Star Power

One. Two. Three. Four. Five. That was how much the little girl named Shannon Jones could count. She could only count up to five after all. Her mother, Nina Jones, would try to tell her a bedtime story in an effort to lull her to sleep. Shannon would just ignore her in favour of trying to count the stars over and over again. Each time she counted; she got frustrated when she could not think of the number after five. After a while, her frustrations turned into a tantrum that made her stay up until midnight.

“Dear, we can count the stars tomorrow.”

“I don’t wanna!”

A yawn appeared on the little one’s face. Her little face contorted with anger had turned angelic. Her mother always had the patience for her youngest daughter. After five children, she had to learn to have the patience of a saint. Shortly, her little one slowly drifted off to sleep.

As a five-year-old, Shannon Jones always looked up at the stars every night. Every time a shooting star fell, she would wish the same wish: to be a movie star. Molly Ringwald was her idol and by god, she was going to be exactly like her. She never knew how lucky she was to see all these stars until she moved to the city when she was only eighteen years old. The sky there was mostly black with only a handful of stars stuck to the sky. In the city, shooting stars never occurred. There were wishes that were never made and never came through.

Shannon Jones moved to the city in order to become a famous movie star. She never realized that the whole endeavour took more than passion. The poor thing did not know where to start. Rent was due soon which made her try to find a job and find it fast. She ended up finding a job as a dishwasher. It was not glamourous, but it did pay the rent.

After a few weeks, she manages to have a meeting with an agent looking for new talent. Shannon was intimidated by the restaurant the agent picked. Everyone dressed so lovely that her best Sunday dress paled in comparison. The menu had food whose names she could neither pronounce nor read. She nervously read them over anyways since the agent was late. The waiter kept coming to her table filling up her glass with water each time. She was too nervous to drink alcohol. Alcohol would just worsen her nerves. If she was going to be an actress, she was going to do it with charm and grace.

“Aloha, Sharon”

“Sharon? I’m Shannon. Who are you?”

“Mr. Richardson. Aren’t you the new talent I was meeting?”

“Oh yes, sir.”

After a week, Shannon nervously waited for the call from Mr. Richardson confirming that he would represent her. Her roommate handed her the phone, which she hurriedly grabbed from her. Instead of Mr. Richardson, it was her mother. Her mother spoke softly that Shannon could barely hear her. She politely asks her about Shannon’s efforts to be an actress. Shannon urgently told her that she needs to call tomorrow since she was expecting a very important phone call. Her mother politely excused herself. The phone rang for a second time. Shannon had an agent.

The next day, her mother breathed deeply before sharing her news. She had breast cancer and needed someone to take care of her. The choice was clear, to give up her dreams or take off her mother. Shannon knew what she had to do.

The young woman fumbled over her car radio. Under her breath, she could not help but curse. She only stopped when she heard Madonna singing her latest hit, Like a Virgin. Her sienna Toyota Camry speed past a sign saying “Welcome to Grand Bend, Ontario. Population: 2,000.” The view of her town came into focus. She felt despair in the pit of her stomach. This was the town she had been trying to escape her whole life. Now, she was back.

Taking care of her mother was easier than she had thought. Her mother still managed to do things for herself but occasionally needed someone to help her out with chores she was too weak to do. Shannon never complained. She figured if it was the other way around her mother would do the same thing for her. Any dream she has started with her mother encouraging her. It would be trite to give up on her mother in her time of need.

Matthew Cox managed to get Shannon a part-time job as a bartender. The only shifts available for her were night shifts. Since she was new, she had the unfortunate luck of getting the terrible shifts. In her efforts to see the bright side in life, she was just happy to find a job that pays and to have time in the day to help out her mom.

It was only her first week when she got used to the routine of sleeping most of the afternoon to have some energy for her night shift. Most of the people coming through the bar at night were truckers or drifters. They came in and out of town for some business. Shannon was never really interested in listening to their stories. However, she quickly learned that it earned her a tip if she did listen.

On a particular night, her manager asked her to throw away the garbage at the dumpster. She sighed. That was not part of her job, but she did want to stay since she never knew how long she needed to stay back in town.

She grumbled under her breath when she was sure no one else was there. Without anyone to complain to, she just muttered her frustrations to herself. She did not want to worsen her mother’s state.

A gunshot rang clear near the woods. Shannon dropped her bags of garbage in a loud ruckus. She held her breath at the sound. There was little to no crime in Grand Bend. She had never even witnessed a crime in the city. But here she was. She could manage to see a funny looking guy waving a gun around with his accomplice. The other man that towered over the first guy. A woman scared to death looked to be crumpled near their feet. The funny-looking guy took a quick glance over the garbage and Shannon. He started shooting at her. The nervous shakiness of his hold on the gun made him a bad shot.

Shannon ran back to the bar as fast as she could. Her manager was nowhere to be seen. Her shaky hands managed to press the buttons for the police station. A deputy answered the call. He calmly told her to get some rest and the police will handle it. She waited at the bar for twenty minutes before the police arrived. They questioned her about the criminals since they did not manage to catch them just in time. She tried to describe the scene, but she did not get a good view of the assailants except for the funny looking guy. The guy had wild and bleary eyes. A black coat enveloped his skinny frame. That was all that she managed to remember.

After the police cruiser accompanied her home, her adrenaline was still at an all-time high. Her heart was beating faster and faster. She was on high alert that her mother’s soft voice scared her.

“Dear, what happened? Why were the police here?”

“You would never guess what happened, mom! I saw a criminal! Two of them!”

“Oh lord.”

Her mother decided to make some tea for her daughter. She boiled the water while Shannon lied on the couch rambling on what happened.

A cold piece of metal pushed against Shannon’s skull. Shannon did not need to turn around before she realized that there was a gun on her.

“On the count of three, you are gonna say bye-bye”

Shannon screamed at the top of her lungs as the assailant started to count. She felt the gun brushed away from her head. Her eyes were tightly shut, expecting the worse to happen. She slowly turned around. The only thing she saw after her near-death experience was her mother holding a teapot over the man’s head. He was convulsing on the floor. His hands grabbed his chest in an attempt to save himself. He finally stopped convulsing after what seemed to be forever. The only thing the two women could do was stare at the dead man.

“Dear, we need to bury him.”

“Mom! Are you crazy?!”

“Well, what are we going to do? Hmm?”

“The police—The ambulance---anything but this.”

With a shovel in her hand, Shannon spent the early morning digging a grave for the man her mother had killed. Her mother held a lantern near her so she could see what she was doing. A shallow grave was dug for the man.

Killing was the last thing she thought her mother would do. Yet, here they were. Here she was. A failed actress caring for her ailing mother in ways she never thought possible. As her mother placed the body in the hole she created, she looked up at the stars. There were five shooting stars that fell on the sky. In another life, she would wish on to be an actress for each one. This time she used her wishes to protect her mother from not getting caught.