Day 110: Lunch

Lunch
by
Matt Zurbo

 

(Kid sitting on a roof, eating lunch, looking up at cloudy sky.)

(Side image of kid’s face looking up, hand holding half eaten sandwich from lunchbox.)

(Cute image of kid flying straight up in harness of helmet propeller.)

(Kid laughing as he flies through flock of seagulls.)

(Kid hovers in front of huge eagle with old wooden shack built on its back.)

Kid: Anybody home.
(Craggy-faced old lady appears in doorway, half in shadow. Kid, happily, handshake out, Microphone in other hand.)

Kid: Hi, I’m from Kid’s News! Lunch edition. I’m here to interview the old lady who lives on an eagle’s back.
Old Lady: What about my kids?
(A dozen kids appear from wooden shutters, chimney, under her skirt… Some petting a kitten, others eating ice-cream, one with figure in his nose.)

Kid: Wow! Where did they come from?
Old Lady: We saved them, I guess. They’re a handful. But it’s good to help.
(Eagle hovering, as kids climb rope from refugee camp.)

Kid: That’s so cool!

Old Lady: Maybe, but now it’s their playtime.
(Old Lady tying balloon to belt of bent over scruffy kid. Other kids in background already drifting, held up by balloon each, tied to belt buckles)

Kid: Isn’t that dangerous?
Old Lady: Not really. Some drift away, we find others to help.

Kid (microphone out): So, what’s it like living on an eagle?
Old Lady: Never dull!
(Eagle hovering over sea, all kids have fishing rods out. One is jumping into water with inflated tire around waste.)

An adventure.
(Eagle dodging air balloons shaped like octopi and elephants.)

I dunno. Why don’t you ask the eagle?
(Kid, upside-down, face-to-face with the eagle)

Kid; Hi! What’s your name?
Eagle: Harry.
Kid: Why do you have an old lady on your back?

Eagle: Well, she wasn’t always old. And she keeps the crows away. They used to drive me crazy!
(Younger Old Lady, teenager, but same dress, planks of wood under one arm, framework of house built on top of hill, using broom to shoo away crows from eagle)

Besides, it’s fun.
(When they play music and dance).

Kid (hand between mouth and microphone, whispering out of side of mouth): Can you spice it up for our viewers at home? (Child floating with balloon behind him, wearing pilot goggles.) Y’know, make it sound more dramatic!

(Suddenly, they are all startled as a bewildered bulldog appears between them, slightly tilted.)

Child: Oh no, it’s the Dogs of War!
Old Lady: Quick! Everybody back on!
(Old Lady waving, as more and more bulldogs appear through clouds, one biting at floating child’s bum, as if at the apex of an accent)

(Child is holding onto something, calling to Kid, who has one hand on his helmet, other other arm wrapped around a chair, holding the microphone. They are inside ramshackle shack, most kids hanging on from forward motion, or hiding under table, holding onto its legs, bits and pieces flying, out window we can see lots of dogs appearing from clouds.)

Child: The Old Lady saved a lot of us from War! But War hates a happy ending, so it always trying to take us back!
(Image of armoured warriors, with chain-mail and helmets and rags, mostly silhouetted, with catapults with bulldogs in them, the land around them full of smoke and embers.)

Kid (calling into microphone, over rattle and bump): So how do you escape?
Old Lady (determined, everything at 45degree upward): We do what eagles do… We fly above it all.

(Several images of the eagle with shack on its back, flying up through thunderstorms past cloud dragons, arching through cloud sunsets, flying by the moon.)

Kid: Do you ever fight back?
Child: Of course!
Other child: We draw love hearts.
Child: Lots of love hearts!

Little girl: And the boys turn them into paper planes!
(That they fly down through the clouds to the Dogs of War)

Old Lady: We’re hoping our love hearts will inspire one of them to, one day, catapult a puppy up here.

And we will raise it

with love

until its big and protecting and strong!

Little Girl (hands in air): Puppy!
(Image of eagle flying, house on back, kennel on rope, dangling down, big bulldog, arms dangling from kennel mouth, Little Girl beside him, hugging)

Kid (to Old Lady): Will you ever beat War?
Old Lady (smiling warmly, placing hand gently under kid’s chin): I don’t know, but they won’t stop us being free.

Kid: Well, that’s me, signing off for Kids News, lunchtime edition. See you soon!
(Kid, looking to reader, microphone under mouth, smiling, kids in background, waving, smiling, etc…)

(Kid jumping down, helicopter helmet running, eagle and house in background, flying off into clouds.)

(Kid landing on roof in stomping pose and small puff of dust.)

(Kid, sandwich in hand, smiling, looking into clouds.)
The End!
(Small bleeder page image of Kid, fronted by bulldog-looking bullies. A paper plane with a love heart drawn on it is hitting the back of one of them. That bully is startled.)