TV show pilot, part 1:
Wednesday, December 18th, 2019: 5:20 PM.
John F Kennedy Airport, Queens, New york.
The raging sound of the thunderstorm rattled and echoed through the half-lit halls of terminal 5, like a wailing widow, only to be temporarily muffled now and then by the monotonous announcements.
“ This is the final boarding call for passengers Erin and Fred Collins booked on flight 372A to Kansas City. Please proceed to gate 3 immediately. The final checks are being completed and the captain will order for the doors of the aircraft to close in approximately five minutes. I repeat. This is the final boarding call for Erin and Fred Collins. Thank you.”
Catherine stared off into the distance, facing the wall to wall windows separating her from the outside world and what might be the most violent thunderstorm New York has witnessed this year. Every few minutes the same routinized announcement would sneak up on her melding into the shrieking thunderstorm: different names, different flights with different destinations, same announcement. And then it’s back to the sounds of weeping wind, endless rain hitting the asphalt streets, and thunder so violent you could swear it’s the sound of a fallen god splitting the sky in protest.
Catherine had no desire to be flying in this weather if it hadn’t been for a job opportunity in sunny Los Angeles. Not exactly a life-turning opportunity but enough to feed her ego and pay the bills for a couple of months. If anything, she’s taking this opportunity to escape the next few gloomy months of New York weather. She has never really been an NYC girl, so what’s bonding her to the big apple? Maybe it’s her stubbornness; moving back to the middle of nowhere Georgia would be a sign of defeat, the ultimate white flag, her ‘adieu’ to the dreams she had once risked everything for. The chatty ladies of Helen would gossip to their hairdressers about how they “were right all along” and how the bright-eyed twenty-something-year-old who escaped to New York to become a singing sensation is now coming back as the broke thirty-something-year-old dragging a suitcase of shattered dreams and nineties Cher records. Before her thoughts drift even further into topics she dreads addressing, Catherine swiftly reaches to a Seventy Twos Marlboro Gold Pack and pulls out a cigarette. Her thin nimble fingers then brush the deep blonde locks of hair away from her face, placing the one end of the cigarette between her perfectly traced lips where a dark blue Zippo lighter meets its other end. She takes one puff then lets out a cloud of smoke, sighing of relief as if that cigarette had purged her mind from its dark racing thoughts and before she could take another, a figure emerges and sits two seats away from her: a young woman.
Before she could take a good look at her, the mysterious woman asks:” Do you mind if I use your lighter?” then locks eyes with Catherine, as if trying to read her face for an answer. Slightly taken back, Catherine nods, reaching into her pocket and hands the mysterious woman her lighter without breaking eye contact with her. Wide piercing blue eyes like the pacific ocean on a stormy night, full fiery red hair down to her waist, pink round trembling lips, and picture-perfect bare porcelain skin. Catherine’s gaze wanders as she leans back into her leather seat observing the seemingly cold lady with shaking hands as she tries to light her cigarette. If you take away the fact that she was drenched wet, the mysterious lady looked as if she had stepped straight out of a magazine: tall about 6 feet or so, thin but not skinny, and plump in all of the right places: a silhouette any NewYork runway model would kill for. She wore thigh-high black suede boots, a brown denim skirt, and a black turtleneck knit sweater under a knee-length light brown coat which she all paired with the daintiest white gold necklace. Catherine, who doesn’t look a day over twenty-five, works in an industry full of stunning young ladies and is used to being around girls who look like this. However, something about the striking features of this lady seemed vaguely familiar in a way that puzzled her, a sense of familiarity struck her as if she ran into an old friend or grazed the portrait of a long-gone relative that she had known about only through stories. She continues inspecting the mystery of a lady sitting next to her then finally gives up and breaks the silence in her husky breathy voice:” Are you alright dear?”. “ Yeah … I .. I’m fine, thanks … for the lighter “ answered the lady in her croaky tight voice while handing Catherine back the lighter. To which Catherine impatiently followed in her toned down southern accent “ Got a name? “. “Jordan” “ hurray, the mysterious lady has a name,” Catherine thought to herself. Jordan seemed tense as she kept turning her head to glance at the gate two gates down, the heels of her boots nervously tapping the grey Carrara marble floor. “Where are you heading off to?” asked Catherine, trying to initiate a conversation in hopes of easing the uncomfortable silence.” Virginia, to spend some time with family” answered Jordan, clearly uncomfortable with half a smile on her face. “How about you?” asked Jordan almost instinctively, complying with the rules of small chatter. “ LA, to shoot a commercial “ answered Catherine which she then followed after taking a long drag off of her cigarette “ I’m an actress … well, a singer at first but that doesn’t seem to pay the bills so singer, actress, commercial face, waitress, the list is long”. “Oh .. have I seen you in anything?”. Catherine dreaded this question even more than she dreads her mom’s questions about “eligible bachelors”. Nevertheless, she monotonously started naming shows:” Dreamgirls, Joseph and the amazing technicolor Dreamcoat, Bright star …”. Jordan stared at Catherine blankly as if she was speaking a foreign language to her. Wide-eyed and clearly confused, Jordan opened her mouth in hopes of keeping the conversation going, but before she could utter any words, the loudspeakers cut her off with yet another announcement:” Good afternoon passengers. This is the pre-boarding announcement for flight 89B to Los Angeles, California. We are now inviting those passengers with small children, and any passengers requiring special assistance, to begin boarding at this time. Please have your boarding pass and identification ready. Regular boarding will begin in approximately ten minutes. Thank you.”. Without hesitation, Catherine got up, threw the butt of her cigarette on the ground, stepped on it with her trademark red-soled Louis Vuitton high heels, and picked her purse and her black leather travel bag. She then looked at Jordan who was still sitting down and said “Well, it has been lovely meeting you … Jordan. But I need to hit the ladies’ room before heading to my gate”. Without waiting for an answer, Catherine turned around but before she could step away, she felt a hand on her wrist, pulling her back. KA-BOOM! a loud whip-crack -like thunder echoed through the eerily empty hall of JFK. Catherine felt a cold chill down her spine, “I knew this day wouldn’t end well” she muttered to herself. She then turned around to see Jordan holding her by the wrist, visibly upset and scared, her eyes welled up in tears. “ I lied … “ Jordan said sheepishly. “Excuse me?” said Catherine, in a mixture of confusion and annoyance. “ My name is not Jordan … my name is Erin, Erin Collins … and I’m not flying to Virginia, I just intentionally missed my flight to Kansas City”. The mysterious tension between the two ladies reached its apex, it enveloped the entire room as if it had a gravity of its own. “I am in grave danger and I can’t talk to anyone about it, please you have to believe me, you have to help me!”.
“ Good afternoon passengers. This is the pre-boarding announcement for flight 89B to Los Angeles, California. We are now inviting all passengers to begin boarding at this time. Please have your boarding pass and identification ready. Regular boarding begins now. Thank you.”. Catherine looked at her gate, if she stays any longer she’d be missing her flight, but if she leaves … what if Jordan .. er Erin was actually in danger?. The room spins and with it, Catherine’s wheel of consciousness spins as well.