“SHOOTING STARS DON’T SAY GOODBYE”
Marcos Ferreira
Translated by - Wellington S.O.
““SHOOTING STARS DON’T SAY GOODBYE””
Written By Marcos Ferreira
Copyright © 2015 Marcos Ferreira
All rights reserved
Translated by – Wellington S.O.
Cover Design © 2015 Vagner Pena
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“SHOOTING STARS DON’T SAY GOODBYE”
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This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or to actual events or locals is entirely coincidental.
Copyright ©2015 – All rights reserved.
Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.
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SYNOPSIS
Emily is 23 years old, history teacher and lives with her parents and her younger brother, Jason. It would all be perfect in her life if there wasn’t one small detail: She is blind. Even though, she became an independent girl that despite the difficulties overcame her blindness and is able to have a normal life. However, Emily still has difficulties to maintain her romantic relationships, due to prejudices against getting involved with men who differ in her lifestyle.
But destiny will place Matthew on her way, her newest neighbor: young, handsome, with thirst for living. With 21 years old, Matt, how he likes to be called, loves riding his motorcycle, has a tattoo that covers the entire arm and he has just got enchanted by the rare beauty of Ems. She is all that he always wanted; he is the opposite of all she ever imagined to want. It’s a fun romance with touches of humor and a little bit of drama. A big life lesson, showing in its context the difficulties of living in a society that is not prepared to embrace people with disabilities.
“Shooting stars don’t say goodbye” brings an engaging story, narrated on the point of view of the protagonist herself, with a surprise ending, capable of making you get emotional, cry and cheer.
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DEDICATION
I dedicate this book to my parents, that couldn’t be here to see my dream come true. But that, surely, would be with a large smile on their faces to see that "my craziness" led me somewhere.
Dad, mom, you are the stars that guide my steps.
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I couldn’t start this work in any other way besides thanking. I took some time to show my face and say that I really enjoyed writing. If in one hand, when it happened, I had on my way some people who said it was crazy and it was a waste of time, in the other hand, I found very special people who encouraged me and told me I had nothing to fear, that I would get there. Do something that holds someone’s attention is difficult, and at that time we realize how the honest opinion of friends is necessary. These critics help us to improve, and thanks to each one of them that I could overcome this challenge of writing a different novel and that touched me in some way.
Starting with my assistant, editor, broker and friend / sister, Jadde Gonçalves, who always embarked on my craziness and believed that this dream could come true. I thank you. Thanks for all the patience and for believing that everything would work, never giving up. If it wasn’t for her exceptional accompaniment of this book, it wouldn’t have gotten to half of it. Her opinions have made it what it is today, and her extreme dedication to make it exciting transformed it into something that really moved me when I reached the last pages. I don’t know what I would do without you to take care of Matt and Emily. They have much to thank you, and I do too. Pack your bags. We'll take Emily and Mat for the Christmas presentation of The Nutcracker in New York.
Lucas Moraga, great writer of fantastic literature, from my earliest texts was fighting, running along with me so we could get a publisher. Lucão, thank you, and I know that very soon it will be "Hospedeira das Cinzas" that will be read out throughout Brazil. You were there for my "little blind girl" and celebrated with me. Soon we will celebrate together for your achievements and for "Aurora". The Frankfurt Book Fair waits for us.
To my Beta readers that form a family that has always supported me in every "no" that I received and that was with me all the time. Thank you very much. I don’t want to be unfair and forget any name, but the family "zapzap" with its tortures and laughter accompanied this fight and deserves all this credit for the support and can be very well represented here by the heads of this troupe: And, Jeff, Juh Lari, Lay, Sara, Tay, Thai and Well. All Betas have you as representatives and are proud of it. And Larissa, I will be forever grateful for you having given your voice to "that" song. I'm forever indebted to your sister, your cousin and you. Prepare the jet to our tour. We’ll go to Los Angeles.
Dani Bandeira, my first Beta reader, voracious reader, that read in record time and believed it would be a success. I believe in this promise and want to read a book written by you soon. Cleyton Muniz, that despite the lack of time always got a minute to read and comment on my writings, my “thanks” doesn’t have size. You two have been and will always be my brothers. Like Silas and Gezer, that pushed me forward with words so I could keep on going. They helped me to see the light at the end of the tunnel when I didn’t see anything anymore. It’s not only of blood that a family is made of, but also of heart. One day we will celebrate in Vegas.
Diego Viana, my exclusive Art Director. I don’t know how many times I got into your commitments to ask for one or another art that would help in the advertising of this book when it was not even a book yet and not only this project, but all the projects that demanded something graphic to give it an extra charm. I don’t know how to thank the friendship and goodwill with which you always received me. If I write a thousand books in each one of the thousand I will thank you. Thank you. Prepare yourself that soon you will work exclusively with me. And pack your bags. You are also coming to celebrate in Vegas.
I thank Google. Thank you, friend, for always being there at the moments I needed some urgent research and you have always been willing to help me. If it wasn’t for you, I don’t know what would have happened to my doubts.
And last but not least, I thank my family. In particular, my children, Netto and Murillo, who got busy playing with something while I wanted to have time to write. And my wife Valéria Santos, for her patience, even angry, when she called my attention to something and I didn’t even listen because I was too connected to the life of Emily and company. Thank you and thank you. I'm happy to have you, to have a family that is not like those of a TV commercial, but that deserves to be registered forever in the pages of a book. Perfection may not exist, but you are to me what get the closest to that. Thanks for everything. I love you. With you, I want to celebrate at Disney.
Thanks to all who directly or indirectly believed that this would work.
To all of those who followed the production of this book, the ones that saw it following a path of illusions and got back to stage one and almost giving up the dream of being published, but with the strength of all of you, I got the strength to take control of the situation and I finally got here. I only have one thing to say to you: thank you.
“Do you know when you think that your life is great and nothing different can happen to you? But then, something comes along and turns it upside down? Welcome to my life! You will know my story. You will know “my upside down”.
- Emily Mondini
CHAPTER 1
That was already the fourth time straight I repeated the tracks released from the new Justin Timberlake’s CD. He sang great songs, among them my favorite: Mirrors. I loved to hear him singing as much as watching him acting, I still remember when they launched Friends with benefits, a great romantic comedy that made me laugh a lot. His voice, fitting every moment and showing how good actor he was made me become even more of a fan, although this is not news to anyone that follows him since the time of N'Sync.
It was after two in the afternoon and I had not been out to lunch, and oddly enough, my parents hadn’t knocked on my door and invaded, as usual, to wake me up and take me downstairs so I could have the meals.
I already knew all the paths of my house. I didn’t even need Adolfo, my guide dog, who faithfully accompanied me wherever I went. When you walk a lot in a place your other senses ended up being sharpened. Your body memory ends up telling a lot to you. I don’t even know if there’s such thing as body memory, but it is fun to invent a few words from time to time to try to explain something.
I don’t know if you could already realize it, but yes, I am blind. My name is Emily Mondini, I'm 23 and I have a trauma in the retina that prevents me from seeing anything. I was born like that, without seeing anything at all, but for a while I had sight, which allowed me to know a little of the world of colors, shapes and so on.
I am the first child of my parents, Eric and Felipa. I know, my mother's name is unusual, she thinks so. She spent all her life complaining about the name, she wanted a name that wasn’t a laughing matter at school, I think her “friends” were quite mean about it. My grandfather wanted to have a boy and when he saw that his dream wasn’t realized he turned the baby boy's name into a girl’s name, so that’s why she’s called Felipa. Well, as I was saying, I am their first child and you can imagine how they were shocked to learn that their daughter had been born blind. At first they didn’t suspected, because as a baby, I was a little silly just like all other babies. But with weeks or months of life, I'm not sure, they realized that I didn’t follow things with my eyes, just followed the sounds and that was when they decided to do tests to find out what happened to me. They discovered that I had this trauma in the retina, but there was a chance to operate and I see. It took time, but it happened.
The house had a very strong smell of eucalyptus. I could bet that my mother had made another of her cleanings in record time, leaving everything shinning, as she liked to say. That was another Sunday, which is natural for us to wake up late. After all, after a long week at work we all deserve to rest.
I went downstairs carefully; I knew exactly where I was stepping. Adolfo came behind me. I know because I heard his breath coming and I felt when he passed through my legs down the last few steps of the staircase. I heard the sweet voice of my mother coming from the kitchen, she was talking to someone, and I think it was our neighbor Greyce. A funny woman that by the voice I would say that was already 50 something years old, though she never told her age to anyone. My father was in the living-room with my brother. Younger than me, Jason is 15 years old and is at that stage of thinking that he can have all the girls, always saying that he is with a different girl, although we never see him with any girls. Well, I will never be able to see him with any girl, even if he is. His voice is changing, becoming more serious, and I love to hear him talking about the funny things he does to have the older girls, those I think that never really care about him. He is tall for his age, should have about 5’7”, because when I hug him, I realize I'm tiny.
The old Greyce was talking to my mother, happily telling the gossip of the street. My dad's soccer team won over my brother’s team. I don’t know how father and son can be so different. Dad tried at any price to make Jason a Corinthiano, while my mother tried to make him a Palmeirense. In the end one of his little girlfriends convinced him to be São Paulino. I didn’t have any team, I decided to not get into this family fight and let them solve it without me. It was funny to hear my dad complaining with that husky voice, claiming to have hopes of seeing Jason wearing the sacred mantle of his powerful big team someday. My dad is funny, looks like an eternal young man; I guess he has the same stature of Jason. I think my brother will grow more than the whole family. Dad is the skinny type with short hair. I always run my hand on his head and joke that I'm seeing him go bald. He gets annoyed with it.
***
It was night and finally came the time to taste the wonder that Mom had prepared for dinner.
- What did the old Greyce talk so much about, honey? - asked my father, in the dining room while my mother put a tasty vegetable soup on the table.
- She was talking about the new neighbors - she said laughing at the way my father had spoken.
- That woman cannot live without gossiping - he added.
- And does she know how to do anything else, dad? - said my brother, getting into the conversation.
My mother scolded him for making a comment so malicious. How could he call that kind person a gossip? Though it wasn’t a lie. They talked about the Petersons, a family that had just moved, leaving the capital towards the interior. His eldest son had some disease and needed to live as close as possible to a place with fresh air. My mother told us that he was treating himself from some respiratory problem and living in the capital, the
costs were very high. My mother said she would make a cake and take on the next day for them, as a form of welcome. It was a typical thing of interior city.
***
It was six thirty and as expected, I had to get up, take a shower and prepare myself to go to work. Yes, friends, you were mistaken thinking that my life was stopped by the simple fact that I can’t see. I teach history at high school. I teach students in their sixth year, the morning shift, and I can say that I have never seen a student of mine cheating in my tests, if you understand the double meaning of the thing. Even having gone to sleep a little later last night, since we were chatting after dinner until late hours, I managed to wake up on time and getting all ready within the stipulated time.
It’s my father’s due to leave me at school before he goes to work. I could go by myself as well, as I do now and then, but I can’t deny that the morning chill prevents me from being this athlete who loves walking. The school is not so far from my house, my mother keeps insisting that I shouldn’t be settled and I should stop limiting myself to the modernity, as the family car, for example. But I think there is nothing wrong about enjoying it a little bit. My father is a civil servant, working in the administrative area of the city hall. This is one of the reasons we never moved from here, he and my mother have steady jobs since I can remember and this makes people to create roots, get settled. I’m not sure if this is good or bad.
The May 21 Educational Center is two blocks from my house. When passing through the entrance gate, I walk down a long hallway that leads me to the staff room. There is always one of my students to help me. After all it’s not easy to be blind in a place with a lot of children running here and there. I've lost the count of how many times they bumped into me and almost knocked me down. My students are the sweetest. They don’t deny compliments to my beauty and I have to believe them. I have the help of Rita Souza, a short student, with hair at ear level that always helps me with the attendance list. At the time of writing the content on the board they take turns. In addition, they all read excerpts from texts in question so I can explain and clarify doubts. At first I felt a bit of difficulty to work, not by the work itself but by distrust in people. Some parents don’t believe that a blind person has the ability to teach. They don’t understand that true wisdom is much higher than what the eye can see. It comes from within. Thank God there is such thing as a quota for disabled people, if it wasn’t for that it would be difficult to get a job in this country. A fact that is also a trouble for me is the lack of materials in Braille or audio. I have to count on the help of my family to prepare my classes. The government doesn’t provide any material nor for employees with disabilities or to students who pass through it. I understand that the cost to make a book in Braille, for example, is ten times higher than the normal, but I also believe that the exclusion is one of the worst forms of prejudice. You can’t place a blind teacher in a classroom and tell her to just “deal with it”. If regular teachers already suffer from poor working condition, imagine what happens to me. I go through hell.
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