Appalachian Justice
Billy MayPlatte is a half Irish, half Cherokee Appalachian woman who learned the hardway that 1940s West Virginiawas no place to be gay. As Billy May explains, "We was sheltered in them hills. We didn'tknow much of nothin' about life outside of them mountains. I did not knowthe word lesbian; to us, gay meant havin' fun and queer meant somethin'strange." In 1945, when Billy May was fourteen years oldand orphaned, three local boys witnessed an incident in which Billy May'ssexuality was called into question. Determined to teach her a lesson shewould never forget, they orchestrated a brutal attack that changed the dynamicsof the tiny coal mining villageof Cedar Hollow, West Virginia forever. Everyone, fromGerald Smith, the elderly owner of Smith's General Store, to Sue Ann Leary, thespoiled daughter of the town's only doctor, to Corinne Pruitt, Billy May'schildhood friend, was affected by the event in ways they could never haveanticipated.
Thirtyyears after the brutal attack, living in solitude on top of Crutcher Mountain,Billy May discovers the hideout of a young girl - a girl who just happens to bethe daughter of one of the boys who attacked Billy May so long ago. Noone knows better than Billy May the telltale signs of abuse, and she mustquickly make a decision. Will she withdraw into the solitude in which shehas lived since the horrific attack, or will she risk everything to save thegirl from a similar fate? Billy May's choices will once again change notonly her own future, but the future of Cedar Hollow as well, and certainlythe future of the young girl.
Billy Maytells us her story in her own words, as she lays dying in a hospice inHuntington, West Virginia in the spring of 2010. "From the top of my mountain, I seen that girlrunnin'," she remembers, "andI understood even then that my decisions might very well be the death ofme."
Appalachian Justice is ultimately a tribute to the resiliency of the human spirit and acelebration of the beauty of second chances. Underneath it all, Appalachian Justice is also apowerful love story, though certainly not a conventional one.
