Darkness and Trees
Irene Sankoff and David Hein
[BOB, spoken]
We can see them from the plane - this long line of headlights coming through the darkness

[COMPANY]
Off of the airplane

[FLIGHT ATTENDANT, spoken]
Ladies and gentlemen, you can take only your carry-on items. Any checked luggage will remain in the hold

[COMPANY]
Into the airport

[DIANE, spoken]
The captain and flight attendants tell everyone to take the blankets and pillows off the plane

[COMPANY]
Out of the windows

[KEVIN T, spoken]
We grab bottles of water too - no one has any idea where they're taking us
[COMPANY]
Darkness and trees

[BOB, spoken]
As we enter the airport, all those car lights are still aimed at us

[HANNAH, spoken]
We're scared. They're probably scared too

[FLIGHT ATTENDANT, spoken]
The people here don't know what to expect off of these planes

[KEVIN T, spoken]
The airport looks like something left over from the Cold War. Kevin is like:

[KEVIN J, spoken]
Oh my God, we've gone back in time

[BOB, spoken]
The whole procedure - the soldiers and all the formality - it just makes me really nervous

[BEVERLEY, spoken]
There's a giant map on the wall of the airport and someone has written in red marker: "You are here."

[HANNAH, spoken]
Excuse me. I need to find a phone
[DIANE, spoken]
I need to call my son

[CUSTOMS OFFICER, spoken]
I'm sorry. The pay phones are out of order

[OZ, spoken]
They're all lined up at the airport pay phones
So eventually we put an "Out of Order" sign on them just so we can get people on the busses

[CLAUDE, spoken]
11:48 pm. Busses and drivers are now taking passengers to shelters, not just in Gander, but also to Gambo, Appleton, and farther communities of Lewisporte, Norris Arm, and Glenwood

[COMPANY]
Our bus sits there forever
While all the others leave
Finally, this other passenger gets on
This guy from the Middle East
Someone says he got questioned
Someone says he got searched
And now he's on our bus

[JANICE, spoken]
I try to interview the Red Cross, the Salvation Army - but they've got more important things to do than talk to me. That's when I see them, the Plane People, through the bus windows. The terror on their faces. They have no idea where they're going

[BEVERLEY, spoken]
They take me and my crew in a separate van and I'm looking out the window, tryin' to see where we are, but it is pitch dark. Now I have flown over this area hundreds and hundreds of times and it is just darkness - hardly any lights anywhere. And now here I am. Oh my God, this is just so remote
[MEN]
Into the darkness

[WOMEN]
Stars and the moonlight

[MEN]
But all around us

[WOMEN]
Nothing but darkness

[MEN]
Out of the windows

[WOMEN]
Into the darkness

[COMPANY]
Darkness and trees

[GARTH, spoken]
Every school bus we got is goin' back and forth all night. Out to the Salvation Army camp we've delivered passengers from Germany, England, and France. And around three in the morning, my bus is designated to take all these African people out there

[COMPANY except GARTH and MUHUMUZA]
Into the darkness

[MUHUMUZA, spoken]
My family and I try to see out the bus windows. No one tells us where we are going

[COMPANY except GARTH and MUHUMUZA]
Onto a gravel road

[GARTH, spoken]
Silence comes on the bus. We get outside of Gander and you could hear a pin drop

[COMPANY except GARTH and MUHUMUZA]
And all around us

[MUHUMUZA, spoken]
My wife and daughter are scared. They ask me what is happening and I do not know

[COMPANY except GARTH and MUHUMUZA]
Darkness and trees

[GARTH, spoken]
Behind me, this big man comes up to me and he says in this low voice

[MUHUMUZA, spoken]
Wewe watuchukuwa wapi?

[GARTH, spoken]
What's that, now?
Write the lyrics for a rock song made in 2017, titled "Darkness and Trees", by artist "Irene Sankoff and David Hein".