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Northlark Airways Homecoming
Northlark Airways is a regional airline. A grandmother narrates the short flight home for the holidays instead of the eleven-hour drive. The actor plays it plain and specific, small details over big feelings, landing on a quiet tagline.
Characters
- MARGARET - 60s to 70s, female, a retired schoolteacher, dry, observant, not one to make a fuss
Setting
A small regional airport at dusk, then a window seat over the clouds, then an arrivals area with a glass wall.
A small regional airport at dusk. MARGARET sits at a gate with a paper cup of tea and a canvas bag on her lap. She is not in a hurry.
MARGARET is heard in voice-over throughout. She never speaks on camera.
MARGARET
(unhurried, plain, telling it to one person)
I was going to drive.
Eleven hours, two motels, and my granddaughter would have been asleep by the time I got there. Again.
She boards. She finds the window seat. She folds her coat carefully and sets it on her lap.
MARGARET
So this year I let my son book it.
Wing over cloud. The light going orange.
MARGARET
Two hours and ten minutes. I read forty pages of a book I've been meaning to read since March. The young man beside me showed me a picture of his dog. I showed him one of mine.
(a small admission)
His was better.
A flight attendant sets down a fresh cup of tea. MARGARET nods thanks.
MARGARET
They let me keep the tea through the landing. I don't know if that's allowed. I didn't ask.
Cut to arrivals. A glass wall. On the other side, a small girl in a coat that is too big for her, standing on a bench to see over the crowd.
MARGARET
She's standing on the bench. She's not supposed to stand on the bench.
(a small, private laugh)
Good.
The doors open. MARGARET walks through. The girl jumps down and runs.
MARGARET
Eleven hours, or two and ten. I know which one I'm doing next year.
Title card: NORTHLARK AIRWAYS.
MARGARET
(quiet, almost to herself)
Northlark. The short way home.
End of script