Nine Mile Creek
Synopsis

    Nine Mile Creek is the story of two Independence Day odysseys; one takes place in
    1914, the other in 1958. Two young women, MARGARET STANTON, and her
    grandmother, LILLIAN, collide in an adventure across time in the same farmhouse, the
    same town, the same amusement park. Margaret uses her vivid imagination, her
    determination, and the details of stories about the olden days to solve a mystery in the
    attic, to heal the wounds of her fractured family. The landscape is an overlay of two
    worlds, one of trolley cars, horses and buggies—the other of a rambling old farmhouse
    in a small mill town in the 1950s.

    Twelve year-old Margaret’s heart is broken when she has to leave the only home she’s
    ever known, her friends, her beloved AUNT MAGGIE, and move to the abandoned
    family farmhouse in the small Upstate New York town.

    She is sidetracked on her first day in NINE MILE VALLEY with a new friend and a
    mysterious treasure. They’ve uncovered a packet of out-dated money in the forbidden
    attic, a bat-filled, dusty garret that has been out of bounds for two generations. The old
    house is filled with ghosts of her great grandparents, her grandparents—ghosts of her
    father’s childhood. She and FRANCINE embark on an adventure to solve the mystery of
    the archaic bank notes—the cryptic message written on one pointing to a “GREEN
    ROCK.” Certain there is more hidden money, they set out to find the green rock.
    Margaret enlists the help of ELEANOR, the elderly neighbor-lady who grew up on the
    farm with Margaret’s grandmother Lillian.

    Margaret convinces Francine to let neighborhood boys, Goose and Jimmy Pepperman,
    join their gang, and they seal their loyalty with a blood oath. They build a fort in a
    cutbank along the creek from where they stage their search for the rock and the
    money. Margaret wins her place among the tough boys by crossing the trestle towering
    above Nine Mile Creek and finding hidden caves deep in the woods.

    All seems to be falling into place for Margaret when she loses track of her little sister,
    LIZZY, at the Fourth of July parade and carnival. Her sister is lost, and Margaret has
    given her up for dead as night falls and fireworks fill the sky above Nine Mile Valley.

    Fearing the worst and recognizing her role in this tragedy, she understands now that all
    she really wants is her parents’ love, her sister’s safe return, and the redemption of
    their family. She has grown up on the stories, told to her by her grandparents and her
    Great Aunt Maggie, of the horse and buggy days, of life on the farm. It is the
    recollections of these stories that help her solve the mystery and redeem lost love for
    Eleanor and Maggie.

    In the parallel story, her grandmother as a young girl and young woman—at the turn of
    the 19th century—is faced with her brother’s betrayal and a near-fatal barn fire on the
    Fourth of July when she is supposed to be watching the farm.

    Both Margaret and Lillian believe they have lost the love and trust of the fathers for
    whom they both long to please. Their desire for freedom from Nine Mile Valley conflicts
    with their desire for their fathers’ approval. Both discover that, contrary to what they
    had thought, there’s no where else they want to be but the farm on the banks of Nine
    Mile Creek.

    In one slipstream scene, Margaret encounters her grandmother as a young woman,
    deep inside the caves where she and Goose have gone to search for the missing Lizzy,
    where she has crept beyond the depths of her worst fears to try to find her sister before
    it’s too late. It is here the first hint of the secret of the Green Rock is revealed. The
    Rock is not what Margaret has imagined, and it’s not until the end of the story its
    identity and meaning are revealed in a heartwarming surprise. Margaret’s determination
    and her keen affection for her family’s story help to mend two generations of
    heartbreak. Margaret discovers where her happiness lies.

    She learns the power of honesty, and when her father gives her the option of leaving
    Nine Mile Valley and returning to the city, she chooses to stay. She realizes that she
    has a chance to get it right, for herself and for those she loves.