Sydney Dudikoff

A Christmas Cuento Sydney Dudikoff

Down-on-his-luck writer Zachary St. Johns unexpectedly comes into an inheritance worth hundreds of thousands of dollars left to him from unknown great-grandparents. However, the euphoria of the windfall is quickly overshadowed by the caveats of the Will. They stipulate that he must move and live at the abandoned farm for ten years and plant crops. Otherwise, the trustee must liquidate the assets and donate the proceeds to a charity. Despite his misgivings, Zach accepts after the lawyer informs him that he will receive $12,000 a month from the trust fund to jumpstart the endeavor. When Zach arrives at the remote property, he realizes that he's made a monumental mistake but decides to ride it out. This decision will propel him into a remarkable journey. In the attic of the ramshackle Victorian, he finds his brother, Joel's, journal. As he reads through it, he meets his great-grandparents and discovers that when he was five years old, he and his older siblings, had spent Christmas there. His brother also meticulously penned the three Christmas Cuentos that Grandpa Leo narrated in the barn while he popped popcorn int the old wood stove. From those Cuentos, Zach, pieces together the puzzle why his parents cut all ties with his great-grandparents. Zach also unlocks a long-lost memory about himself on his first Christmas Eve at the farm he inherited. *The song "Ole Winter Wizard" is on YouTube.