Mona Papoutsis

Tabors Creek Mona Papoutsis

A volatile, angry Sherm Peck lived with his wife Ellen, mother-in-law, Bertie Potter, and two young children in a one-room shanty with a tin roof in Tabors Creek, W. Va., where he operated an illegal still in the woods behind the shanty. The year was 1929 during Prohibition Era (1920-1933). Earning money was the only thing Sherm was interested in. When the Feds found and wrecked Sherm's still, enraged, he chased and shot them both, then ran and hid in the back woods with the sheriff chasing him. While in hiding, Ellen, Bertie and the children take his car where he has his money hidden and leave town telling no one where they were going. They arrive in Lexington, Kentucky where following finding a place to live, Ellen returns to nurses training at the hospital in Logan, W. Va. There she will have to train for a lonesome two years away from her children. The school restricts married ladies, so she is very careful that no one learns of her family. While there she meets and falls in love with a patient who tells her he is a horse trainer. However, he and his wealthy father actually own and operate a horse training and boarding farm in Lexington. They also have their own horses which run in the Kentucky Derby. Sherm sneaks back into Tabors Creek and is furious when he learns his car is gone. He vows to find Ellen and her mother and kill them.