Echoes

By Nina Shih '27

List of characters

Elara Quinn, a woman in her 30s. Professor in linguistics. 

Alden Quinn, Elara’s younger brother. Marine biologist.

Remi Brooks, fellow researcher of Alden in the research station in Antarctica.

Elara’s Mother, an elderly woman who has a mental problem.

EXT: ON A SMALL DOCK

Elara is standing next to a boat in the Antarctic Ocean near a research station.

The sea breeze whistles. The gray-blue sea stretched endlessly, with occasional waves. She is holding a yellowed photo of herself and Alden in her hand; they are much younger and are laughing into the camera.

ELARA (murmurs)

…He really was here.

Footsteps. Remi appears, the research engineer, in his forties, tired but sharp-eyed.

REMI

Are you Ms. Quinn?

ELARA

Yes. Call me Elara. 

REMI

Remi Brooks, I’m the research engineer. I’m very sorry about your brother.

ELARA

So you’re sure he is… (Emotional reaction) gone?

REMI (nods)

Two years ago, he went out to sea alone with that "language recorder". We havn’t seen him since, so I’m afraid…

ELARA

Where was he going? 

REMI

We thought he was after that - you know, the fifty-two-hertz whale. It was a kind of obsession of his.

ELARA 

What whale? 

REMI

(quietly)

The fifty-two-hertz whale. People call it the loneliest whale in the world.

It sings at a higher frequency than any other whales.

ELARA

Oh, I heard of that. 

REMI

He said it wasn't just a call, it was language. It's just that we don't understand.

ELARA (She looks out over the sea and starts to become emotional, whispering)

That's what he said about my mother, too…

Brief silence. She puts away the photo.

REMI (Slightly uncomfortable)

Let me show you his workstation. 

INT. RESEARCH STATION - DAY

Elara and Remi walk through the cold, metallic corridor.

REMI

So you’re a professor in linguistics? What do you hope to find here?

ELARA

Any clue that would give me some understanding...maybe bring me some peace.

They go into a small room. Remi points to an old table covered with notebooks.

REMI

This is Alden's workspace.

Elara touches the worn notebooks gently.

ELARA

You worked with him. What kind of person was he?

REMI(quietly)

You’re his sister, you should know him better than me.

ELARA

We haven’t been… talking for a few years.

REMI

Oh ah… he was always searching...always trying to understand something that others couldn’t..

She pauses and runs her fingers over a notebook containing photographs.

REMI

He wasn’t easy to get close to. Passionate, and sometimes a little persistent.

ELARA

He has always been like that.

(Sadness in the smile)

A look of pain flashes across Elara's face.

CUT TO: INTERIOR- LIVING ROOM- MEMORY SCENE - DAYTIME

A warm memory: young Elara and Alden laughing with their mother.

Fades into another scene, where the atmosphere becomes tense - Elara argues with her brother, while her mother sits weakly in the background. Messy room with books piled everywhere.

ELARALast week she buried all her shoes in the backyard. This isn’t just old age. This is—this is dangerous.

ALDENYou think that’s proof she’s lost her mind? Maybe she’s trying to tell us something and we’re just too narrow to hear it.

ELARA (flat):She burned three towels last month. Next time, it won’t be towels. Maybe you can romanticize it from the other side of the world, but I’m the one here cleaning it up.

ALDENYou call it romanticizing—I call it listening. You ever stop to ask why she buries her shoes? Or why does she sing to the wind chimes? Maybe those behaviors mean something, Elara.

ELARAThey don’t. They’re symptoms.

ALDEN (frustrated)No—they’re stories. Fragments of something deeper. She talks like she’s in code sometimes. What if she is? What if it's a language we don’t understand?

ELARAShe doesn't need a translator, Alden. She needs medical care. Structure. Safety.

ALDENNo, you need structure. You need to feel in control. But she was never like you. You know that.

ELARA (quietly)That’s why I’ve been the one taking care of her. While you’ve been away on your trips.

ALDENI’m not playing. I’m working. And don't pretend that gives you the right to decide.

ELARAShe’s not safe here!

ALDEN (voice rising)So you lock her up? Cage her in a place where they’ll drug her quiet and call it healing?

ELARA (firm, cold)I’ve already filed the paperwork. The court approved it this morning. She’s being transferred on Tuesday.

Pause. Alden stares at her. The atmosphere is tense.

ALDEN (quietly)You always needed the last word.

ELARAAnd you always disappeared when reality called.

He stands slowly, backs away toward the door.

ALDENShe isn’t broken, El. She is just... speaking at a frequency we forgot how to hear.

ELARA (soft)

And maybe you’re just scared she is really gone.

ALDEN (almost a whisper)I leave tomorrow for Antarctica. I won’t be back soon. 

ELARAI figured.

ALDENDon’t call me when they stop listening to her.

Pause.

You already stopped.

He walks out. Elara is upset. From the next room, their mother begins humming again.

This time, the tune almost sounds like words.

CUT BACK: INT. - RESEARCH STATION - NIGHT

Elara hastily wiped away her tears.

ELARA(Whispering)

Why this whale?

REMI(quietly)

Because it's different. It's special; no one understands it. It intrigued him. 

ELARA

Sounds just like Alden.

Silence. Elara opens Alden's notebook and plays his recording. The scene switches to a montage, while we hear fragments of Alden's recordings with melancholy music.

MONTAGE:

Elara is sitting on the desk and listening to the recordings.

Elara digs through the boxes and personal belongings.

Elara looks out at the window and the landscape.

Elara looks at the family photos on her desk. 

Elara cries in agony and slashes all the stuff on her desk.

INT. RESEARCH STATION - EARLY MORNING

Remi comes in with two cups of coffee.

REMI

You haven't slept?

Elara shakes her head.

REMI

Find anything interesting?

ELARA(Mumbling)

Fragments of clues...something is missing. Are all his recordings here?

REMI

As far as I know. But…

The radio comes to life. Static, then a voice comes through clearly.

[Tern watcher to research base. This is Captain Hughes. Come in.

Base here. Remi Brooks. Go ahead.

We found a wrecked skiff lodged in an iceberg—about 40 miles south of your last relay point. Name’s Sea Silence. It’s Dr. Alden Quinn’s boat, right?

Elara looks up in shock.

...Yes. That’s his. Anyone aboard?

No, the boat’s destroyed. But we found a body. out on the ice. We’ll scan the area and send what we can.

Copy. Send coordinates and updates when you’re in range. That boat... he took it just before he vanished.

Understood. Tern watcher out.]

Static fades.

ELARAThat’s Alden, we have to go there!

REMI

In this weather? There’s nothing we can do.

ELARA

Please, please… we have to.. We just have to…

Elara starts crying.

A glimmer of pity flashes in Remi's eyes. He nods.

REMI

I’ll get the boat ready.

EXT.: SECRET BAY - STORM

Elara kneels beside Alden's body, tears streaming down her face. She gently covered him with her coat and caressed his face tenderly.

She brushes against his body and accidentally discovers something in Alden's pocket - a small tape recorder. Press play. On the recording, hear the following:

ALDEN (excited and eager)

Good. I don’t know who will end up hearing this – but boy, I hope someone does. This is what I've been looking for.

We just finished compiling the last batch of deep-water microphone data…and it confirms that pattern. Not random. Never.

52 Hertz Whale - We always thought it was a sad outcast, a loner crying out to the void, but that was completely wrong.

What I see now… is evolution.

He pauses and takes a deep breath.

This whale chose 52 Hz to adapt.

Noise pollution—ship engines, sonar, and drilling—fills the ocean with low-frequency noise. So what does this whale do? It raises the frequency. High frequencies cut through noise.

But—and here’s the tragedy—52 Hz sound has a very short range.

It's not that no one answered, but that no one heard.

Silence. The sound of shuffling papers.

Also, here's a crazy discovery. Every time its call was recorded, over a period of more than ten years, the structure was the same.

Not random clicks or melodies – but intentionally constructed. Same pitch, same pulse spacing, same rhythm.

Moreover, within 72 hours of each time this signal was recorded - whales of different species would strand themselves around the world.

This is not a mating call.

Nor is it a cry for a partner.

This is a warning.

He leans in closer to the microphone and speaks almost in a whisper.

I think this whale—this unique, extraordinary creature—senses what’s about to happen.

Changes in ocean currents, magnetic field fluctuations, sound interference, and even ocean pollution.

It has learned how to avoid disaster.

It’s not just different, it’s…conscious.

Perhaps, it was trying to save others of its kind.

Trying to speak.

It's just that no one is tuned into the right frequency to hear it.

Long pause.

I just wish I could decode that signal. If only I knew something about language.

Chuckles with deep emotion.

I used to think my sister was the only one obsessed with languages. Turns out, I just kept listening in the wrong direction.

Anyway…

If you heard this - Elara, maybe you -

It was never about finding it.

It’s about learning to really listen.

[END OF RECORDING]

EXTERIOR COASTLINE-DUSK

Elara stands on the beach, holding the tape recorder tightly.

The lonely whale song came from the sea - but this time, it was no longer alone.

ELARA

(Whisper)

I promise you...I will decode it. I will understand. I will listen, little brother. 

Tears stream down her face

The sea breeze blows. In the distance, the ocean sounds almost seem like whispers.

THE END

Playwright's Note:

My screenplay, Echoes, connects to our Grade 10 L&L Unit 2 statement of inquiry “There is never a single story about any person, time, or place” by showing how people and things can be misunderstood when we only look at them in one way. The story follows Elara, a linguist, who travels to Antarctica after her brother Alden goes missing while studying a unique whale that sings at 52 hertz. At first, everyone thinks Alden disappeared because he was obsessed with the idea of the “loneliest whale.” But through Elara’s journey, we learn that Alden actually believed the whale had a purpose. He thought its strange song was a warning, not just a cry for help. So his story isn't just about being obsessed or running away. It’s about understanding, survival, and connection. The whale’s story also isn’t what people think. Most see it as a sad creature singing into empty water, but Alden discovered it had evolved to survive the loud ocean. Its song was actually smart and meaningful. Even Elara’s story changes. She starts out feeling regret and anger, thinking she failed her family, but by the end, she sees her brother and herself in a new way. Used flashbacks, emotional dialogue, and a calm, cold setting in the screenplay to show how every person, animal, and place can hold more than one meaning. Echoes reminds us that nothing has just one story, and we have to be willing to really listen to understand the truth.