Torchy's Frame-Up

In a sun-dappled town where every porch swing creaks like a metronome for secret heartbeats, newsboy-cum-impresario Torchy—equal parts Puck and paperboy—overhears tremulous plans between the banker's daughter and the garage mechanic to bolt for the county line before dusk. Rather than merely fold the gossip into tomorrow’s headline, the kid commandeers the narrative: he hijacks a jalopy, bribes the telegraph clerk with licorice, and stage-manages a moonlit farce of mistaken identities, forged letters, and a borrowed wedding veil that flutters like a surrender flag above the town square. By sunrise, the runaway lovers have sprinted through corn-stubble labyrinths, a temperance parade, and the projection booth of the local bijou—each detour rewired by Torchy’s invisible choreography—until the final iris-in reveals not an elopement but a town-wide engagement party, with every citizen an accomplice to a happiness they never knew they were building.