Sky Daddy

Linda, a 30-year-old content moderator living in San Francisco, narrates the story of her lifelong obsession with commercial airplanes and the fate she believes awaits her: death in a plane crash, which she conceives of as a marriage. She envisions a plane recognizing her as his soulmate mid-flight and plunging to earth in an act of passion that would unite their souls for eternity. Linda views planes as sentient, male beings and has been sexually attracted to them since adolescence. She subscribes to the idea of a predestined universe and hopes to hasten her fate through a Vision Board Brunch (VBB), a quarterly gathering in which women present collaged posterboards representing their goals to amplify their intentions to the universe.

Linda works in the Hate & Harassment vertical at Acuity, a firm contracted to moderate content for a video-sharing platform, earning $20 an hour. She rents a windowless in-law apartment in San Francisco's Outer Sunset neighborhood from the Chen family and lives a deliberately sparse, isolated existence. She carries a chunk of 737 fuselage as a personal talisman. Her only friend is her co-worker Karina Carvalho, who has a severe fear of flying. Linda's family includes her mother in Irvine, her brother Al in Bakersfield, and her deceased father, who died of colon cancer four years earlier and used to take Linda on plane-spotting excursions near John Wayne Airport. At 13, on a flight aboard a 737-800 with the tail number N92823, Linda experienced severe turbulence that triggered her first orgasm and solidified her conviction that a plane would one day claim her. She has followed N92823 obsessively ever since, though the plane was eventually placed in storage.

When Karina invites Linda to her first VBB, Linda cannot display her true desire, images of planes and wreckage, to a group of normal women. Riding the AirTrain at SFO, she devises a solution: She will use photos of pilots as stand-ins, claiming she wants to marry a pilot rather than a plane. At the brunch, hosted at the home of Karina's fiancé Anthony's mother, the women interpret Linda's board as a desire for a partner with a good job and a love of travel. They find it charming, and Linda feels accepted for the first time.

Emboldened, Linda creates dating profiles seeking pilots. A user named Simon claims to be a Delta pilot but admits at their coffee date that he is an underemployed gig worker. Linda sympathizes and sends him a referral link for Acuity. Before her monthly flight, she spots a man at SFO who appears to be Guillaume Faury, the CEO of Airbus, whose photo she placed on her board. She interprets both encounters as proof of the vision board's power: literal manifestations of her board's imagery.

For the second-quarter VBB, Linda shifts her goals toward professional advancement. She places Dave Kinney's LinkedIn photo on her new board as a symbol of career success. Dave is a representative from Acuity's parent company who recently praised Linda's exceptional moderation metrics. At the condo of Esme, one of Karina's Stanford friends, the women criticize Karina's unchanged wedding-focused board and question her lack of ambition. Karina snaps at them. Linda's board is better received, and afterward the two women go to Dolores Park, where Linda impulsively tells Karina she is her best friend.

Karina invites Linda to a club show. There, Linda encounters Dave, drunk and reeling from his divorce. He proposes they fly somewhere together, and Linda suggests a red-eye to Houston. During takeoff, overcome by arousal, Linda grabs Dave's hand and guides it beneath her coat to stimulate her. He confides about his failed marriage during the flight. Linda realizes the vision board produced Dave and a free flight. They agree to keep the trip secret. Their arrangement continues when Dave takes Linda to Denver, again stimulating her during takeoff. When Dave later appears outside her apartment while Karina is dropping her off, Karina recognizes him. Linda confesses that "Stewart," the cover name she invented, is actually Dave. Karina is furious, viewing his behavior as harassment and an abuse of power.

Meanwhile, Karina and Anthony ask Linda to help Karina overcome her fear of flying for their honeymoon in Hawaii. Linda coaches Karina through sessions at the beach, the AirTrain, and a restaurant overlooking SFO's runways. Karina's fear softens, and she asks Linda to be a bridesmaid. When they board a practice flight to Salt Lake City, however, Linda feels a powerful charge, a conviction that this plane has recognized her. Just before the door closes, she tells Karina the truth: She believes it is her fate to die in a plane crash, and this plane wants to marry her today. Terrified, Karina forces her way off the aircraft. Linda flies alone, feels nothing, and resolves to stop flying to avoid endangering others.

Linda sinks into depression. Karina refuses to speak to her at work. Dave begins texting again, and in her loneliness, Linda agrees to dinners with him. They settle into a companionable arrangement. When Linda's mother invites her to a 60th birthday party in Irvine, Linda asks Dave to accompany her as a fake boyfriend, hoping he will drive. Dave insists on flying and books first-class seats. On the flight, they engage in mutual sexual acts, and a woman across the aisle appears to record them. At John Wayne Airport, Linda spots N92823 at a gate, back in service after years of storage. She is overwhelmed and abandons her vow of abstinence. After the trip, Dave ends their arrangement, saying meeting her family felt too real.

Back at Acuity, Simon shows Linda a recording of the first-class incident that surfaced in his moderation queue and proposes blackmailing Dave. Linda agrees, reasoning the money could fund her reunion with N92823. The scheme backfires: Simon is fired, and Dave preemptively resigns, telling the company he coerced Linda. Christa, Acuity's HR manager, offers Linda a small settlement, but Linda demands $5,000 and submits her own resignation, threatening to go to the media. The company pays.

With over $6,000, Linda hosts the Q3 VBB in her apartment and unveils her true vision board: images of plane crashes, doomed tail numbers, and a photo of N92823 beside her own face under a "Just Married" arch. She declares her desire to be united with a plane in death. Karina arrives and embraces Linda, then presents her own board themed around the word "SURRENDER." After Linda's revelation, the other women are horrified. Only Stacy, one of the VBB members, whispers for Linda to go after her dreams. Linda packs a backpack and flies to Seattle to intercept N92823. Over two weeks, she flies with the plane 16 times, crisscrossing the country. N92823 shows occasional signs of response, a delayed takeoff, patches of turbulence, but never the catastrophic event she craves. Her money runs out. Broke and heartbroken, Linda decides to live indefinitely at O'Hare, sleeping at gates and scavenging food.

Simon FaceTimes Linda and identifies her location from the jazz statues visible behind her, relaying this to Karina. Karina conquers her fear and flies to Chicago alone. At a hotel, Karina reveals her own secret: As a teenager, she told a classmate to kill herself during a game of truth or dare. The girl later died, and Karina has carried the guilt ever since, believing her fear of flying was cosmic punishment. Linda confesses everything, including stimulating herself during flights, enacting private plane-crash scenarios, and eating food scavenged from airport trash cans. Karina accepts it all and asks Linda to come home for the wedding. Linda agrees.

At the airport, they destroy the vision board, flushing its images down a toilet, though Linda keeps her chunk of 737 fuselage in her back pocket. When they board an A320 for San Francisco, Linda feels the same electric charge she felt on the flight to Salt Lake City. She begins to tell Karina, but Karina stops her, saying quietly that she already knows, and takes Linda's hand. As they rise into the sky, the fuselage shakes violently, the plane rolls with its wing pointing toward earth, and a trail of smoke becomes visible through the window. Karina's eyes remain closed, a vague smile on her lips. Linda holds her hand until she can hold it no more.