When A Bright Star Burned Out (Fiction)

"Don't read while you're in a moving vehicle," Sirius' mother reminded him. "You might strain your eyes or get dizzy."

"I'm aware of that, Mom," Sirius replied. He flipped a page of his printed notes and continued reading. "But, I must spend more time studying to ensure winning the contest."

" Okay. I'll drive slower then so it won't be a bumpy ride and you can read properly."

"Thanks. But make it fast enough to reached the venue on time. " The words he uttered were almost incomprehensible because his mouth was stuffed with roasted peanuts, food for the brain.

The mother and son both sat in silence. Both minding their own businesses.

Sirius will represent his prestigious high school and state for the National Astronomy Quiz Bee. One hour of the trip, he has been reading. He reviewed and prepared for weeks, yet he was still studying at the last minute of the contest.

Sirius may not be a typical child prodigy, a genius,and innately talented, but he is a bright star. He excels in academics and sports and has a talents in arts, music, acting and writing. A jack-of-all-trades. He excels at what he does because of continuous learning, studying and practicing, together with his determination and patience. Sirius is looked up and loved by almost everyone because of his bright glow.

Sirius' mother is always present in his competitions, seldomly, together with his father when the man was not overseas due to work. The woman always provides the supplies and signed documents Sirius needs in every competitions, drives her son to the venue if possible, and pays if there are registration fees.

After the nearly three hour drive, they finally reached the space museum. They immediately went inside building and proceeded to the museum auditorium.

There are four rounds in the competition, namely: Easy, Average, Difficult and if necessary, Tie-breaker.After the three intense rounds, 30 hot questions, right and wrong answers, hours of squeaky marker sounds on the board and deliberation of points, the contest is near its end.

The host of the competition walked towards the center of the stage. "After the careful deliberation of accumulated points from the three rounds, we have a tie," the host said in full energy.

Then a table filled with each participant's name and the total points from participants in each round, and their overall score were projected on the screen.The host continued, "With a total of forty-five points each, the highest pointers are Joe Sheldon from Texas." Then, the thin guy walked towards the front stage and came back to his podium.

"Murphy Teller from Pennsylvania." The girl wearing thick glasses did the same thing as instructed.

"And Sirius Donovan from California." And, Sirius followed. The audience clapped for all of them but his mother's cheer and claps stood out.

The quizmaster explained the rules again. He then discussed that the wrong answer is sudden elimination.

"If a man weighed 200 pounds on Earth, how much would he weigh on Mars?" the quizmaster stated the question twice. "Go!"

The two participants, Joe and Murphy, immediately solved their answers on their scratch paper. Sirius calculated the answers in his head after remembering that an object or person on Mars would weigh 37.83% of its weight on Earth.

"Time's up!" the quizmaster spoke after one minute. "Raise your answer boards."

Three of them raised their boards with the same answer: 76 lbs. Everybody got the correct answer.

"Next question. Diwata -1 was a microsatellite launched to the International Space Station on 23rd of March, 2016 by which Asian country?" The quizmaster repeated the question. "Go!"

Their eyebrows furrowed as they tried to think of the answer. Their faces were blank, lost in the thought.

"Time's up. Raise your boards." It was the quizmaster again.

Vietnam was the answer of Murphy which caused her to be eliminated. Joe and Sirius were both right with their answer— Philippines.

"We're now down to two participants but there will be one champion," the host said. The crowd cheered.

"What is the apparent magnitude of the Alpha Canis Majoris or the Sirius star?" the quizmaster asked twice. "Go!"

Sirius couldn't help himself to smile because of the question related to him. After his mom saw the curve on his face, her heart was filled with hope.

A smirk was formed on his opponent's face. And there was a sparkle in his eyes as he wrote down his answer on the board.

The smile was erased on Sirius' face, as he was consumed by his thoughts. His forehead was dotted by beads of sweat. He swallowed numerous times in just a few seconds.

A minute passed."Time's up. Raise your boards," the quizmaster instructed.

Sirius looked at his mom in the audience with eyes, the same as his answer board. Blank. Then, he forced a smile. His mother's eyebrows furrowed and lost the sparkle in her eyes earlier.

Sirius' opponent, Joe Sheldon, got the correct answer and became the National Astronomy Quiz Bee Champion.

After the contest and awarding ceremony, mother and son exited the auditorium and strolled around the museum. Sirius still got a medal for being a first runner up.

They were in line to buy souvenirs."You still did great. But you're almost there," his mother said. "Did you forget it? I should've limited you with your gaming. Anyway, let's join more contests soon."

Sirius busied himself by checking the rocket ship items displayed. He didn't respond.

After buying some memorabilia, they went to the planetarium. At the time they entered, it was quite dark. They sat and waited for it to start.

"You might already know it. But did you know that space is dark despite infinite light sources like stars?," Sirius said. "Space is a near-perfect vacuum, it has exceedingly few particles, there's virtually nothing in the space between stars and planets to scatter light to our eyes. And the light of the stars and other bodies is stretched out into microwave, infrared and radio waves which are invisible to human eyes."

"I haven't thought of that," she replied.

"The same with light, sound also can't travel in a vacuum. So it's quiet in outer space," he added. She just listened.

The planetarium got brighter. A star map was projected onto the dome-shaped ceiling.

"Mom, did you know that stars burn themselves out and continue glowing? Through nuclear fission, the hydrogen atoms fuse together to form helium atoms, which releases an extreme amount of energy, thus the stars appear burning." He paused for a moment. "But the stars might die because they exhaust their nuclear fuel, by shining too brightly.''

"That's sad," she scratched her head. "You know too much about space. You can substitute the curators now," she joked.

Sirius pointed out the big star on the ceiling. "Mom, look!"

"Is that Sirius? The star your dad named you from? It's the brightest star seen in the night sky."

"It is," he replied. Is it? " - 1.46," Sirius uttered.

"Huh? What?" She's puzzled.

"The apparent magnitude of Sirius or how bright it is. The answer to the last question."

"You just remember it now? Did you forget it earlier? You should have studied more instead of gaming. You could've been the champion."

"No, mom. In fact, I already knew the answer earlier. I want to lose. I'm sick of all these." He paused for a moment to compose himself. "You just want me to win these contests so you can have something to brag about to your workmates, neighbors and churchmates. I still join anyway to be appreciated and loved by both of you, especially dad, because without my awards, I'm just nothing."

He stopped himself from crying. He continued, "I'm like a star. I've been suffering in the dark space, in silence and in distance. I've been burning myself out so people can see me shine when they look up to me."

"I'm sorry son, that we made you feel that way." Tears stream down her face. "I've been a black hole sucking your brilliance and restricting you. Forgive me."

He hugged his mother. And just like the words he kept for years, the tears he had been keeping came out.