Value of a Buck

Buck Meltsner has just lived through the hardest weeks of his life, and he tells the whole story to his old friend Jules Kendall. Before the story begins, Buck's former guardian and con-artist mentor, Mr. Skint, died in a prison hospital, leaving behind only a cryptic message scrawled on a whiteboard, "key other raves," and a hint that Buck's fellow con man Dirk Beggs could help him find the key to Skint's old storage unit.

The story opens after Skint's funeral, which only Buck and his adoptive parents, Eugene and Katrina, attend. Buck admits he is grieving more than he expected, and worse, he still believes Skint's old claim that being a con artist is simply who Buck is. Eugene gently compares Skint to the "father of lies," explaining that Buck only acted like a criminal because a criminal was the only father figure he had. Now that he follows a good father, he has grown a real moral compass.

During a miniature golf outing with Lexie Winters and Chase, the boy Buck mentors, Buck puzzles over Skint's dying words. Skint had said, "You work with him," about Dirk, and Buck suddenly realizes it may not have been a request but a statement, as if Skint believed Buck and Dirk were already partners. Suspicious, Buck asks Lexie to get him a meeting with Mr. Burgum, the founder of Delivering Biblical Blessings, the charity collecting money at the nursing home where she volunteers. Sure enough, "Mr. Burgum" turns out to be Dirk Beggs himself. Buck exposes the trick: any check written to "DBB" can be altered to read "DB Beggs." Dirk cheerfully invites Buck to join the scam, and when Buck refuses, Dirk needles him: "The world's most convincing liar is in this room, but it's not me."

Then comes the real blow. Chase walks in and throws his arms around Dirk, crying, "Dad!" Dirk is Chase's father. Dirk even confesses he secretly rigged the mentoring program's paperwork so Buck would be chosen as Chase's mentor, just to keep an eye on him. He begs for Buck's silence, insisting the stolen money will pay for a lawyer so he can win back custody and give Chase a family. He knows exactly where to aim: Buck, of all people, understands how much a boy needs his father.

Torn, Buck returns to Dirk's office, first asking whether Dirk knows where Skint's key is hidden. Before Dirk can bargain, the police arrive, because Buck has already turned him in. As officers arrest him, Dirk shouts that Buck has betrayed Chase. Later, Lexie reports that the residents may get their money back, and when Buck worries he has ruined the volunteering program, she refuses to quit, saying that giving up on doing good because of one con man would be like abandoning church over a few hypocrites. Her words, that focusing only on what is right in front of you makes you miss what is all around you, spark Buck's breakthrough: letters on both sides of Skint's whiteboard message were wiped away. "Key other raves" was really "Key at Mother's Gravesite." Jason digs beside Buck's mother's headstone, finds the key to storage unit 204, and retrieves the ring Buck wanted, though it turns out to be nearly worthless costume jewelry.

Meanwhile, Chase is heartbroken and furious, telling Buck, "I never want to talk to you again. Ever." Eugene and Katrina remind Buck that he once pushed them away the very same way before he learned to trust their love. Still hurting, Buck heads to the batting cages, where Jason, noticing how everyone keeps pointing Buck toward God, suggests the Holy Spirit may be behind it. When Buck asks why the Holy Spirit would care about him, Jason simply says, "Don't ask me. Ask him."

Moments later a baseball rockets through a hole in the netting and hits Buck in the head. In a swirl of memories, he hears the voices of his whole life, Skint and Dirk telling him he was born to be a criminal, and his parents, Lexie, and others telling him God can forgive everything and make him new. He wakes up repeating, "I know who I am." Buck races home and tells his astonished parents he has been running from God and is ready to trust Jesus, who loves him, forgives him, and wants to adopt him just as they did. Kneeling together, Buck prays, beginning, "Hey God, it's Buck," and asks forgiveness for all of it.

Back in the present, Jules interrupts the story in disbelief, then stuns Buck with news of her own: she became a Christian too, on the night of her cliff accident. Each had been afraid to tell the other. Now both are being baptized by Pastor Knox on the very same Sunday, and they laughingly argue over which of them believed first and who prayed the other into the family of God.