Butterfly is an apocalyptic 10-page script written by Melissa Tantaquidgeon Zobel that explores the traditions of the Native American culture, represented by teenage Wabanaki Ket, and how they would manifest in a post-apocalyptic world.
The script is set in 2123 in New Island, a future New England which, due to climate change and the dramatic sea rise, detached from the mainland and became an island. A whale flu pandemic is also devastating the local population.
The script starts with Macky and Ket, two teenagers and longtime friends, who seem to be the last ones on the island. They look at the shore, waiting for a boat to rescue them and bring them to the mines, where, apparently, they will be safe from extinction.
The dialogues of this short are very well written, they are poetic and subtle and everything we understand from them is implied. There is also a mystery that comes out of them, we don't know who Macky and Ket met, how Macky knows Ket's grandmother and what were their lives before they were left alone in the island.
From early on we find out that Macky, a Japanese-American poet, is secretly in love with Ket, and tries to force many romantic moments with her. But when Ket, in turn, writes her own Haiku and hands it to Macky, we understand that she knows something about the future that Macky doesn’t. And when something appears on the horizon, Macky clashes with the reality that there is no boat coming to rescue them. However, a prophecy that Ket’s late Wabanaki grandmother made is about to come true.