Tom's Crossing

Set in the fictional town of Orvop, Utah, a thinly veiled version of Provo, this novel follows two teenagers who steal two horses destined for slaughter and attempt to ride them over the region's highest peak, pursued by the horses' violent owner and his sons. Woven throughout are the voices of hundreds of Orvop residents, a community chorus commenting on events as they evolve into legend.

In the spring of 1982, Kalin March, a quiet newcomer to Orvop, sat on a paddock fence watching two neglected horses owned by Orwin "Old Porch" Porch, a wealthy butcher and landowner. Tom Gatestone, a popular cowboy and president of the Future Farmers of America (FFA) chapter at Orvop High, intervened when a bully attacked Kalin, and the two bonded over an impromptu bareback riding contest. Kalin displayed an extraordinary gift with horses, calming the animals with ease. Over the following months, Tom and Kalin secretly rode the horses, now named Navidad (a black mare) and Mouse (a blood bay gelding), into Isatch Canyon and the surrounding foothills. Tom revealed a plan he called "the Crossing," a place beyond the Katanogos massif where they could set the horses free, though he withheld the route.

That fall, Tom was diagnosed with terminal cancer. On his deathbed, he made Kalin swear that if Old Porch moved the horses to Paddock B, a holding pen where animals are slaughtered the next day, Kalin would take them to the Crossing. Tom whispered the route into Kalin's ear.

On a rainy Wednesday in late October, Kalin discovers the horses in Paddock B. Before he departs, his mother, Allison March, a small woman working three jobs, makes him promise the venture involves no guns, invoking a curse she placed on him years earlier: Touching a gun would cause what he loves most to forsake him. Kalin leads the horses into Isatch Canyon, where the ghost of Tom appears astride Ash, his own deceased palomino. Landry Gatestone, Tom's adopted fifteen-year-old sister, has independently discovered the horses' move. Born in Samoa and of African American and Samoan heritage, Landry is a fierce and extraordinary rider who follows on her Arabian horse, Jojo.

Russel Porch, Old Porch's youngest son, follows Kalin into the canyon armed with the family's heirloom Colt Peacemaker revolver. Landry confiscates the gun and purchases the two horses from Russel for twenty dollars, writing a bill of sale on the back of the bill. Russel departs amicably, but when he returns home, Old Porch, drunk and enraged over gambling losses, beats the boy. Russel falls onto a shard of a crystal tumbler Old Porch had hurled at a wall, and the glass pierces his jugular. Old Porch rips it out, causing his son to bleed to death, then stages a cover-up, calling 911 to claim Kalin slit the boy's throat.

From Thursday through Sunday, Kalin and Landry, guided by Tom's ghost, navigate a perilous journey up and over Katanogos. They cross nine treacherous screes, or slopes of loose rock, along sheer canyon walls, survive a massive rockfall that buries the trail behind them, and shelter in the abandoned Awides Mine. Inside, Tom strikes a bargain with the ghost of Pia Isan, an Indigenous woman who died fleeing violence generations earlier: If the horses reach the Crossing, both spirits will be freed.

The Porch brothers pursue relentlessly, aided by law enforcement. Egan Porch, the most violent son, kills his own horse attempting to follow and plants evidence to frame Kalin. In Kirk's Cirque, the glacial amphitheater beneath the summit, Egan murders Law Enforcement Ranger Bren Kelson with an untraceable pistol, again blaming Kalin.

The climax of the ascent comes on the Upecksay Headwall, a sheer thousand-foot cliff that Kalin has spent months scouting. Hatch Porch, the eldest brother and a Texas SWAT officer, fires a rifle at Kalin on the headwall, narrowly missing. When a blizzard traps Kalin and Navidad near the top, a brief moonlit break reveals the path, and they make a final turn on a crumbling rock platform to reach the summit.

On Sunday morning, they descend toward Pillars Meadow, a desolate field where gateposts mark the boundary Tom identified as the Crossing. Egan, positioned on a distant ridge, shoots Landry through both cheeks. The bullet passes through her open mouth without hitting teeth or tongue, and she tumbles off a cliff into deep snow, lodging between trees on the rock face. Kalin, believing her dead, resolves to release the horses and return for her body.

At Pillars Meadow, Kalin faces ten armed men. He retrieves the Colt from Landry's saddlebag, strips naked except for boots and hat, and conceals the loaded revolver behind his left hand with leather strips. Leading the three horses, he walks toward the Porches. Old Porch shoots his own helicopter pilot to eliminate a witness, then throws the untraceable pistol toward Kalin to stage a confrontation. Kalin releases the horses, flips the Colt into his grip, and in six rapid shots wounds Old Porch and kills his sons Egan, Kelly, Sean, and Shelly, along with Billings Gale, a Porch employee. In the chaos, Kelly accidentally shoots his brother Francis, and another brother, Shelly, accidentally shoots their brother Woolsey. Hatch, unable to fire on Kalin, attempts an arrest, but Old Porch shoots Hatch in the back, killing his own eldest son. Kalin handcuffs Old Porch, then leads Navidad and Mouse through the gateposts and removes their halters. The horses vanish into the wilderness, and Tom and Ash pass through and disappear, followed by a ghostly procession of the dead.

Landry, having survived by climbing from between the cliff-face trees, descends the mountain, finds Jojo, and rigs the critically wounded Kalin to the saddle. She rides at a desperate gallop through the freezing night, lashing Kalin to keep him conscious, until Jojo charges through the glass doors of the hospital emergency room. Before flatlining, Kalin gasps that Old Porch is still alive on the mountain, ensuring the patriarch's rescue and accountability.

Throughout the journey, Allison forms an alliance with Sondra Gatestone, Tom and Landry's mother, a prominent Church member and community leader. The two women investigate Russel's death, retain lawyer Holly Feltzman, and sustain each other through cycles of grief as their children are declared dead, then alive, then dead again. On Saturday night, Sondra attempts suicide by walking into the Deer Creek Reservoir with rocks in her pockets; Allison follows and talks her back.

Despite overwhelming evidence, including Russel's blood beneath the floorboards of Egan's house, the bill of sale found among a deceased poker player's winnings, and a bag bearing Billings's fingerprints and Ranger Kelson's blood, Old Porch's two trials ended in hung juries, due partly to community loyalty. He walked free, only to be convicted years later of an unrelated 1973 murder and sentenced to life in prison.

Sondra partnered with a local resort owner to establish Phains Haven, a horse sanctuary on the east side of Katanogos. Kalin and Landry married and devoted their lives to the sanctuary, where Allison also worked. Navidad and Mouse were never seen again. Having wielded the Colt, Kalin fulfilled his mother's curse: No horse would come near him again. He died in old age beneath a white elm, witnesses reporting a great black horse lying beside him. The novel's narrative voice is revealed as an aged Landry, who carries the Colt into death, fully loaded, vowing never to release it. In time, "Tom's Crossing" entered the wider culture as a phrase meaning a choice that, once made, leads irreversibly toward transformation.