Like Father, Like Son

Snow has fallen on Odyssey, and it has come just in time. The soccer team has spent months raising money for a trip to France, and a day of shoveling driveways is set to push the fund over the top. Eric Myers works as hard as anyone, but Rodney Rathbone, clearing walks for pay with his snowblower right alongside the team, needles him with the jab that stings most: Eric's father is in prison. Tagging along behind Rodney is his little cousin, Scrubb Moseley, a small boy who hauls a knapsack of "specialist treasures" on his sled - a ball of aluminum foil, a giant paperclip, and other finds. Eric is patient and kind with him, and when they all reach Whit's End, he tucks Scrubb's knapsack safely into a corner.

Eric's mother, Julie, has stopped in at Whit's End too. She and Whit have been talking about her husband, who comes up for parole in six months, and about Eric, who reminds her of his father more every day. Eric hands in the hundred and fifty dollars he has earned, Phil leaves the team's cash box with him in the library, and Eric steps out to wash his hands. But when Coach Bryant gathers everyone to announce the grand total, the cash box has vanished. Rodney loudly suggests that somebody ought to frisk Eric, since his dad is in jail for stealing money, and Eric answers him with a punch in the nose before Whit pulls the boys apart. Eric pleads that he didn't steal anything, but he can see what everyone is thinking.

That evening Julie, who has heard the whole story from Whit, knocks on Eric's door and finds him counting out a pile of cash. She blurts out the worst before he can say a word. Eric is crushed - his mom was the one person he trusted to believe him - and he storms out of the house. Julie later confesses to Whit that when she looks at Eric she sees his father: the accusations, the fights, all of it too familiar. Whit gently reminds her that Eric is his own person and deserves the chance to show who he is, and adds that he still thinks the boy is innocent.

Eric, meanwhile, has been shoveling driveways all afternoon, determined to replace the missing money since everyone believes he took it anyway. Worn out and feeling friendless, he slumps down beside Scrubb, who announces that he is Eric's special friend and presses one of his treasures into Eric's hand to prove it: a special key. When Rodney turns up spoiling for a fight, little Scrubb's insistence on being taken home breaks it up. Later that night Eric appears at Whit's front door, offering to shovel his driveway at eight o'clock. Whit sits the exhausted boy down and tells him plainly that replacing the money will not prove his innocence, and that people do care about the truth - Whit cares. There is one thing they have not tried yet, he says: praying for the truth to come out.

Eric carries his hard-earned money to Coach Bryant's house - and walks straight into Rodney and his gang, who beat him up. The coach patches Eric up and flatly refuses the cash. He has never once believed Eric stole the box, he says; Eric is a good kid, and his father in jail has nothing to do with it. Then, among the crumpled bills and pocket lint, the coach notices the key.

The trail leads to the Moseley house, where an embarrassed Mrs. Moseley sends Scrubb back to bed with a promise of a little talk about taking other people's property. The tiny treasure hunter carried the cash box off from the library while nobody was watching a little kid, and he never even opened it - he liked the key best of all. With the money found and his name cleared, Eric heads home, where Julie asks his forgiveness for doubting him. Eric has some explaining of his own to do: the cash in his room has been coming from his dad, who sends a little home every week from his prison job in case of emergencies. Eric hands it all to his mother for any emergency they might have, then sits her down to tell her the long story of a present he got from Scrubb.