The Ultimate Gift

by Rene Gutteridge

  The words echoed in Jason’s mind as he walked toward the conference room with Mr. Hamilton, Miss Hastings, and several assistants. At the groundbreaking, Mr. Hamilton, in earshot of everyone, had said, “I’m so proud of the man you’ve become.” Jason wasn’t sure if he’d ever been paid a higher compliment with more meaning. And he’d become this man thanks, in great part, to Hamilton, a man he’d once considered an enemy.

  “I understand you went outside the boundaries of our instructions with one of those gifts,” Mr. Hamilton said abruptly.

  “What?” Jason asked, caught off guard.

  “Don’t what me,” Hamilton said, eyeing him. “You know what I’m talking about.”

  Just then they reached the conference room, and Jason noticed a man placing a mini-DVD on the long table. Jason recognized the man as the private investigator who had been following him to make sure he obeyed all of Red’s rules.

  “Miss Hastings, will you dismiss everyone, please?” Mr. Hamilton asked.

  “Yes, sir.”

  When the three of them were alone in the room, Mr. Hamilton handed Miss Hastings the DVD. She put it into the player, and as the room grew dark, Jason saw on the screen the grainy, handheld-video images of himself trying every way possible to get money, collecting dimes and quarters any way he could. He’d been trying to raise an extra hundred dollars to cover Alexia’s rent. But that probably wasn’t going to be a good excuse.

  The private investigator’s voice came on. “Over the course of several days, this investigator personally witnessed and recorded the subject as he committed various misdemeanor infractions, for which he was never cited. Nevertheless, illegal activities did occur: panhandling, bordering on assault; stealing private property; resale of stolen items; street vending without a permit . . .” On and on he went as Jason watched himself dig for coins in and under slot returns, then sell flowers. That had been a low point. He’d been pathetic about it, too, asking people to buy two or even three, whatever he could get out of them, making up all kinds of stories to gain sympathy.

  “. . . It is the opinion of this investigator that the subject is a reprobate and incapable of completing the twelve gifts laid out in Red Stevens’ will.”

  “That’s enough, Miss Hastings,” Mr. Hamilton said.

  “My pleasure, Mr. Hamilton,” she replied.

  The lights came up, and Jason was surprised to find Mr. Hamilton smiling. Miss Hastings too.

  “Jason,” Mr. Hamilton said, “if you made it this far, he had one final message.”

  He gestured to a door that was slightly open. Jason stood and walked toward it. It felt a little surreal as he slowly stepped in. The room was smaller than he’d imagined. The camera still sat on its tripod, aimed at the empty chair.

  Except it wasn’t empty. His grandfather sat there, and Jason imagined what he might have to say.

  “Jason?”

  “Yeah?”

  “You gave away the hundred million?”

  “Yeah. So what?”

  “Well, if you are standing here now it means that not only have you succeeded in receiving all of my gifts, but have done so beyond the boundaries that I have set. I guess that means that I have succeeded as well. What I could not accomplish in life, I have done in death. As long as you are still alive, I will be, too.”

  Jason swallowed back tears. He wanted to reach out and hug him, hold him, be held by the man who used to pick him up and swing him around in the air as a young boy. Now all he had to hold on to was . . . honor. And Jason knew it was enough.

  “I love you . . . son.”

  “I love you, too.”

  “Goodbye, Jason.”

  Climbing into the chair, Jason sat where his grandfather had taught him the greatest lesson of his life. And he wept.

  “Jason?”

  Jason looked up from where he sat in Red’s chair. “Yes?”

  “You okay?”

  Jason nodded a little. “Just thinking about him. Trying to imagine him in this little room.” He smiled at Hamilton.

  “Why don’t you come out here for a moment?”

  Hamilton, followed by Jason, returned to his chair. Jason noticed the wooden box that had started his whole journey sitting on the table. Hamilton opened it and pulled out a piece of paper, then held it up so he could read it clearly. “As executor of the estate of Red Stevens, I hereby execute and otherwise assign complete and controlling interest to Jason Stevens the balance of Red’s estate, including all holdings, investment portfolios, and offshore interests, totaling in excess of two billion dollars.”

  With all Jason had been through, he wasn’t sure there was too much more in life that could leave him stunned, but he was wrong, to the point that he was speechless.

  “Depending on OPEC prices and foreign currency fluctuations, of course,” Hamilton added in true form.

  Jason laughed. Of course.

  Hamilton sat in a leather chair in his office, studying an old picture of himself with Red. They’d been two handsome fellows back in the day.

  He stood and walked to the window, and his mind wandered back to that fateful phone call. “I need a lawyer for a few business ideas I have, a few still in the dream stage.”

  “When would you like to meet?”

  “Meet? Hell, you’re hired!”

  “Sir, are you sure you wouldn’t like to meet first?”

  “You were at the top of your law class, were you not?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Then you’re my lawyer. Now, let’s get on with it. We got a world to conquer.”

  Behind him, Hamilton heard Miss Hastings enter his office. She came up beside him. Glancing at her, he asked, “Do you think I’m old, Miss Hastings?”

  With her usual elegance, she shook her head.

  “Well, I think it’s about time I retire from this law firm.”

  With a knowing smile, she asked, “What ever will you do, Mr. Hamilton?”

  “Go to work with Jason Stevens. Change the world.”

  Jason sat on his old friend, the park bench. Red had Hamilton. Jason had Park Bench. It had become a place where he could think and listen. He so badly wanted to hear Emily’s voice, her attitude, her impolite observations about him and his world. But instead, most often, he heard her heart, and it told him to keep going, to take care of her mom, and to keep living his dream.

  Jason looked up to find Alexia walking toward him. He would never get tired of seeing that beautiful smile. “Hi,” he said.

  She slid onto the bench beside him. “Hi.”

  He looked into her eyes.

  “Thank you,” he told her.

  He pictured Emily with her hand on her hip and that little umbrella propped up on her shoulder, twirling it impatiently and saying, “Kiss her, you idiot.”

  So he kissed her, and a butterfly dipped through the air, fluttering across the Charlotte skyline and toward the heavens.

  Reading Group Guide

  1. All of the survivors in Red Stevens’s family seem to be pretty despicable—greedy, materialistic, and petulant. Do you know any families like this? What do you think makes people act this way?

  2. As you observe Red’s children and grandchildren as the story begins, what opinion do you form about the kind of person Red must have been? What mistakes did he make as a parent? Why do Red’s family and Mr. Hamilton view him so differently?

  3. Jason’s first gift was the gift of work. Do you think of your work as a gift? If not, how do you view it?

  4. The second gift was the gift of friends. How would you define a true friend? What importance do you put on friendship in your life?

  5. When Jason received his paycheck—the gift of money—he was incensed that the check was so small. Then he was asked to “spend it on someone experiencing a real problem.” If you were asked to do the same with your next paycheck, what do you think you would do with it? Up until then, what had money bought him and his family?

  6. Jason went to Thanksgiving dinne
r with the faint hope of being able to turn the day into something more civil than usual. His hopes were quickly dashed. Have you ever gone into a family gathering with the goal of bringing harmony out of what is usually discord? How did you handle the situation? What was the outcome?

  7. Red said, “Learning is a gift. Even if pain is your teacher.” How did this play itself out in Jason’s experience in Ecuador? What did he learn about his dad? His grandfather? Himself?

  8. What was Red Stevens’s ultimate gift to Jason?

  9. If you had to choose between receiving a gift of ten billion dollars and the non-monetary gifts Jason received, which would you choose?

  10. Read the list of twelve gifts on page 181. How many of those gifts have you received in your life? How has the value of those gifts changed in your mind since reading The Ultimate Gift?

  Note from Rene Gutteridge

  ihad just dropped off my daughter at preschool when I got a call asking if I would be interested in writing a novelization of a movie. After some discussion, I decided that this would be a good project for me. I had studied screenwriting in college, but had moved into writing novels shortly afterward. I thought it would be interesting to adapt a screenplay into a novel.

  I was sent a copy of The Ultimate Gift overnight to watch. For once we didn’t have anything going on that evening, so we put the kids to bed, popped some popcorn, and stuck the movie in, eager to see what, exactly, this movie was all about. I’m not sure what I was expecting, but I can tell you what I wasn’t expecting . . . to be crying like a baby at the end! The movie was incredibly moving and my husband and I sat afterward in awe, barely able to put into words what we’d experienced. The acting, writing, and directing were beyond superb.

  But more than that, the movie touched us personally. My family and I were facing challenges that tested our strength, perseverance, and faith.

  The message of The Ultimate Gift deeply inspired me, even beyond the theme of giving and love and self-sacrifice. Through it, God comforted me, assuring me that all of our problems, in His gentle hands, are a gift that, as A.W. Tozer puts it, have the “power to purify, to detach, to humble, to destroy the fear of death and, what is more important to you at the moment, the fear of life . . . sometimes pain can do what even joy cannot, such as exposing the vanity of earth’s trifles . . .” All we had been through, all we would face in the future, would be used for our good, to teach us what it means to really live. As the character of Red Stevens puts it, “You haven’t really lived until you’ve lost everything.”

  So The Ultimate Gift went from a project to a passion. I have been blessed beyond words to be a part of this extraordinary experience and to work with an extraordinary man such as Jim Stovall. He has been a gift to many. The Ultimate Gift turned out to be a gift to me. May it be the start to a wonderful journey of giving for you!

  Vision statement about

  The Ultimate Gift

  from movie producer, Rick Eldridge

  the Ultimate Gift book was given to me by two of my teenage sons . . . from a financial planner who was mentoring my sons at the time. A month later on a flight from the east coast to the west coast, I opened the book for the first time. By the time we landed in LA, I had finished the book and begun imagining the screenplay. We secured rights to the book and began the quest of all independent filmmakers of crafting the right script, securing funding, and then putting together the right cast and crew to tell the story. It is always a long and tedious process.

  Because of the legacy message of this story and the unusual success of the book selling without a major publisher, there was significant interest in a potential film project. With the assistance of several partners—Elim Group, Helixx Group, Legacy Boston, and author Jim Stovall—we were able to secure funding for initial development. And finally, through the visionary leadership of Jim Davis and Stanford Financial Group, we completed the funding to make this film a reality.

  The beauty of Jim Stovall’s book was the ability to make the characters and elements of the story come alive, allowing the readers to place themselves into the journey as the twelve gifts unfold through the story. The challenge we had was taking this very episodic twelve gift formula and creating a dramatic and compelling feature film structure. Through the crafting of the story by writer Cheryl McKay and director Michael Sajbel, we were able to accomplish this difficult task.

  Our vision as a production team was to create a story that would challenge and motivate the viewers to make a difference: to understand the concept of their importance and responsibility to humanity . . . and their unique abilities to affect change by using their gifts in positive ways to influence and better the lives of those around them. This truly is “The Ultimate Gift.”

  Share the gift . . . change the world.

  Vision statement about

  The Ultimate Gift

  from movie director, Michael O. Sajbel

  since making a film takes a year minimum, often twice that, out of a director’s life, I choose the projects I undertake with careful consideration. Ask my wife. I turned down a six-figure salary once in the middle of remodeling.

  I was first attracted to the title itself: The Ultimate Gift. I think that deep down we all have a feeling that if we only had more of a certain commodity we’d be much better off, that our problems would disappear. Usually it’s money, and of course, all it can buy. But life tells us something completely different. Wisdom is knowledge that often is in conflict with what the world believes. A favorite source of inspiration for me says, “A generous person will prosper; he who refreshes others will himself be refreshed.”

  Of course so many good stories from the beginning of time tell us so. It is more important to give than to receive. The true meaning of anything has to do with character and values and sharing and giving. And this is what attracted me to the book and the characters and the project more than anything else. I also learned early on in my education that you cannot sell something unless you believe in it yourself. So the crucial first step for me was that I believed in the message of The Ultimate Gift.

  The process of getting hired to direct a film may be a mystery to most, but I’ll briefly tell you what I went through. I didn’t read any of the screenplays that had been written before I went straight to the source, Jim Stovall’s brief yet heartfelt novel. I read it several times and marked it up with highlight pens, notes, and comments. For me to take on a project there has to be a compelling story, a “spine,” I term it, and there has to be redemption of some sort. I want each character to go through changes, through tremendous loss, and come out changed and better. Jim’s novel had all of this. It resonated with me. It also had an element of fun as well as truth.

  I loved the premise: a hard-as-nails yet remorseful billionaire who comes to the end of his time and realizes he needs to do something in death that he could not accomplish in life. A gamble for him, to be sure, as there is no way for him to stick around to make any adjustments should his final plan fail. But I also thought it important to raise the stakes for Jason, the recipient of the gift, to end up in a test for his life where money could not possibly help him and where his adversary didn’t even understand his pleading. Through all of this loss comes redemption and gain for all the characters.

  I also imagined what each character was like. Were the people in the book the same as the characters in my head? I owed the producers an honest assessment of my vision should a character not line up with someone in the book. For example, I wanted the little girl, Emily, to be almost gothic, wearing Edwardian clothing with a color palate on the dark side. I did not want her to be just another “sweet little girl dying of Leukemia.” I wanted grandson Jason (the original book had him as a nephew, I believe, as did early scripts) not what everyone seemed to imagine, in the standard sixties’ mode of the rebellious guy who hates his family for their wealth, etc. I said, “This guy embraces his wealth. He cannot function without it, on the surface or at the very core of his being.” Fortunat
ely for all of us, I only departed in a few, necessary areas where it was important in translating Jim’s written word to the visual language of the screen.

  Finally, when you audition to direct, you walk in the door with ideas on casting. This helps explain vision and translation from the written page just as much as anything else. A confession that all of the producers already know: I walked into the door saying that I wanted James Garner to play Red. I wanted the no-nonsense character of Mr. Hamilton to be African American and wanted a seasoned actor for that role. These early casting ideas clarified to the producers what I had in mind, or to put it another way, what my vision was for the project.

  After I was hired, many other casting ideas came as a result of the very talented casting people as well as the producers agreeing and really going after the people we all wanted. Jason had to be played, in my mind, by someone who had experienced tremendous wealth in his own life. I couldn’t afford for anyone to fake that. Drew Fuller was perfect for the role. What a joy it was to find Abigail Breslin to be available for Emily. She shaped the film as much as anyone else. Brian Dennehy was just getting off a play in London and was convinced to do the project based on our final, strong screenplay. I could go on.

  Most of all, my vision for this project was to take Jim’s novel and make his initial vision “visual” and to keep the story fresh and exciting. I’m glad that Rick Eldridge and all of the other producers agreed. I am very proud of this film. To anyone and everyone who worked on the film and helped make it what it is today, you were a gift to me. (Admit it, you were expecting me to say something like this.)

  The 12 Gifts

  The Gift of Work

  He who loves his work never labors.

  The Gift of Money

  Money is nothing more than a tool. It can be a force of good, a force of evil, or simply be idle.

  The Gift of Friends