Part 7
A Family that preys together stays together
The television blared 70s movies' music loudly, from a time when unruly-haired lads smoking pot wearing purple shades and white belly-button pants kissing chicks wearing black and white polka-dot dresses were blurred unceremoniously by two sun-flowers; no it wasn't the zany beats but the steady build up of an intensely painful (mostly to mortal ears) melodramatic music on the sad mother who was lamenting the loss of the jewel of her eyes, the twinkle of her sapphire; out in the real world though, the smell of burnt parathas, the sight of broken glass and spilt milk sprinkled with vermilion and adorned with freshly plucked flowers and four muted faces fixed on each other were frozen in time. The only other sound was that of two annoying butterflies as they fluttered their colorful wings above the fresh flowers hovering without actually siphoning on them. At the risk of sounding insane, I'd say they were spying but this isn't the Days of the Flies, so I won't describe about their antics.
Yes, the much awaited moment of reunion had arrived but unlike the thousands of scenarios the saintly mother had played out in her head during her life thus far, it was different and not exactly like that cliched movie script you'd expect. Yes, everyone had come face to face in the living room, the twins completely in awe of each other, the clueless father who had just returned home from a conference and an unsuspecting mother who entered the lounge, carrying a golden tray laden with exotic flowers and sacred vermilion blessed by the almighty just seconds before both the apples in her eyes were miraculously restored. They had all inadvertently by a stroke of fate converged to a single radius of approximately six foot at the family lounge. What followed was like a slow-motion visual of a glass of milk falling on a hard marbled floor alongside freshly plucked flowers like divine showers on a blessed moment; and soon there were glass shards, spilt milk, smeared vermilion and two itinerant buzzing flies hovering aimlessly above the mess that lay on the floor between the four entangled souls. The twins were in awe, their eyes fixed to each other, the parents in sheer shock and unbound happiness as realization crept up on them that it was real, and yet for the longest time no one spoke or took a step forward. The only sound was the sound made by flapping butterfly wings! The moment was sprinkled with a dash of melodrama courtesy the blaring decibels of clichd movie music, it was as if the heavens were conspiring. I swear I heard distant temple bells chiming continuously, either that or it was my ear drums revolting against the torture of the sounds it was being subjected to.
Minutes later, the melodramatic background music was gone replaced by a sleepy lull as the hour of reunion had passed... the flies seemed bored to their wits of buzzing around sapless flowers; and greater pressing issues that begged center stage and more attention threatened to cut this drama short. In other words- time was running out for there was a third, an imposter who was at that very instant ringing the door-bell at Gupta Villa at another part of town. His intentions have never been a secret, and this morning was all his as he stood at the porch awaiting one beautiful damsel.
The four had finally come face to face in their living room but it seemed all too surreal so they were all frozen like mummified bodies displaying no apparent emotion. I have to admit, I was rather bored buzzing around such a boring scene, I was expecting much more, thank fly- gods! For the idiot-box which added some fizz to an otherwise seamless moment.
Thankfully, my prayers were answered by a saintly soul.
~~~~~
"Oh screw it, you morons; we don't have forever you know"
They all turned to see where that unfamiliar voice was coming from.
"I'm over here, can't let these delicious parathas go to waste can I?"
"Stewie?" Armaan's eyes bulged out in disbelief, as he stared at Stewie gobble down parathas over at the dining table.
Stewie who looks like this -
"What's going on here, who is this cartoon?" his mother said distractedly, "doesn't he know we are in the midst of a historic family moment here?"
"Oh great, just a perfect time for some advice from a baby" the father spewed; overawed by everything "Perfect, we are all having the same delusional dream!" he threw his jacked on the couch.
"What did you just say?" Stewie sounded confrontational in his thick accent.
"Am I the only one seeing this?" the father looked around a little befuddled.
"It's Stewie Dad" Armaan scratched his chiseled six pack abs, the mega-abstract tattoos on his bulging arms made him look like a Greek god in satin shorts who had come down to immortality to distract the living day-lights of all female kind. The wayward strands of his shiny-lustrous hair falling non-chalantaly gave him a roguish charm; in short he was simply delectable given the way those locks would flutter dreamily in slight breeze and hover about his pearl-grey eyes which gleamed with an unmistakable twinkle.
F.O.T.W: Obviously, the writer is a chick and is high on crack. Why? Last I heard, she was plagued by a migraine, on her advice of her good friend, she took weed pills to curb her pain. Obviously, it did not have the desired effects. Her loonism has only increased ten-folds.
~~~~~
"Stewie?"
"Yes, Stewie from Family guy and no your all not on crack" he jumped off the table and walked towards the four of them, and pointing at Arman, poor thing who was still looking delirious from all the over dosage of FRENDOR courtesy a zesty Cupid, "And this is your other son, who had been missing for the last twenty-four years, it's really him in flesh and blood, see it hurts when I pinch him"
"Oweee" Arman finally showed some sign of being alive as he brushed aside the two-foot nuisance by a few feet.
"I don't forget" He shot back before turning to Armaan, who was looking on at everything with a bemused yet quiet disbelief, "It's really your twin brother'not your conscience" sending him back into his thoughts.
It took a while for Stewie to realize that there were four pair of eyes firmly fixed on him, it dawned on him that he had taken the thunder away from a potentially melodramatic, high-voltage emotionally charged family moment, but he was quick to shrug those thoughts aside. In his mind, he was an uncontested star of this play, the rest didn't really matter; forget that he was in reality just an annoying intrusion but everyone had a right to have deluded dreams. For the past three minutes, he had been watching the silent movie from the sidelines, inside the television screen and quite frankly had gotten bored of it, before deciding that he had to put his star powers to greater good of the mortal world. He decided to intervene and help resolve this otherwise utterly private family matter as quickly as possible. And no his intention was never to hog the limelight!
His thoughts were broken by a women's sob, turning around he saw a teary eyed-mother, sobbing uncontrollably, her vermilion laced hands leaving peculiar imprints on her full cheeks, the kohl being washed towards it courtesy a steady-stream of salty tears, jolted up and down by timely hiccups, all the while her eyes roamed between the faces of her identical young sons, her face smeared with colors and tears resembled a thrashed canvass to Stewie. Reality was all too teary for her, the joy being overwhelming, she had yet to utter a word or come out of her tearathon and obviously Stewie wasn't amused.
"If I didn't wear specs, those two would seem the same" he pointed at the twins.
She didn't respond.
"What is it lady lunatic? Can't you see they are really real and actually TWO of them! Go hug them, wail cry and get it over with!" He pushed her towards them firmly, soon there were more hugs, tears of joy, confusions cleared, in short, and the family had re-united. While so many other questions remained un-asked, this hour was about this moment, and them.
And Clearly, Stewie had been successful.
~~~~~
FOTW: Obviously, anyone would be bored had it not been for the fateful intervention of a certain enigmatic figure with special powers, we would all have been starring at the same re-union scene till now but thank-fully it had been done with now. Seriously, even we were getting bored of starring at the sapless flowers! Yes, you did read correctly, I said 'We... it's true, we are together now. Two weeks and going strong, I think it's headed to be one of those immortal stories too. *flutters wings*
~~~~~
"But there is something wrong with him" the father spoke holding on to Arman, "He seems delirious, is he mentally unstable...?" there was a tinge of sadness in his voice, and before another stoiced silence got underway, Stewie intervened, "He's high on something, get him off it" and he waved his hands in front of Arman's eyes eliciting no reaction in return just to prove his point.
And so, they hugged, hugged some more then, cried, and cried some more while Stewie yawned with boredom. After what seemed like an eternity, Stewie's evil laughter broke the Kodak-moment, "Eureka! Now there is world peace..." when all eyes were on him rather quizzically "What? How long do you expect me to watch four over-grown adults wail...now finish it already!"
His histrionics were blatantly shrugged off by the mother and father, who remained glued to their new-found son like hormonal teenage girls to Justin Bieber posters, while Armaan walked towards Stewie and raised his eyebrows suspiciously, " Alright little man spill, what the f*** is going on here?"
"You overgrown moron, go open the letter you received last night"
Armaan recalled the envelop he had discarded last night, but that wasn't for real? It was a dream; soon he was clouded in his thoughts, the distinction between reality and dreams unusually blurred. Snapping out of his thoughts, "Wait but...how do you know?...the conscience and now the envelop?" He was gone, Stewie was back playing pranks on Brian back in the idiot box, and Armaan was dumbfounded. "Nothing is making any sense..." Armaan mumbled to himself, before excusing himself to go look for that envelop he had received last night, there were so many questions in his mind, despite all these strange occurrences, looking for that envelop seemed like the most logical thing to do for now. He would evaluate all the other anomalies of the last few days later he reasoned, "No it cannot possibly be a dream if everyone is seeing the same thing" his mind was refusing to believe his eyes.
Finally, Arman was being tended to by his family, his parents and his long lost twin. Armaan had a lot of questions, but the first priority was to get Arman on track, everything else would have to wait for its time and for everything else, all you needed was a MasterCard!
Armaan was surprised to find a fresh white flower inside that envelop, and a small piece of paper entitled, DELICURE followed with an italicized text that read,
Outside on his front porch, Sookie's evil laugh filled the morning air ..."I've done it...I've done it...I've done it!" her hold on the wooden rails tightened, as the shiny black nail-polish brilliantly reflected the morning sun. She was basking in all the glory that these supernatural powers had given her. If only, anyone knew what was cooking in that smart-ass head of hers. "So naive..." she shook her head in disbelief over mortal gullibility.
~~~~~
F.O.T.W: I am back for the last time today, so it was finally done, the family was re-united and the mysterious envelop held the secret to Arman's recovery opened. It contained the cure to delirium caused by FRENDOR known as DELICURE, a mixture of water and fresh EDELWEISS petals. But why was Sookie helping out these mortals at every step? Why was she hell bent on undoing everything that Arrman or Cupid had weaved? In case you didn't guess it, it was Sookie who once again disguised herself as Stewie. But now I have serious doubts over Sookie's intentions, what does she want?
~~~~~
Kabhi Neem Neem Kabhi Shahad Shahad
Debate Mansion
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Arjun
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