She scanned the sky, adding each shooting star to her running total.
She wasn't sure why she'd started counting them in the first place, but once she started, she couldn't shake the irrational feeling that it was somehow critical that she count them all.
"Time to go in."
"A few more minutes?" she pleaded. The shower seemed to be over, but she felt a desperate need to be sure.
"It won't kill you to miss one," her dad laughed.
As she went inside, one last shooting star went by, unobserved... then one by one, the stars began to go out.