Screenplay --- Bonfire Man

SYNOPSIS --- It’s 1982, and at home James Mockingbird is in charge of recycling and feeding the birds and walking the dog. He is the youngest of four sons born to William and Terry Mockingbird. Terry, a keyboardist and singer, plays in a rock band called Roscoe. James, or Jimmy, is autistic and also helps with the raking of leaves and hauling wood for the fireplace, house-cleaning, grocery shopping, and enjoys dancing a weekend night away with his family while Terry sings and plays keyboards. Sometimes, she’s lead-singer for songs by Joan Jett and Blondie. When dad William is home from business travel, he brings his colleagues along from his local office to join in the dancing.  Jonathan, the oldest, part-owns a recording studio with his partner, Kevin Thumbman, and they part-own a mega-yacht called Beautiful Ann.  Kevin is the captain of the boat, Jimmy is First Mate, Jonathan maintains the onboard recording studio (that’s two studios); they’ve got the bands to record including Roscoe and the 150-foot yacht might just pay for itself. Meanwhile, music videos, and the yacht goes to Liberty Island for a video shoot and MTV, in its infancy, is always looking for talent. Jerry, the second son, works for a company that promotes political candidates, and the agency has displayed some advertising genius. Part-owner of the firm is Maureen McAfee, and she’s a stunner and nice person and has a crush on her mailroom employee, Jerry, the 2nd son, who crushes back on Maureen (neither knows about the other’s crush),  and always manages to make sure she has a copy of the latest Crain’s Chicago Business magazine. Samson, or Sam, is 20, younger than Jerry and older than James, and he already owns his own construction firm and is built like a brick sh*t-house.  Sam knows a lot of women and is always trying to match Jerry up but, this time, the mailroom employee manages not to botch it up with the hottie Maureen, and he manages to get up the nerve to ask her out on his own. Jimmy is building the foundation for a bonfire for an outdoor Mockingbird house party when they get back to the Poconos from making a music video on Liberty Island and mixing and recording on the boat.  One early morning just after sunrise, while cruising the merge of the Hudson and East Rivers, James catches a really big fish. He’s never fished before, but you wouldn’t know it from the way he handles the fishing pole from the back of the yacht.  He gets strapped into a fishing chair, Jaws-style. When he gets back to the house, he will finish the foundation, and the bonfire will be the highlight of the summer party, with competition from fireworks, really tasty and grilled food, a swimming pool filled with water, and Maureen and other beautiful and intelligent women who happen to stop by. Yeah, Sam knows a lot of women, but Jerry met Ms. McAfee on his own. Jimmy, the First Mate, and his best friend, Captain Kevin made extra-long sticks to burn marshmallows in the pretty big bonfire. Meanwhile, and in between making music videos and bonfires and dancing to Roscoe, James attends to his recycling, walks Max the Dalmatian, has interesting conversations with Essie the cockatoo and Emmie the cockatiel (Max’s best friends), makes sure the pantry is filled up, goes and collects all the garbage from the small and large cans throughout the Mockingbird home and helps Mom and Dad with picking vegetables and fruits from the huge garden near the pool, but not too close to the bonfire which, while lit, it was dark and no one was picking veggies and fruits anyway. The pool had folks in it, but there were no sticks available long enough for anyone to swim and burn marshmallows at the same time.