(1994)

Submitted by Tornado Dragon

Despite not knowing that Kate (Christianne Hirt) and Shelly (Janne Mortil) are lesbian partners, No’s (Hiromoto Ida) affections switch from Kate to Shelly after he learns that she has a great interest in Japanese culture. Oddly enough, she feels something for him as well, especially after he comes to a local Halloween dance dressed as a geisha on suggestion from her. Kate also appears at this dance, her first public outing in a long while, and she comes in No’s cowboy ensemble, including having his gun in her belt.

Later on in the evening, No has fun with Shelly outside the dance, and after he tells her that he likes her, they kiss. An intoxicated Kate witnesses this, and in a state of disbelief, she draws the gun out and points it in the air. Bill (Alec Willows) then appears and sees what’s happening, and thinking that Kate is going to shoot them, he rushes toward her to get the gun out of her hand. However, when he forces her arm down, the gun goes off, and No gets shot.

Bill, Kate, Shelly, and Kate’s mother (Anna Ferguson) get No to the hospital. While sitting in the waiting room, Bill tells the women to go home, and he’ll stay and wait for any news about No’s condition and then call them as soon as he got some. Later on, Kate finally tells her mother that she is a lesbian, and her mother figures out that Shelly is her partner.

The next morning, No – who had taken the bullet in his arm – goes to the waiting room and wakes the sleeping Bill, and shows him the pill bottle containing the bullet. Bill tells No that there was actually a sixth step to his “Five Step Cowboy Program” that he never told him about: Get yourself shot. Now that he has been, he was now officially a cowboy.

No leaves town soon after. Inspired by No’s visit, Kate creates a cowboy-themed collage, and finishes it by putting the picture No had kept of her riding a horse when she was a kid on it. The last scene shows No walking down a lonely road, intending to hitchhike his way to the airport, and he narrates a letter to Kate and Shelly as he goes.