Patches

In Prohibition-era rural New York, three friends discover that love-in all its forms-can be the most dangerous truth of allBen Johnson, Daniel Sutter, and Patches share an unbreakable bond forged in the apple orchards of Akron, New York, during the dangerous days of Prohibition. Daniel, a bookish city boy who spends summers with his grandfather, brings stories and dreams. Patches, a two-spirit Seneca child raised on a local reservation, lives authentically and fearlessly despite its dangers. And Ben, trapped under his abusive father's roof and surrounded by his family's dark secrets, finds in their friendship the only sanctuary he's ever known.As they grow from children into young adults, their relationship deepens and shifts in ways that challenge everything their small town believes about love, identity, and belonging. When long-buried feelings and dangerous secrets collide with the unforgiving social constraints of their era-and the violence that lurks in the shadows of their changing world-Ben faces an impossible choice that will haunt him forever. A choice that has tragic consequences. And Ben becomes the sole keeper of a secret that will consume him, and carry the weight of guilt that will span a lifetimeA powerful story of forbidden love, devastating choices, and the price of silence in an unforgiving world.