Chapter Text
Keyon Panyet, the Star Chapter 1
“KeyKey, hurry up! Mister Sam is here!”
Keyon Panyat was slipping his white Adonis T-shirt over his head when he heard his mom calling him from downstairs. He was late as always and their driver was parked outside, the black Ford Mustang idling in the driveway of their upscale, two-story Mar Vista townhome.
It was another sunny, warm California day.
Thundering down the steps he stretched his hand out and swung around the bottom banister post like an acrobat towards the front door, where his mom was waiting.
“Honestly son, you will be late to your own funeral!” she quipped as he jumped up to kiss her on the cheek.
“Yeah, yeah! Love you, mom” was all he had time to say as he bolted through the front door Maria was holding open for him and then out to the open car door that Sam was holding for him.
“Top up or down?” Sam asked.
“Can you leave it up Sam? Keyon replied, sliding his hand along the black cloth roof of the convertible.
“I love it with the top down but I don’t want my hair all messed-up”.
“Looks pretty shaggy to me already” laughed Sam as he closed the door and got in the driver’s side.
Keyon was an up-and-coming child star. He had started his young career as a clothing model for Target department stores when he was six. His father didn’t approve of his son getting into the world of big advertising , but his mother insisted that their son was born to the world of fashion and flair. But George was killed the next year in an auto accident, and Maria thought that Keyon would be helped by the attention he would get as a young model, nurtured by professional adults. Now it was two years later and the boy had a nice spattering of advertising contracts and this, his first film-production. Though not any type of celebrity yet, he was usually quite busy, and along with his private schooling he didn’t have much time for much else. And Maria was almost never home much anyway, working as a Medical Systems manager, so the benefits of her son’s young ‘career’ greatly outweighed the negatives. It was that or return with Keyon to her native Philippines to raise him (where she had met George who worked there for an American business concern). She had a big family there and often pondered if Keyon would adjust to the more rural (and poor) environment. Maybe.
“We’ll be back about seven” Sam called out as he waved to Maria and got in the Mustang and drove off.
Maria turned and closed the front door, now preparing for her own long day.
After a fifteen minute drive, Keyon and Sam finally arrived at New Universe Studios. The office was a typical southern-California storefront in a long strip-mall. This was one of the satellite offices where Keyon would go for acting classes and business-related affairs. Palm trees lined the road and the driveway into the spacious parking lot and everything looked quite nice and clean. His mother had been here many times and felt that the business was reputable and trustworthy, and the people were quite nice at the talent and marketing agency. And they paid directly and promptly for Keyon’s work, which Maria also appreciated.
“Good to see you again, Mister Panyat”. The receptionist smiled at boy as Sam motioned that he was leaving.
“See you later, Sam” she said as Keyon turned, his hand waving side-to-side.
“Please don’t call me that, Miss Joyce” he said as he turned back. “I’m just ten, I am not a mister yet.”
“Ohhh kayyyy Keyon, but you will be soon enough with how well your career’s going!”
“I will let Mister Fox know you’re here. Have a seat, please”.
Mister Fox as a young professional, 34 years old and fit, into holistic foods and things like that. He had a nice business going with lots of local, small-time contracts and several larger ones. Keyon Panyat was his first ‘big’ discovery. He first saw the boy a few of years back at his own son’s summer day camp where Keyon was going. What struck him the most was the kid’s Eurasian features and his long, wavy dirty-blond hair. (At first he was unsure if he was looking at a boy or girl.) Fox studied the boy from the soccer field to the swimming pool. Deciding that it might be a good business opportunity, he went through Camp management channels to get permission to contact Keyon’s mom. From there on in things had been going smoothly. His first contract for Keyon, he remembered well, was modeling seasonal clothing for Tangent Stores. Most of the work was done on-sight at his building, though Corporate required several sessions on their location. Keyon took more time than most models to get into the swing of things but he was new at it and green, but he was special. Mister Fox knew Keyon was the real deal, a ‘natural’ and the boy was soon a regular fixture there on weekends. Except for the past six months when Keyon was working on the movie, his first.
“Keykey, it looks like your first movie pre was pretty well-received”, said Fox to the boy sitting on the other side of his desk.
“I am proud of you for trying something new like this. And the acting classes and lessons sure paid-off.”
Keyon sat up straight in the brown leather-upholstered wing chair, whisping away the wavy curls of sandy-brown hair from his gleaming brown eyes.
“They are doing the final editing now and laying the audio so we are looking at about three weeks until release. How does that sound?”
Keyon smiled and replied “Good!” as he leaned forward with his hands now tucked under his dangling legs, the tips of his sandals barely swiping across the carpeted floor.
“Chances are they will need you to do some voice-overs from time to time so be expecting that, Ok?”
“We will continue with your regular modeling shoots but looking ahead we may be seeing other, higher budget films for you. This has been a great start for you and I think I am now looking at a budding young movie star here” smiled Fox.
Keyon looked down, his legs swinging forward and back, obviously in thought.
“What is it, Keykey?”
“Huh? “Nothing I guess. I was just thinking about Mr Silver. I almost quit because of him and I feel bad”.
Mister Fox leaned forward, his hand under his chin. “Look at me, son”, he said in a quiet voice.
“That was an unfortunate situation, and you both were rather new at this business. Mister Silver went about his job in his own way, not company way. Yes, he was arrogant and demanding, and yes he was rude to you. You were not a ‘shitty little wannabe’; you tried your best. You took direction and did good.”
Keyon kept looking down, still visibly withdrawn.
“What I am asking is, Do you think you did a good interpretation of Mowgli?” Mister Fox asked the boy.
“Yes sir, but I was nervous a lot.”
“Haha, yes who wouldn’t be?” Fox chuckled. “But I knew you were a natural for this part, though getting you dressed for it was about the biggest challenge.”
“It was kinda short.”
“It was bigger than that red Speedo you wore at camp last summer.” laughed Fox again.
“I was a little kid then” retorted Keyon, a half-smirk visible on his face as he finally looked up through the falling curls of hair in his eyes.
“True,” said Fox, “That’s why your garment needed to be a little bigger!”
They both laughed, with Keyon appearing more relaxed.
“Yeah, just a little” Keyon snickered. So, what happened to Mister Silver, anyways?” he asked, nervously changing the subject.
“Well you know when you pushed the issue, they decided he was the one who must go. After all, you were the star and we needed you”.
“Mister Tony took his place. The set director, Wilson, said he hasn’t talked with him and we haven’t heard anything from him either. I guess he just moved on”.
“Good” Keyon retorted. “He made me so mad”. I hated him”.
“He said because I wasn’t really Indian or whatever Mowgli was and that I was a fake”. Am I a fake?”
“Keyon Panyat, you are not a fake!” You did an amazing portrayal of your character. You worked hard at it, day and night. You were so brave to try the stunts that you did and the acrobatics you preformed.”
“We were all so impressed how well you did with the animals also- I would be scared to death of those wolves and monkeys that you were performing with, even though they were well trained. Some of those scenes looked like actual jungle combat!”
“You are blessed with fine talent and great looks. You were the perfect Mowgli”.
Keyon’s eyes lit up and his toothy smile lightened the mood. Looking back down at his lap again he seemed proud of himself as his legs swung to and fro with more gusto.
“Now, looking ahead, we have some post-production meetings to attend to, which is why I called you in today. We’re meeting in the back conference room. Mostly business stuff, but the positive-negative part will be interesting for you and we want your input, definitely. And I understand that they will want some ‘post-play’ photos of you and the team in the stage set afterwards.”
Keyon nodded his head. This was the worst part of the business, he thought. Meetings after meetings with boring adults.
“Have a seat out front and Joyce will bring you back when we’re ready for you”.
“Mister Tony will be here shortly to do your make-up. You can go ahead and change into your costume in the dressing room. It should still fit.” he said with a loud chuckle and grin, with Keyon chuckling in response.
Keyon stood and thanked his manager and friend, who arose to show the boy out. They walked to the door and Fox opened it. “You’re very welcome, Mister Panyat”, Fox said, stroking the boy’s hair gently as he walked out of the office.