TRUTH

The Magician

'Come on Aasha, calm down.' I kept saying to myself as we were towards our way back home. All today's incidents kept hovering in my head.
"Yes, you need to calm down. Even I have forgotten that silly man listening to your fantastic playlist." Karthi said as he hummed along with the music.

'Wait, what? He could hear what I thought?'
"Hey, don't look so bewildered, I can read your mind or more precisely if I say, I can read your expressions. Forget what happened today, let's go and watch a magic show."

"Magic show? All of a sudden?"

"Mmmm... not all of a sudden, I bought these three tickets three days ago."

"Three?"

"Yes; you, me and Mrs. Shankar. A little thank you for her as she let me stay as her PG so I planned it specially for her. So shall we go, it will start at five-thirty."

"Okay then, half of my holiday is already spoiled, I can't afford to waste the other half of it. Let's go."

We reached home and told Mrs. Shankar of the same but she said, "Oh, I am so sorry kids, I have my kitty party today exactly at five, I can't come. Shall I send Mishty?"

"No, no, no, no need aunty." I realised that I had spoken in such a way that she was shocked.

"I mean why to bother Mishty. That's all right."

"Okay then, have a nice evening."

When we came outside, Karthik asked me, "Why did you stop that girl Misty from coming? The name sounds so sweet, she also must be sweet." He said blushing.
"Stop bushing idiot. You don't know how irritating she is. I can't stand her for a moment and you want me to spend an entire evening with her."

"But why?"

"I'll tell you later."

"And what about this ticket?"

"Mmmm...I have an idea. Why don't we call Vishal. He also had a hectic day, it will make him fresh too. What say?"

He frowned and said, "Why that Vishal? I don't think it is a good idea."

"Why?"

"I....I..."

"What I?"

"I don't like him, I can see treachery in his grey eyes."

I couldn't help laughing
"Treachery? Come on."

"Ya ya, don't laugh now."

"So..... shall I call him now?"

"Why not, why would you listen to me anyways."

"Stop being childish. Wait, I'll call him till then, you get ready."

He left. Karthi has always been an attention seeker so it was very normal of him not to like someone who looked more handsome and was more mature than him. Well, I had still something else going on in my mind - anna's strange behavior really worried me specially after Vishal said that he was behaving the same was as Amla did.
If this was true then I was also ready to make sure that even if I was unable to save Amla, I would not let anything happen to anna.

At 5:15, we were all at the complex. I had never seen a magic show before, but this would be a refreshment to our minds. The Roys and these weird incidents were making me sick but I felt good as we seated in the complex. Many people were there, and I knew that just like me, most of the people there were least interested in magic but just had came to freshen up their mood. Vishal looked tensed and before entering the complex he told me that he wanted to talk to me but our dear Karthi! He sat between both of us and didn't let us talk.

The show started at sharp 5:30 when the magician arrived. It was all smoky when he suddenly appeared on the stage, the smoke effect, of course. He was tall man in a red cloak the professional magician attire, but his face was covered with a mask, a beautiful peacock mask embroided with gold and silver and deep blue with sea green making it look mesmerising; but he looked familiar, as if I had already met him, his body language, his style, his voice, everything was familiar. Then, the show started, all those old school tricks, taking out roses and and other things from a handkerchief, making things invisible and all that stuff, it was really too obvious but still not boring because the magician was really funny. His jokes were hilarious, and it felt more like a stand up comedy, rather than a magic show.

It was already six-thirty and we didn't even realise when the magician announced, "Now it's time for the best part of the show. 'The fire stunt' and before that that let me show you my beautiful face." Everybody started laughing and he took off his beautiful mask.
My heart froze as I saw the face. Yes! I knew him, I wasn't wrong, that familiar magician was none other than Ketan Roy himself.

I stood up and spoke in disbelief "Ketan!.....it's Ketan"

Vishal heard it and he also stood up, he said "Ketan? Where?"

"The Magician is Ketan."

"What! You mean Ketan Roy?"

"Yes...."

Meanwhile Karthi was just looking at one of us to the other. When the entire complex echoed with wistles and applause as the magician showed the 'fire stunt'. We were unable to hear one another so I pulled both of them out of there.
As soon as we reached outside Karthi said, "What is all this happening? Will someone tell me? Who is this man....what's his name?..... Kee... Ketan.....yes! Who is this Ketan now?" He looked so very frustrated. It was now that I realised that he knew nothing of this Roy business and to create an even greater trouble even Vishal had to speak, "Doctor, Mr. Sharma doesn't know about the Roys? You didn't tell him?"

"Hey! First of all stop being so formal, no one has ever called me Mr. Sharma, I feel like a man with falling teeth. Secondly, Aasha; what is this man saying? What did you not tell me? Who are these Roys?"

Sometimes I wonder why am I the only one to be stuck in such situations and to add more fuel to fire, I don't know that why did I give the worst excuse I could, "oh no, no worries he was just an old friend. I saw him so many years later so got excited. Nothing so much."

"Oh really, Aasha do you think that I am a little kid that you can fool me so very easily. Aasha tell me the truh."

"Okay, I will tell you, but not now. The show is about to end and I want to meet that magician, he is surely Ketan Roy."

Vishal said fearfully, "You really think it was he, you know Ketan Roy is dead. Don't you?"

"Yes I do, and now I know that Ketan Roy is dead and this person might have been playing a trick on me. Case solved Vishal! We will go and catch hold of him and take him to the police."

"But why?"

"Because I am sure all these Roys are just duplicates who wanted to live in the Roy mansion. Simple. Let's go"

As we started running towards the rest room, Vishal spoke slowly, "I fear it's not that simple....."

When we reached the rest room there was the magician but to my utter surprise, it wasn't Ketan, someone else was there staring nervously at us.

"Who are you? Where us themagician who was on the stage?"

"Ma'am .....I.......I am th.....the same magician who was on the stage."

"No you are not!" Our conversation was interrupted by a noise in the background and I saw a man's figure running away.

"Stop him! He is Ketan!" I shouted. We ran after him but he vanished just he did on the stage. We were so close...... so close..... anyways Ketan was really a good magician.