SYNOPSIS:

TITLE: THE MONEY TREE: A CHRISTMAS MIRACLE GENRE: Family, Christmas FORMAT: Feature LOGLINE: A young boy must discover within two weeks if money grows on a magical Money Tree or lose his home to the bank. WHY THIS STORY NOW: A four-quadrant unique take on Christmas stories with the emotional integrity of It’s A Wonderful Life set in a coming-of-age buddy adventure like Goonies. The story explores friendship, guilt and remorse, shame and honor, and redemption. Starting as a story told to my young daughter and son on long road trips, after many years it became a short story and now after full evolution and it has become The Money Tree: A Christmas Miracle. SYNOPSIS: A small town in Tennessee, 1978. WILLIE (10) learns they’re broke and about to lose their home. MOM (35) hasn’t paid the mortgage for a year – since DAD (35) was struck and killed by a car on Thrill Hill last Christmas. An accident Willie shoulders excruciating remorse for causing. Mom claims to have a plan but Willie doubts it. It’s Christmas but it feels like all hope is lost. Willie knows its his responsibility to find an answer. Willie expresses his grief through dangerous conduct. Confounding his GANG of four running buddies, he recklessly attempts a stunt jump after descending the 100-foot drop of Thrill Hill on best friend RALPH’s bike. He spins free and unscathed before the bike crashes into a van moving a mysterious OLD MAN (80s) into the house next door. The Old Man secretly spies on the Gang. When he does interact they believe he must be a ghost, suddenly appearing and vanishing. Willie ponders who is this Old Man and why is he so interested in Willie’s business? Little Ben, the beloved town square tower bell, needs a $70,000 repair. The town’s praying the annual Christmas Carnival fees can raise it. The school librarian informs Willie of Little Ben’s pivotal role in a 1932 train robbery of a payroll of gold coins, never recovered. Willie studies the clues left by the robber carved on one of Little Ben’s support beams: a rough-hewn image of a locomotive, the letters L&N and a drawing of a tree twig. A puzzle no one has yet solved, including Willie’s Dad, despite Dad’s fascination since elementary school with the legend of the buried gold coins. Willie fantasizes - buried treasure, could it be his answer? A face-off meeting where Willie manipulates the banker into conceding more time to raise the $5,000 needed to get current ends the first act. Desperate to find the cash, and with the help of his Gang, Willie has only the two-week holiday to find it. The Old Man repeatedly questions Willie’s actions. He challenges Willie, would he want Dad to see him moping around like he is? Four days before Christmas the Old Man attempts to plant a tree, an Eastern White Pine, in the frozen tundra of his yard. Willie taunts him initially but when the Old Man injures himself, Willie helps him. The Old Man tells Willie, “It only has to live a few days because it’s a Money Tree.” A Money Tree. Could this be his salvation? Christmas Eve arrives. Shielded by Carnival festivities, Willie and Gang sneak up to Little Ben. Willie discovers another carving - of the Roman numeral five followed by the letter “T.” Later, Willie chafes at attending services. He’s surprised to find the Old Man there. He warns Willie, “Whatever you’re thinking about doing, trust me, it’s not worth it.” Returning home, Willie sneaks out to spy. In a scene of grounded magical realism, as Little Ben rings at the stroke of midnight golden ornaments materialize on the Money Tree, then transform into 1932 gold coins. The Old Man bags them in a tote with a picture of a locomotive and a L&N label. Willie’s Christmas morning is sparse. When no one will confirm hearing Little Ben ring, Willie spirals downward into a crisis of temptation and rationalization. He asks Ralph is it ok to “steal from a bad person” to help a good person who is out of time. He bangs on the Old Man’s door seeking answers but the Old Man won’t answer, secretly watching. When Mom comes home and informs him that she can’t get a second mortgage she hoped to get, Willie laments. “Why is God punishing me.” A flashback then reveals how Dad was tragically killed. Willie was disobeying Dad and he died saving Willie when a car Willie didn’t see topped Thrill Hill. The tides of despair push Willie to a decision. Christmas Day night he sneaks out and steals the gold coins. The next morning the Old Man tells Mom he’s been robbed and is “checking with the usual suspects.” Willie denies knowledge. He then stonewalls the police when they are summoned but realizes he’s made a mistake. He attempts to return the coins but the Old Man is waiting, confronting Willie, verbally pushing him until he breaks down from his grief and self-blame. Willie’s surprised when the Old Man comforts him, assuring him it wasn’t his fault, urging him to move on. The Old Man shares he once had someone help him when he was despondent, giving him hope. He suggests Willie should “honor the sacrifice” of his father.” The third act begins the next morning. As Willie studies a gold coin he mistakenly left behind he experiences a Eureka moment. In a matched set of flashbacks Willie realizes: that the robber must have hurt his ankle jumping from the train at the abandoned railroad trestles and the Old Man walks with a limp; the train payroll was gold coins and gold coins bloomed on the Money Tree; and the librarian told Willie that Dad had once done a school report on the train robbery. Willie searches Dad’s old files. Flashbacks reveal an inmate and a young boy exchanging letters. The young boy consoles the inmate and the inmate assures the young boy that when a “worthy person” appears the buried treasure will find him. A pullback shot reveals the inmate is the Old Man and that the young boy is Dad. Willie now knows that the Old Man is the train robber. The Old Man lugs a heavy tote down a road to the abandoned trestles while Willie is gathering the Gang. Willie believes the coins must be buried at the trestles where the Old Man landed when he jumped since he didn’t have them when he was arrested on Little Ben. The Gang’s stumped on where until they figure out that the Roman numeral five, letter “T” clue represents the “fifth trestle.” They sprint to a magnificent tree at the fifth trestle. Like the Money Tree it’s an Eastern White Pine. Willie frantically digs uncovering a tote with a locomotive and the L&N stamp on it, filled with 1932 gold coins. Secretly watching nearby, the Old Man sheds a tear then smiles. Talking with Mom Willie realizes Dad wouldn’t have kept what belonged to someone else. He now understands that the Old Man has been helping him cope, just as Dad had helped the Old Man cope when he was in jail. Willie returns the coins to “honor the sacrifice” of his Dad. The librarian confronts the railroad that it had originally offered a 20% reward, and the railroad pays it. Carnival closing night arrives and the town’s $20,000 short. Willie donates the difference. In the ecstatic crowd Willie spots the Old Man smiling at him but in the crush he disappears. Ralph questions Willie why they didn’t find the treasure before when they had often searched the trestles and Willie replies, “Maybe we weren’t worthy. Until now.” Ben Fordham, ben_fordham@chs.net, 615-957-2874