The English Teacher

 LINDA’S CAR is parked in the driveway of a DUPLEX.

DAME NARRATOR (V.O.) She kept a modest home in the town of Kingston, Pennsylvania, not far from where she was born.

Linda emerges and starts to unload her groceries.

INT. LINDA’S LIVING ROOM -- NIGHT.

 A cozy little space, lots of books and tasteful art prints. Tchotchkes from literary tours of the UK.

Linda sits cross-legged at her coffee table, eating (chicken breast + asparagus), and flipping channels on her old T.V.

DAME NARRATOR (V.O.) She lived alone. And though her life may sound cold and dull...

Linda settles on the Merchant Ivory classic, “A ROOM WITH A VIEW.” We push in on her, as she watches. Lost in the drama.

 DAME NARRATOR (V.O.) ... let me assure you that Ms. Linda Sinclair was neither. In fact, she was a Passionate Woman. A Romantic. An Idealist. That was why she was alone; for she had always been alone.

The light goes all SOFT AND HAZY, and we DISSOLVE into...

INT. PUBLIC LIBRARY -- DAY (FLASHBACK).

Beautiful, and silent. Dust motes dance in a shaft of sunlight streaming in through a window.

DAME NARRATOR (V.O.) As a sensitive child, Linda found her sanctuary in literature.

On YOUNG LINDA (nerdy nine year old), at a table, a stack of books in front of her. She reads. Lost in another world.

DAME NARRATOR (V.O.) The great works stirred in her an excitement, an irrepressible thrill...

Push into LINDA’S BOOK: “LITTLE WOMEN.” On the cover, we see a fiercely independent JO MARCH, with a distinctive short haircut.

INT. HIGH SCHOOL GYMNASIUM -- DAY (FLASHBACK).

Cut to AWKWARD TEENAGE LINDA (with the 80’s Supercuts version of a “JO MARCH HAIRCUT”) in gym clothes, sitting in the stands. She reads “Wuthering Heights” while the JOCKS play basketball.

DAME NARRATOR (V.O.) ... that made the mundane world seem all the more bleak. She saw no reason to take part in the banal activities of childhood.

Push in on the cover of “WUTHERING HEIGHTS”: CATHY and HEATHCLIFF on the moors, brooding romance. Cathy is ravenhaired and in a green dress, chest heaving.

INT. COLLEGE DORM ROOM -- NIGHT (FLASHBACK).

Cut to COLLEGE LINDA, with her 80’S GOTH LOOK: black hair, green faux-velvet dress, bodice that wouldn’t inspire much ripping.

DAME NARRATOR (V.O.) As Linda matured, so did her appreciation of classic literature.

In the opposite bed, her GIGGLING BLONDE ROOMMATE is being groped by some DRUNK FRAT GUY.

DAME NARRATOR (V.O.) The depth of feeling expressed in the great works made the shallow gropings of ordinary people seem all the more pathetic and tawdry.

Linda buries her head in “One Hundred Years of Solitude.”

DAME NARRATOR (V.O.) And so, when she came of age...

INT. HIGH SCHOOL CLASSROOM -- DAY (FLASHBACK).

Close on a “NORTON’S ANTHOLOGY” canonical English Lit. textbook.

Reveal that the Norton’s Anthology is on a teacher’s desk, behind which sits a 1990’s LINDA, in her 20’s. She’s blossomed into a confident young woman.