The Drive-by Ventriloquist

An eleven-year-old boy named T.B. has been stricken with silence following the death of his father. His mother, now at wits end and remarried gets him a ventriloquist dummy on the advice of a therapist. The hope is it will help young T.B. work out his problems and begin to talk. To add insult to injury, T.B. is being bullied at school, there's a girl he likes he's too shy to talk to and his stepfather is not particularly enamored with the boy. During one bullying session, the janitor of the school steps in and chases off T.B.'s attackers. It turns out the janitor is Arty Sullivan, a famous ventriloquist from back in the day - his life now a miserable mess consumed with alcohol and loneliness. Seeing some of himself in the boy, he takes him under his wing. He teaches him a few tricks of the trade, but warns him not to become a drive-by ventriloquist: not to go around putting words in other people's mouths - something that ruined Arty's own career. But being eleven, with nothing to lose - can T.B. resist?