Bret is staring intently at his glass of whisky. Deep in thought. His best friend Lohan, looking a bit irritated, is somehow trying to figure out what’s running in his friend’s mind. Curious.
“Lohan…know what?…I’m the luckiest man in the world”
“Huh…what makes you think you’re so lucky?”
the staring continues.
“Bret?!...”
the staring continues and this time Bret slowly revolves the glass clockwise while looking lovingly at the glass, as if in a trance.
“Bret!!!....”
No answer.
Lohan reaches out and taps Bret’s glass with a spoon, almost immediately breaking Bret’s fixation.
“huh…Wh-what?”
“Bret! Snap out of it…you look like a hypnotized horse…you’ve probably had one drink too many…”
“No…not exactly…I’ve just been thinking…”
“thinking??? About what?”
“about stuff…”
“For the love of God…either you tell me more about it or am leaving right away. I don’t want to bear witness to more of your staring sessions…”
Bret was taken aback with Lohan’s irritation. He soon realized how irritating it would have been for Lohan to just watch him stare at his glass for over 15 minutes at a stretch.
“alright…sorry about it…”
“good…now out with it…”
“hmmmmm...i’ve been thinking about this theory I’ve come up with….”
He paused. Just to make sure Lohan was listening to him. Indeed he was all ears.
“go on…”
“I’ve had almost everything I ever wanted in life in the last three years. Food, money, women, fame, status, respect etc. Sometimes I didn’t deserve it, but still I got it anyway. It wasn't always like this. I was nothing back then and all of a sudden i have everything that asserts me as a successful man”
“hmmmm…” reaffirmed Lohan.
“I actually have a secret that probably was the cause of all the luck…may sound stupid.”
“Go on. You’ve said stupider things before so I won’t be surprised…” grinned Lohan.
Bret looked unperturbed.
“Whenever I’m faced with a situation where I want something or someone or want something done…I always close my eyes for a moment, imagine that I’m the subject of interest doing what I want for me”
“huh?! You lost me somewhere in the middle of that sentence. Can you please explain?”
Bret shuffled in his seat, sprung out his arms in front of him and bent forward slightly to explain.
“Now lets imagine that you’re the subject of interest…”
“Woah…I know I’m an interesting person but your “interest” isn’t exactly in my avenue…”Lohan grinned at his mischievous joke.
Bret sat still. Raised his eyebrows questionably.
“was that supposed to be funny dim wit?”
“Sorry…probably the whiskey got me…go on”
“with a friend like you…not so lucky after all…” murmured Bret.
“Sorry?! What was that?”
“nothing was just wondering where I was cut off…oh yeah…the beginning!” Sarcastically replied Bret.
Lohan scoffed childishly.
“C’mon go on now…I will clam up for a while…” said Lohan, deepening his voice trying to affirm that he meant it.
Bret had got used to Lohan's untimely humour so he didn't seem to mind it much. They had been friends for the last three years and Lohan had seen Bret evolve from being just a scrap of society to someone significant.
“Good…so I was saying…lets assume I want a favour from you…like I needed a thousand bucks…if I asked you normally you might not want to part with it as you know I won’t give it back…but what I do instead is i close my eyes, think I’m you and tell myself “I have to give Bret a thousand bucks and never want it back”. I concentrate on that thought for a few seconds and then open my eyes…and after a while when I ask you for the money you give it to me without a moment’s hesitation and never want it back…”
“interesting…so are you telling me you can screw around with somebody’s mind to get what you want?”
“precisely! But that’s only possible with stuff that doesn’t harm him much…”
“well parting with a thousand bucks would mean I would have to be on an oats meal diet for a month and get screamed at in my face by my landlord for not paying my rent…if you would call that ‘harm’”
Bret sighs.
“lets just say…not something extreme…like asking the person to jump off a cliff. That wouldn’t work”
“I see…hard to believe though”
“At first it was for me too but then when I found the favorable results streaming in I found it hard not to believe”
“is that how you convinced the bank to fund you for your business?”
“yes indeed. Imagine walking into a bank without a penny in your pocket and not having an account with them, you still get to walk out with a $500,000 cheque.”
“you son of a gun…I should have guessed. I was there with you the whole while and I didn’t notice this. So what else have you tried this on?”
“remember that blonde chick at the bar last week you bet was way out of my league and that I won’t get as far as asking her her name?”
“yes…you eventually went home with her”
“mind works my friend…mind works”
“So you knew I was gonna lose the bet even before we bet…ok…now I need my $100 back.”
“heh heh heh…and you remember that jackpot we won at the fair? I consider that as my greatest hit…I knew I had a bad aim…for God’s sake I can’t throw a roll of paper into the dustbin a meter away but on that day somehow I shot that tin can off the top of the rack to win the $500 reward. Man was that awesome.” He grinned, reveling in the thoughts.
Lohan grinned too.
“so thus I’ve been able to get whatever I want just like that!”
“that’s really unbelievable…” the emotion in his voice was a tad less than it should have been.
“You know what? Let me show you how it’s done. Hmmmmmm. You see that huge bottle of champagne?”
“of course…there it is…enticing little bastard”
“yeah…heh heh heh…we’ll have it on the house…”
“you’re kidding me right?”
“No way….just give me a minute. Stay quite and observe.”
Bret glanced once at the female bar tender, mentally capturing her image and closed his eyes. Moments later he opened his eyes.
“So?” asked Lohan questioningly.
“So let’s just wait and watch”
“Do you seriously think this is gonna work?”
“Wait and watch…” reassured Bret. He was rather relaxed with an air of confidence that was overwhelming Lohan.
Soon sure enough the bar tender struggled over to our desk carrying the huge bottle of champagne.
Lohan looked on in amazement.
“Gentlemen…you’ve been selected randomly among our guests tonight to enjoy this bottle of champagne.”
“Wh-what? A-are you serious?” blurted Lohan.
“yes. Now hold on to this big fella while I get you a couple of glasses to have it in.”
“Yes please.” Smiled Bret charmingly.
The lady carefully placed the bottle on their desk and purposefully walked away towards the bar and returned soon with a couple of glasses. All the while Lohan was looking a bit pale which Bret assumed that his demonstration had been a bit too much for Lohan to digest.
“You’re a freak, you know that right?”
“I prefer calling it a gift…God’s gift”
“Shoot…I’ve never seen anything like that before”
Bret thought that Lohan’s statement was a bit artificial but he bought it anyways.
“Now that you noticed you’ll see more if stick around”
“I would love to…”
Bret again sensed a bit of artificiality in Lohan’s voice. He chose to ignore.
“So you know what my next plan is?”
“tell me about it…”
“Do you remember that diamond necklace we eyed on our way to this bar this evening?”
“Oh…Don’t tell me you’re planning to have it gifted to you…”
“in fact I am. Wanna gift it to Marley.”
“Marley?/??? The Marley Jane?”
“yup…that’s her…the girl we thought we could never floor. Bumped into her last month at the bar. We got to talking, one thing led to another and so we’re officially seeing each other right now.”
“But..but how can that be? You just picked up a girl last week from the same bar? What was that all about?”
“Oh well you know. There are too many pretty women out there. Hard to ignore.” Said Bret in a matter of fact way.
“But that would mean you’re ‘officially’ cheating on Marley. Wouldn’t it?”
Lohan sounded a bit irritated.
Bret suddenly realised he shouldn’t have brought it up. Lohan had always respected women and their sentiments. He had been honest to his girlfriends of the past but somehow he lacked the charm to sustain their interest for long. But still somehow he believed women deserved to be treated well.
Avoiding Lohan’s glare, Bret decided, was the best option. Bret deliberately showed no emotion on his face. Stone faced he quietly uncorked the champagne bottle, holding it by it’s neck, signaled to Lohan
“are you gonna help me tilt this or are you gonna just sit there and mumble all night along?”
With a fixed frown on his face, Lohan quietly obliged and they managed to fill their glasses to the brim.
“Here’s to us and for a very happy…” Bret was preparing to raise his glass.
“So…do you plan to continue this? More one night stands behind Marley’s back?”
“Lohan?...C’mon man! Seriously! You’re just making a mountain out of a molehill? Remember fun? I was just trying to have fun…”
“Do you not see the point? It’s cheap! What you’re doing to her is against my principles. I can never imagine my friend treating women like a commodity” Lohan was clearly appalled by Bret’s behaviour.
Bret was trying his best to make light of the situation, not realizing, he was only making it worse.
“I think im making up for what I lost in college” Bret joked nervously.
Lohan was fuming now. His eyes were burining into Bret’s.
Bret realised his ill timed jokes weren’t helping him defuse the situation.
“Nonsense! You’re bloody grown up man now. You should have a control over yourself.” Now Lohan was almost screaming.
His outbreak was attracting curious stares around the bar. Though there were just a handful of people they were now all wondering what the heated argument was all about.
“I-I don’t w-wanna talk about this anymore…It’s..” Bret struggled to find words to fit in. He was feeling more embarrassed that he was being screamed at by his own friend over a seemingly meager issue.
“Lohan…relax…we’ll talk about this on our way back…”
“No. We’re not letting this off the hook. Marley is such a good person. Why don’t you let her go and dance around with as many bimbos as you want? For being such a caring girlfriend she doesn’t deserve all this. She is way out of your league either ways”
suddenly a frown seemed to materialize on Bret’s forehead.
“out of my league?” there was a touch of irritation in his cold voice.
”yes! Look at you….” Points his hands accusingly at Bret’s shabby dress and a half shaven face that was making him look a bit haggard.
“well yes maybe…but my power works, so I can have anyone I want…if tomorrow she finds out I will just use my power to make her forgive me…” a victorious smile appeared out of nowhere on his face.
“you used your power on her?” Lohan guffawed.
“yes I did…what’s so funny about it? You still don’t believe it?” Bret was surprised that in spite of his perfect demonstration Lohan didn’t seem to have believe him.
“that’s impossible..” Lohan looked amused now. Bret was wondering how a tantrum throwing friend suddenly turned into a mysteriously laughing Buddha.
“it was. It is and always be possible. I used my power to get her into my life…” Bret was trying his best shot at trying to convince him again.
“no way. Am not buying that one. Ha ha ha…no f*****g way…”
“why not?...i can get her to do anything I want….that’s my gift…what makes you think otherwise?” the hint of irritation grew stronger in his voice each passing moment.
Bret was dangerously intrigued.
“because I wasn’t there…” Lohan blurted out. Then sensing what he had said he turned pale.
“What? That didn’t make any sense. Why would you being there or not make any difference?”
Lohan turned around and threw a quick glance around the bar. The curious heads had turned away now.
He took a moment or two. His mind seemed to be flurrying with thoughts. Then he let out a heavy breath as if clearing out his mind off a confusion and then leaned forward towards his friend.
“I haven’t told you this but I’m the reason you have everything in your life.”
“WHAT?” Bret hadn’t expected this. “what do you mean?”
“the power of making things possible is mine. Not yours.”
“W-what the f***? Are you f****** kidding me?”
“no. it sounds hard to believe doesn’t it?. Well. Whenever you got all those things in your life, you always found me beside you congratulating you…didn’t you?”
Bret, shell shocked, took a while to think about it and replied weakly
“y-yes”
“Whenever you wished for something I made it come true. The first few times I could sense you wanted them so I used my power to get them for you. Later on as you got more verbal with your liking you only made it easier for me. You thought it was because of a power you had suddenly inherited that those things were happening? Sorry to disappoint you my friend. It was me all the while. This champage bottle right here including.”
“W-what? Wh-wh….wait a minute you’re a f****** liar…..how come you didn’t get things done for yourself? Why are you still in a rented house struggling to pay rent? In a low paying job? Single? You’re just trying to mind f*** me”
“no I’m not. My answer to all those questions is simple. I just wanted to live life like a normal person, do normal things, make a living of my own hard work, not off a freak power that ended up with me….the only mistake I did was helping you out. If you remember when I met you three years ago you were almost broke, jobless, struggling your living off a meager pay you got irregularly at a hotel you worked part time as a waiter. I thought if not me I could help make someone else’s life better and thus your good times started”
“I can’t believe this…I just can’t…” Bret was thoroughly confused and completely demoralized. He was continuously shaking his head.
“prove it to me” Bret tried to fight back.
“I don’t have to, you will realise it over the next few days or probably tonight because the point is I’m not gonna be around you…I don’t want to be friends with you anymore…I will appreciate it if you don’t try getting in touch with me for anything henceforth. Godspeed Bret. Godspeed”
On his signal the waitress came to their table and presented the cheque. Lohan quietly paid his share and exited the bar, caught a cab and was on his way home.
Bret, still sitting at the bar, wished this night had never happened. He realised he was too late.
By Hallay
