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In a small New York town, just a short commute from NYC, a lone
Volkswagen Beetle sits abandoned in the train station parking
lot. It hasn’t moved in months, not since its owner, Bill Harper,
took the 6:15 train into the city on the morning of September 11th.
No one knows why he went to New York that day, and no one knows
what became of him. It just makes it that much more difficult for
his friends and neighbors to accept that Bill Harper will NOT be
home for Christmas. This year Mr. Harper will not be around to
plan the Christmas Pageant, or to give drum lessons to Benny
Lewis. Benny however, refuses to give up hope, everyday checking
to see if Mr. Harper’s car has moved, or if anyone has gotten word
from him. But Benny’s fear for Mr. Harper is nothing compared
to the fear that has consumed his mother, Victoria, since that
awful day. She, as mayor, refuses to have the Volkswagen towed
despite the persistence of Charlie, the town sheriff. She is
reluctant to let someone else work on the pageant, and she refuses
to go into the city to have her chronic sore throat looked at.
Her older son, Patrick urges her to abandon her fear, but she
dismisses his concern. Her only desire is to move on with the
Holidays and pretend that nothing is wrong. In an effort to keep
things moving along, she grudgingly let’s Monica, who has opened a
Christmas store on Main St., begin planning a pageant. She hires
Andrew to continue Benny’s drum lessons, and she is overjoyed when
Patrick begins working at Monica’s store in place of the
restaurant job he was laid off of. When they receive word that
Mr. Harper’s wallet had been found among the wreckage of the WTC,
everything falls apart: Benny takes the news hard, Victoria
refuses to let grief overtake her, and Patrick decides that
something must be done to make his family feel safe again. In an
act of selflessness, Patrick goes into the city, and enlists in
the army. He is set to leave for boot camp the day after
Christmas. Victoria has difficulty accepting this decision, and
accuses her son of abandoning her and his brother. The next day,
she accompanies Charlie to Mr. Harper’s house, where she discovers
that Benny has been leaving hopeful messages on his teacher’s
answering machine, ever since 9/11. She also uncovers some clues
as to what Mr. Harper was doing at the World Trade Center, and
what he was planning for the pageant. After a revelation from
Monica, and allowing herself to finally mourn, Victoria takes the
train into New York City, and solves the mystery surrounding Mr.
Harper’s last day. Picking up where he left off, she arranges for
the Mormon Tabernacle Choir to sing at the pageant, where she
wishes her son good luck, and God Speed. |
