A DAY IN THE LIFE – Travel Agency

Sometimes I feel like a cat – with many lives.

One of them is that I owned a travel agency for 20 years.

Another is that I am an author.  My last book was Reflections from a Woman Alone. What I wanted to call it was A Woman Without A Man but the publisher changed the name.

(Take note of this, you authors out there.  If your name is important, put it in the contract)

What I did have was film rights and decided the book would be a good movie. I soon found out that writing a script was a completely different animal.

Fortunately, my son Paul had graduated from USC Cinema and he knew how to do it.  He offered (read that was coerced) to help me.

As a co-writer, he was merciless.  I can still hear him telling me,

“If you can’t hear it or see it, it is not a movie.  You can’t say what your character is thinking.”

As you can imagine, there was plenty of rewriting.

I was looking at the script today and laughing at one of the scenes which took place in my travel agency.  The travel agent’s names have been changed but the people are real.  And the transactions, which were all going on at the same time, really happened.

I thought you might enjoy it.

INT. TRAVEL AGENCY – MAIN OFFICE– DAY

There is a CLIENT seated at Linda’s desk with a very large, green PARROT perched on his arm.  She is talking to Delta Airlines.

LINDA

The Delta supervisor says you will have to buy him a seat if you want to take him to Florida on the plane.

Linda looks at him sternly.

LINDA (CONT’D)

And he has to be in a cage.

CLIENT

Even if he pays for his own seat?

LINDA

Yes.

CLIENT

Well, it is important that he goes to the funeral.

LINDA

What name should I put on the ticket?

CLIENT

Lucky.

LINDA

Lucky?

CLIENT

Lucky Shapiro.  Just like my cousin.

Linda gets up to pull the tickets off the machine and complete the transaction.  In the meantime, the other women are talking to clients on the telephone.

HARRIET

The room is $75.00.  A nice hotel.  Shelley and I stayed there…

CATHERINE

I can deliver your ticket.  Tell me how to get there making all right hand turns.

SALLY

What do you mean you missed the ship? No, they do not wait for people….

HARRIET

I said to the woman, I want to be up where I can see the river and she said for the river she gets $95.00. And I said no river’s worth it to me…

SALLY

You will have to fly to St. Maarten. They will not pay your airfare.  You are supposed to be there when the ship sails.

The client and the parrot are leaving. The parrot breaks his silence and starts SHRIEKING.

PARROT

HEY! YOU BITCH! JERK! JACKASS!

The women are laughing

ANNIE

The passengers on that flight are in for a surprise.

LINDA

He told me the parrot was his cousin’s “only child,” so I decided to make the effort to get it approved.

SALLY

There are a million stories in this agency every day.

The script still hasn’t sold.  I can’t understand why with all the silly movies out there.

So, if you know anybody, please tell me.

Here is the synopsis of the whole movie.

A pretty widow is hampered in her adjustment as a single woman by the ghost of her husband who refuses to admit he is dead. The comedy includes an unlikely, hypochondriacal angel who has been sent by the other side to fetch him (his first assignment after being a theatrical agent on earth) the relationships of four women in a dysfunctional travel agency, each with a distinct story, a teenage son  – and after a series of “dates from hell” -  a possible new love interest.

The heroine finally finds herself – a whole and complete person, with or without a man.

And, yes, after the ghost learns some metaphysical truths, the angel gets his man to the other side. (But, can they get him to stay?)

The story combines the elements of Ghost, An Unmarried Woman and 9 to 5, It’s funny.  It has heart, a surprise ending -   And most of it is true.

My late husband, Julius, used to tell me I was not operating a business, I was running a zoo.

Maybe he was right.

Special note:  If you are a script reader (warning – 99 pages) you can read the whole thing here.  But only if you promise to get it to Harold Ramis.

A WOMAN WITHOUT A MAN

Picture by lynnmarentette