The Boxcar Hole

When fourteen-year-old Clem Crabtree loses two of his white king pigeons, he see them in the wild when he makes grocery deliveries to one of the two local houses of prostitution, which are near the store in Langston, Mississippi, a visible town of heavy racial discrimination after the hostilities in Korea are over. Permission to attempt to capture the birds is given by the brothel owner, alone and at night, who was a friend of the boy's deceased father.

On a trip to the house, Clem sees part...