When The Root Children Wake

The Root Children, the imaginary offspring of Mother Nature, responsible for every living wild flower and plant, are the last hope in an effort to bring together an orphaned boy and girl with their embittered Grandfather during the depression.

Conflict arises when the children avoid the Grandfather’s anger by finding comfort deep in the forest among the antics of a hermit named Hanna. Hanna fills the children’s minds with glorious, vivid stories of the Root Children. He tells them it is the Root Children that are responsible for the wild flowers and earthly beauty that surrounds them.

But as the children’s friendship with Hanna grows, so does their knowledge of his past. When the Grandfather discovers the children’s friendship with Hanna, his anger is revealed and he tells the truth behind his bitterness--Hanna is responsible for the death of his own wife and child, kin to the grandfather. The horrifying events are retold: Years ago, Hanna in a fit of drunken rage, threw his wife, Jessie, and child into the snow on a bitterly cold winters night. Struggling to survive, the woman loses her way in the woods. Holding her baby close to her bosom. The next day, she is found, frozen to death.

Unbelieving, Maggie sets out on a journey to find the Root Children, and prove Hanna’s innocence. To her astonishment, she captures one. But when the snow begins to fall, Maggie must get the Root Child back into the forest before the ground freezes. The storm building, Maggie leaves the house against her brother’s will, and her grandfather’s knowledge. Now, lost in the forest, she fights the bitter cold to save the Root Child’s life, and history replays its horrifying tale.

The next day when it is discovered that Maggie is missing, there is an elaborate search to find her. Hanna too, searches. Is it too late? The discovery of Maggie is alarming and shocking. There, in the middle of a snow covered field lies Maggie, amidst a warm mound of flowers in full bloom. Having risked her life for the Root Child’s, they gave their lives for her.

Hanna is horrified when he realizes the “stories” he has heard and passed on, are actually true, and almost cost Maggie her life. He is once again outcast as the grandfather wisps away the children far from the hermit, the Root Children, and the grave truth they have revealed. Thirty years pass and the grandfather makes one last attempt to earn the children’s love. On his deathbed, he tells the boy, Jimmy, now age 39, that “Hanna is Maggie’s...” then he passes away. Jimmy is stricken by his final words. Battling a fierce winter storm, he travels to Maggie’s hometown where Maggie is now an author and published writer of a children’s book, “When the Root Children Wake Up.”

When Jimmy arrives, he recounts for her the final words of her grandfather. Startled, Jimmy and Maggie uncover the final clue that puts them face to face with Hanna, and she discovers the dark mystery of Hanna’s past and that of her own. She was the child in Jessie’s arms; she is Hanna’s daughter. Now the grandfather’s secret burden is told: For her own protection, Maggie was taken away and sent to live with relations. For 30 years it had been concealed from Hanna, and for 30 years, Maggie believed Jimmy was her brother. Now reunited, Hanna returns to Maggie’s house where he meets her husband, and her own two children. It is there, she presents him with a copy of her book. He begins reading it to the children, and as he does, it begins to snow. Beautiful, full, crystal snow drops, reminding us of the sacrifice that had been made, and the truth that had been concealed for so many years.