Black Lick Creek and the City of Broken People

For some children life is tough. Some survive, some do not. Carla, Dean and Lyle face adversities of abuse and neglect from the people we would expect to love and nurture them the most. All three ten years old and born on the same day, meet at their special place at Black Lick Creek and form an uncommon bond that steels them from the cruelty of the adult world in which the law and convention says they must live. Carla is the leader of her two devoted boys. The offspring of a fourteen year old mother and thirteen year old spoiled rich kid, she goes to live with the high society parents of the young father after her mother is sentenced to juvenile detention. For a while, life is good until the son spirals into madness and turns a gun on his parents, Carla and himself. Scarred by bullets she is placed in the care of an aunt who sees her as a monthly paycheck and an uncle who sees her as an object of perverted desire. After the uncle gets what he deserves, the aunt and Carla move in with her sister in another city. There are five other children in the house. Carla becomes close to Sandy the oldest and together they retreat to a hideout to escape the aunts and later to escape an older son who was recently released from prison. The separation of Carla from Dean and Lyle is unbearable and they hatch a plan to rescue her from another abusive environment. The boys began stealing cars for Raven the proprietor of a garage with a legal operation out front and "chop shop" in back. Theft comes natural to Dean. He enjoys the thrill of petty crime. Lyle is studious and quiet. Beneath the calm he boils with needed revenge against his twin half-sisters who he blames for the death of his father. The plan to rescue Carla goes off without a hitch. Three people end up dead. With Carla safely back with Dean and Lyle life for the threesome settles down into a routine. Carla goes to school. Dean and Lyle stopped attending school long ago and now steal cars for Raven. They live in an apartment house with Raven's wife and ex-wives and their children. Entering the picture is a prostitute named Sophie who turns out to be the mother of Carla she gave away at birth. Sophie meets her end after she is overheard telling the police she knows the details of the rescue of Carla. Lyle's thirst for revenge takes shape when he meets Moose a homeless Vietnam veteran living on a river bank. Moose knew Lyle's father in Vietnam and gladly offers to assist the "mission". By portraying himself as a sponsor of one twin in a beauty pageant the twins are lead to their death at the hands of Lyle. Things start to unravel when the van Moose employed in the "mission" is traced to Raven's garage. Raven is arrested, the garage closed and eventually Carla, Dean and Lyle hatch a plan to go to Mexico. This falls apart when Dean's attempt to rob a liquor store meets a bloody end and Lyle's last ride on his father's motorcycle ends in a spectacular chase by police and wreck. Evading by mere hours the grasp of a persistent detective Carla, now pregnant, and one of her boys are finally on the road to Mexico. Behind them in the wake of their six years of struggle to survive, sixteen people are dead. Some deserve it, some do not. Beneath the earthly struggles of Carla, Dean and Lyle celestial bodies exert an influence. The unusual glow of the Sun leads Carla to Dean. The North Star provides a knife to Dean he uses to protect himself from his mother. The Moon lights the way home for Lyle and his father.