A Goose for Percy
Vicky arrives at her aunt's snow-bound farmhouse, tasked with helping prepare Christmas dinner. The mundane chore of dressing a goose forces her to confront fresh memories of her younger brother, Percy, through a lens of unspoken grief and cynical observation.
### A Goose for Percy
**Logline**
In the suffocating quiet of the first Christmas after her brother’s death, a young woman’s ritualistic preparation of the holiday goose becomes a visceral confrontation with the raw, hollow space his absence has left in her family and herself.
**Synopsis**
VICKY (20s), stoic and numb with grief, arrives by train through a snow-blasted prairie landscape to her AUNT CATHY’s (50s) farmhouse for the first Christmas since the death of her vibrant younger brother, PERCY. The house, though warm, is thick with unspoken sorrow, masked by Aunt Cathy’s brittle, forced cheerfulness. The family’s unspoken rule is clear: *we mustn’t dwell*. Vicky is immediately tasked with preparing the Christmas goose, a job laden with memories of Percy, who always detested the chore. As Vicky handles the cold, pale bird, every action—the sharp knife, the pungent stuffing, the unsettling emptiness of the bird’s cavity—triggers vivid, painful memories of her brother's life and humor. The visceral task forces her to move past her emotional numbness, culminating in a moment where she reaches into the goose’s empty interior, a chilling physical metaphor for her loss. The ordeal concludes with Vicky discovering one of Percy’s old “worry stones,” a small, cold pebble that offers no magic, only the hard, tangible reality of his absence, solidifying the understanding that his loss is a permanent, hollow space they must now learn to live around.
**Character Breakdown**
* **VICKY (BEA) (Early 20s):** Pragmatic, quiet, and observant. Vicky is carrying the heavy weight of her brother’s recent death with a stoic resignation that borders on numbness. She is not one for dramatic displays of emotion, preferring to process her grief internally. The physical, visceral task of preparing the goose forces her to confront the feelings she has been suppressing.
* **AUNT CATHY (50s):** A woman held together by routine and a desperate will to maintain normalcy. Her cheerfulness is a shield, both for herself and for Vicky. She is terrified of the silence and the grief that fills it, so she bustles and chatters, her love for her family expressed through constant, nervous action. Beneath the brittle exterior is a deep, aching sadness.
* **PERCY (in memory, late teens):** Seen only in Vicky’s memories. He is the vibrant, chaotic, and magnetic center of the family. Mischievous, dramatic, and full of life, he was a master of deflecting unpleasantness with a joke. His memory is a stark, painful contrast to the cold, silent reality of the present.
**Scene Beats**
* **ARRIVAL & THE FAÇADE:** Vicky arrives at the farmhouse, chilled to the bone. The oppressive cold of the outside world gives way to the claustrophobic warmth and forced cheer of Aunt Cathy’s home. The unspoken tension is immediately palpable.
* **THE CENTREPIECE:** In the kitchen, Vicky is confronted with the Christmas goose—a colossal, pale, and unsettling mound of flesh on the pine table. It is a symbol of the festive tradition they are trying to uphold, but it feels alien and morbid.
* **A KNIFE TO THE PAST:** Aunt Cathy hands Vicky a knife for the preparation, casually remarking on how Percy always made a mess of carving. The simple comment is a gut punch, instantly conjuring a vivid, painful memory of Percy’s youthful, chaotic energy. Vicky’s composure begins to crack.
* **THE VISCERAL TASK:** Vicky begins the grim work of preparing the bird. The focus is tactile and sensory: the cold, slick skin; the pungent, earthy smell of the sage stuffing; the clammy feel of the mixture in her still-cold fingers. She works like a machine, trying to suppress the rising tide of memory.
* **THE HOLLOW CAVITY:** Vicky reaches her hand inside the goose to remove the giblets. The profound coldness and shocking emptiness of the bird’s interior is a visceral shock. It becomes a powerful, physical metaphor for Percy’s absence—the hollow space left behind. The engine of a life, now still.
* **A BRIDGE OF MEMORY:** From across the room, Aunt Cathy tries to connect by sharing a fond memory of Percy loving Vicky’s stuffing. Her attempt is well-meaning but only sharpens the pain of his absence. The silence that follows is heavy with what cannot be said.
* **SEALING THE WOUND:** Vicky methodically sews the goose shut. Each stitch is deliberate, like suturing a wound. She is creating a façade of wholeness, stuffing the emptiness and sealing it from view, perfectly mirroring her family’s approach to their grief.
* **A CRACK IN THE ARMOR:** As the light fails outside, Aunt Cathy’s cheerful mask finally slips. In a quiet, shaky voice, she confesses how hard it is to think of Percy "out there... alone" in the frozen ground. It is the first direct acknowledgment of their shared pain.
* **THE WORRY STONE:** Numbed, Vicky drifts to a dresser and her fingers find a small, smooth stone—one of Percy’s "worry stones." Holding the cold, inanimate object, she realizes there is no magic to make the pain go away. It is simply a remnant, a hard, real piece of a life that is over.
* **THE TANGIBLE ABSENCE:** Vicky looks from the stone in her hand to the perfectly trussed goose on the table. She understands that Percy's absence is not just an empty space but a tangible weight, a hollow presence they will all be forced to politely navigate around at the Christmas table.
**Visual Style**
* **TIME PERIOD:** 1930s Rural North America. The setting is weathered and lived-in, defined by practicality and tradition. Costumes and production design should reflect a world of making-do, where small comforts are hard-won.
* **COLOR PALETTE:** A stark contrast between exteriors and interiors.
* **Exterior:** Desaturated and monochromatic. The snow-covered landscape is a world of whites, deep greys, and pale, watery blues. This reflects Vicky’s internal state of frozen grief.
* **Interior:** A warm, almost suffocating palette of ambers, deep reds, and dark woods, lit by the glow of a wood stove and oil lamps. However, this warmth should feel oppressive rather than comforting, with deep shadows pooling in the corners of the room.
* **CINEMATOGRAPHY:** Intimate and subjective. The camera should stay close to Vicky, often using shallow depth of field to isolate her from her surroundings. Extreme close-ups on hands are crucial: Vicky’s fumbling with her coat buttons, her fingers sinking into the stuffing, the methodical stitching of the goose. These tactile shots will ground the audience in the visceral reality of her experience.
* **LIGHTING:** Natural and motivated. The primary light source is the large kitchen window, which admits a weak, failing winter light that grows colder as the scene progresses. This creates long, creeping shadows, visually representing the encroaching darkness of memory and grief.
* **SOUND DESIGN:** A world of contrasts. The howling, empty sound of the prairie wind outside should constantly bleed into the house, a reminder of the harsh reality they are trying to keep at bay. Inside, the soundscape is defined by a tense quiet, punctuated by sharp, diegetic sounds: the *pop* of a coat button, the *clatter* of the knife, the rhythmic *squeak* of the water pump, the soft *rip* of the goose’s skin. These sounds will feel unnaturally loud, amplifying the emotional weight of the silence.
**Logline**
In the suffocating quiet of the first Christmas after her brother’s death, a young woman’s ritualistic preparation of the holiday goose becomes a visceral confrontation with the raw, hollow space his absence has left in her family and herself.
**Synopsis**
VICKY (20s), stoic and numb with grief, arrives by train through a snow-blasted prairie landscape to her AUNT CATHY’s (50s) farmhouse for the first Christmas since the death of her vibrant younger brother, PERCY. The house, though warm, is thick with unspoken sorrow, masked by Aunt Cathy’s brittle, forced cheerfulness. The family’s unspoken rule is clear: *we mustn’t dwell*. Vicky is immediately tasked with preparing the Christmas goose, a job laden with memories of Percy, who always detested the chore. As Vicky handles the cold, pale bird, every action—the sharp knife, the pungent stuffing, the unsettling emptiness of the bird’s cavity—triggers vivid, painful memories of her brother's life and humor. The visceral task forces her to move past her emotional numbness, culminating in a moment where she reaches into the goose’s empty interior, a chilling physical metaphor for her loss. The ordeal concludes with Vicky discovering one of Percy’s old “worry stones,” a small, cold pebble that offers no magic, only the hard, tangible reality of his absence, solidifying the understanding that his loss is a permanent, hollow space they must now learn to live around.
**Character Breakdown**
* **VICKY (BEA) (Early 20s):** Pragmatic, quiet, and observant. Vicky is carrying the heavy weight of her brother’s recent death with a stoic resignation that borders on numbness. She is not one for dramatic displays of emotion, preferring to process her grief internally. The physical, visceral task of preparing the goose forces her to confront the feelings she has been suppressing.
* **AUNT CATHY (50s):** A woman held together by routine and a desperate will to maintain normalcy. Her cheerfulness is a shield, both for herself and for Vicky. She is terrified of the silence and the grief that fills it, so she bustles and chatters, her love for her family expressed through constant, nervous action. Beneath the brittle exterior is a deep, aching sadness.
* **PERCY (in memory, late teens):** Seen only in Vicky’s memories. He is the vibrant, chaotic, and magnetic center of the family. Mischievous, dramatic, and full of life, he was a master of deflecting unpleasantness with a joke. His memory is a stark, painful contrast to the cold, silent reality of the present.
**Scene Beats**
* **ARRIVAL & THE FAÇADE:** Vicky arrives at the farmhouse, chilled to the bone. The oppressive cold of the outside world gives way to the claustrophobic warmth and forced cheer of Aunt Cathy’s home. The unspoken tension is immediately palpable.
* **THE CENTREPIECE:** In the kitchen, Vicky is confronted with the Christmas goose—a colossal, pale, and unsettling mound of flesh on the pine table. It is a symbol of the festive tradition they are trying to uphold, but it feels alien and morbid.
* **A KNIFE TO THE PAST:** Aunt Cathy hands Vicky a knife for the preparation, casually remarking on how Percy always made a mess of carving. The simple comment is a gut punch, instantly conjuring a vivid, painful memory of Percy’s youthful, chaotic energy. Vicky’s composure begins to crack.
* **THE VISCERAL TASK:** Vicky begins the grim work of preparing the bird. The focus is tactile and sensory: the cold, slick skin; the pungent, earthy smell of the sage stuffing; the clammy feel of the mixture in her still-cold fingers. She works like a machine, trying to suppress the rising tide of memory.
* **THE HOLLOW CAVITY:** Vicky reaches her hand inside the goose to remove the giblets. The profound coldness and shocking emptiness of the bird’s interior is a visceral shock. It becomes a powerful, physical metaphor for Percy’s absence—the hollow space left behind. The engine of a life, now still.
* **A BRIDGE OF MEMORY:** From across the room, Aunt Cathy tries to connect by sharing a fond memory of Percy loving Vicky’s stuffing. Her attempt is well-meaning but only sharpens the pain of his absence. The silence that follows is heavy with what cannot be said.
* **SEALING THE WOUND:** Vicky methodically sews the goose shut. Each stitch is deliberate, like suturing a wound. She is creating a façade of wholeness, stuffing the emptiness and sealing it from view, perfectly mirroring her family’s approach to their grief.
* **A CRACK IN THE ARMOR:** As the light fails outside, Aunt Cathy’s cheerful mask finally slips. In a quiet, shaky voice, she confesses how hard it is to think of Percy "out there... alone" in the frozen ground. It is the first direct acknowledgment of their shared pain.
* **THE WORRY STONE:** Numbed, Vicky drifts to a dresser and her fingers find a small, smooth stone—one of Percy’s "worry stones." Holding the cold, inanimate object, she realizes there is no magic to make the pain go away. It is simply a remnant, a hard, real piece of a life that is over.
* **THE TANGIBLE ABSENCE:** Vicky looks from the stone in her hand to the perfectly trussed goose on the table. She understands that Percy's absence is not just an empty space but a tangible weight, a hollow presence they will all be forced to politely navigate around at the Christmas table.
**Visual Style**
* **TIME PERIOD:** 1930s Rural North America. The setting is weathered and lived-in, defined by practicality and tradition. Costumes and production design should reflect a world of making-do, where small comforts are hard-won.
* **COLOR PALETTE:** A stark contrast between exteriors and interiors.
* **Exterior:** Desaturated and monochromatic. The snow-covered landscape is a world of whites, deep greys, and pale, watery blues. This reflects Vicky’s internal state of frozen grief.
* **Interior:** A warm, almost suffocating palette of ambers, deep reds, and dark woods, lit by the glow of a wood stove and oil lamps. However, this warmth should feel oppressive rather than comforting, with deep shadows pooling in the corners of the room.
* **CINEMATOGRAPHY:** Intimate and subjective. The camera should stay close to Vicky, often using shallow depth of field to isolate her from her surroundings. Extreme close-ups on hands are crucial: Vicky’s fumbling with her coat buttons, her fingers sinking into the stuffing, the methodical stitching of the goose. These tactile shots will ground the audience in the visceral reality of her experience.
* **LIGHTING:** Natural and motivated. The primary light source is the large kitchen window, which admits a weak, failing winter light that grows colder as the scene progresses. This creates long, creeping shadows, visually representing the encroaching darkness of memory and grief.
* **SOUND DESIGN:** A world of contrasts. The howling, empty sound of the prairie wind outside should constantly bleed into the house, a reminder of the harsh reality they are trying to keep at bay. Inside, the soundscape is defined by a tense quiet, punctuated by sharp, diegetic sounds: the *pop* of a coat button, the *clatter* of the knife, the rhythmic *squeak* of the water pump, the soft *rip* of the goose’s skin. These sounds will feel unnaturally loud, amplifying the emotional weight of the silence.