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Best dream ever, he thought, which by some miracle was also his new reality.
---THE END---
Epilogue
HARSH
Today was finally here. He stared at himself in the floor length mirror that hung in the corner of his room. His debut film was about to hit the theatres. Tonight was the grand premiere. This was actually happening. Anxiety fluttered in the pit of his stomach,
“Well, hello handsome!” His sister-in-law, Veda, came into view behind him, looking pretty as a picture in a floor length champagne coloured gown. Her long hair had been curled into loose waves and pinned to one side, allowing the rest to tumble to her waist.
“You know,” he said conversationally, holding her gaze in the mirror. “It’s not too late to ditch the Terminator and run away with me.”
Veda laughed, not even bothering to respond to that before reaching to fix the knot of his tie.
“Nervous?” she asked him, her sweet voice automatically calming him down.
“Desperately.”
“Excited?” She smoothed out a crease in his shirt and then held out his suit jacket for him to shrug into.
“Frantically,” he answered, following her wordless commands.
“It’s going to be fine,” she soothed. “You’re going to be the brightest star to explode onto Tollywood’s marquee.”
Before he could respond to that, his brother, Agastya, walked into the room.
“Veda, your phone is ringing. Why is your ringtone so loud?” He held the offending instrument out to her.
“So that I can hear it ring,” she retorted. “When was the last time you heard yours and actually answered a call?”
Agastya didn’t defend himself because let’s face it, he had no defence. He didn’t even carry his own phones. He had people for pesky life details like that. Harsh supposed it came with the territory of being a powerful, political figure.
Veda swiped up on her phone and a new voice rang out in the room. “Akka, you look lovely.”
Harsh tensed. If Veda’s voice automatically calmed people down, that voice made him want to peel the skin off his body.
He turned towards the mirror, pretending to check his reflection again, pointedly giving Veda and her phone his back.
“It’s Harsh’s movie premiere today,” Veda chattered. “We’re all so excited.”
“Why?” Raashi asked, sounding bored. “It’s not like he’s found the cure to cancer or something.”
A muscle started to twitch in Harsh’s jaw as he stared at himself. Behind him, he saw his brother glance towards him, an eyebrow shooting up. Great, if Mr. Emotionless could tell that something was off, then Harsh wasn’t doing a good job of covering it up. Some actor he was!
“As an artist myself,” Veda said, her voice low and steady but with a hint of steel running through it. “I’m going to tell you that what we do, Harsh and I, is just as important as what you scientists do. If you find ways to better the longevity or quality of our life, we provide a life worth living.”
Honestly, Harsh reflected, he should have snapped up his sister-in-law before his clueless brother had managed to. She was a priceless diamond. Unlike the lump of coal, she called a younger sister.
“Of course,” Raashi said now, sounding suitably chastened. “Wish him good luck from me.”
“You can wish him yourself.”
Before Harsh could run screaming from the room in horror, he found himself holding a phone with an image of a bespectacled viper on it.
“Best of luck,” the viper hissed stiffly.
“Thank you,” he answered, multiplying her stiffness with his irritation.
