Lifestyles of the Rich & Famous

Manish always found sitting in the dining room to be more uncomfortable than anything. The long table was designed to seat upwards of twenty people, not the three that only rarely used it. Father and Mother were sat at the head of the table and Manish took his place at the opposite end. Instantly a maid came out and placed a plate in front of him. “Thank you,” he whispered, but she had already moved on to deliver the first course to his parents.

He poked a finger at the dish in front of him: smoked salmon crostini with herbed mayonnaise. It was the same thing they had the last time his parents were around long enough to have a meal together. He wondered if they even remembered.

Manish had to lean in his chair to peer around the large centerpiece of flowers and candles to even see his parents at the end. “Um, so uh…”

“Speak up, kid. You know I hate it when you stutter. Men say their words clearly the first time.” Father replied.

“...Right, I'm sorry,” Manish took a moment to clear his throat. “Mother said you both had something to,” he had to pause to hold in another ‘um’, “something to talk about?”

“That’s right! We have a few big announcements,” he took a moment to smile over at Mother, “First off, we both have new jobs starting up, as such we will be leaving for work.”

“Oh.” Manish whispered briefly before remembering himself, “Oh! That is very exciting!” He forced out.

“Isn’t it, though?” His mother replied with a chuckle, both parents oblivious to the very fake smile on his face. “Also, your father and I are getting a divorce.”

Manish froze, mind going completely blank. Even his years of proper etiquette training didn’t prepare him for this.

“Indeed. We worked it out where you will continue to stay here and we will alternate which one of us stays with you. While we’re not working, of course.” Both parents let out a small chuckle like they Manish’s entire world wasn’t currently caving in.

His crisis was interrupted by Father’s phone going off. “Oh, excuse me, I need to take this. Hello? Yes, yes I’m already on my way. I’ll see you soon.” He hung up the phone and stood up. “Well, that’s my agent. I need to take off tonight to start filming. I’ll talk to you both soon.” He then gave Mother a kiss on the cheek and walked over to Manish, rubbing a hand over his head to ruffle his hair. “Be good and mind the staff.” With that, Father left.

Manish’s mouth opened and closed a few times before leaning the other direction to look at Mother. She gave him a tight smile, “Don’t you worry about a thing, dear. Everything will…” she was interrupted by her own phone. “Hello? Oh of course! Alright then” and she stood up without finishing her sentence to Manish. She walked over and gave a kiss to his cheek. “I’ve got to leave, I have a car waiting to take me to the airport. I love you, and quit playing that game. It will rot your brain.” With that, she walked out.

Manish stared down at the untouched food in front of him. The maid came back in only to see that all three dishes she placed were as pristine as they were when she left and she let out an annoyed huff. “Some people don’t know how good they have it” she mumbled, not really trying to conceal her words. “Well then? Are you going to want that?”

“Huh?” Manish looked up at her, still in a daze, and then looked back down at his food. The thought of eating anything made his stomach roll. “Oh, um, I don’t, uh, I don’t think I uh, well I um…”

The maid rolled her eyes and took the dish, leaving Manish to sit alone in the too large dining room.

Manish shot out of his spot on the ground and threw off his headset. “We won! We actually won. Oh geeze that was so cool! I can’t believe we actually did it.” He jumped around the room and yelled in celebration. “Can you believe it? Can you believe we actually did it?!” he turned to the rest of the room with a large smile, but it quickly died on his face. Right. There was no one here to celebrate with him. All his friends were in UNOVR. Most of them weren’t even real. A voice in his head that sounded suspiciously like Mother whispered that even the real people were just pretending.

Manish let out a sigh and poked at his headset with a foot. No mushrooms appeared. He was wearing shoes. The hole inside of his stomach that he was very good at ignoring felt like it was taking him over. But it was fine. He was fine. He needed to toughen up. He didn’t need other people. He had everything he needed in his too big house with its too big rooms and too empty halls. He was fine, his parents assured him that he was fine. What did he have to want for?

Maybe Mother was right, maybe playing the game so much was rotting his brain. Before he played he never had thoughts about being lonely, or needing others; he never needed to learn about ethics, or how to talk to others, he never had someone else depend on him, or expect him to do anything.

He took several steps away from his VR headset before he dashed out of the room. His parents weren’t there to yell at him for running in the house and he was going to take advantage of that. He just needed to get away. Manish ran down the hall, down the stairs, through the dining room, kitchen, and then finally burst out of the side door and into the gardens. He ran until he was deep within the hedge maze in the backyard. It had been years since he was short enough to actually be lost in the maze; he’d been able to see over the hedges since he was in his early teens.

Eventually he made his way to the center of the garden and plopped down on the bench in the center. His vision was tunneled and it took longer for him to breathe than he thought it should. This happened sometimes, but he never thought to question it. Really it only ever happened after speaking to Mother or Father, or when he was in enclosed spaces, or when he saw guns, so it didn’t happen that often. He took off his shoes and socks and dug his toes into the grass. It was relaxing, it was helping him breathe. It made him miss mushrooms. But he wasn’t thinking about that.

Manish took out his cellphone and scrolled through the contacts. It was only Mother, Father, and a few of the waitstaff. He pressed his Mother’s name and waited for the familiar voicemail message.

“You’ve reached Angie, if your call pertains to work please contact my agent. If this is Bradly, leave a message…” there were several beats of silence before the recording picked up again, “...oh yes and if this is Manish, I’ll talk to you when I am home again darling, be good and don't cause any trouble.”

Manish hung up the phone then stared at the grass until the chill of the night roused him. He looked around, unsure when exactly the sun had set, but he had moped enough. Father would be ashamed if he saw him like this. Manish scrubbed at his face, put his socks and shoes back on, and started to make his way back into the house.

Manish couldn’t sleep. That wasn’t unusual, he often couldn’t sleep and after playing UNOVR so much any semblance of a sleep schedule was thrown out a window. He tried to match Romeo’s schedule as much as he could; or really he just didn’t want to sleep when Romeo was awake. Even if they didn’t already spend most of their time together, the idea of wasting time sleeping while there was someone else around didn’t sit right with Manish.

But Manish was awake and Romeo was asleep and for once he didn’t feel like playing UNOVR while he waited for him to wake up. So he wandered through his house. It wasn’t something he had done in a while, but it felt familiar; to float around the halls like he was a ghost haunting his own home. He wondered if his parents would notice if he did die and become a real ghost. Romeo would notice. Probably. Maybe? No, Manish is sure he would notice. It was amanita 's job to notice; to be a glorified babysitter.

The thought didn’t bring him the comfort that it normally did. Usually it made sense, it was transactional. Manish got a friend, Romeo got whatever Father was giving him and a place to stay and whatever Manish could procure from having Father’s credit card number memorized. That made sense, that worked. But why wasn’t that bringing Manish back into his body? Why did he still feel like he was drifting? There was something that Manish was feeling that he couldn’t place. It was like a pain, a physical pain deep in his chest. But that didn’t make sense, he wasn’t hurt? He rubbed at his chest, trying to soothe this ache he couldn’t explain.

Maybe Romeo would know what it was, Romeo knew a lot about stuff; surely this was another thing he would know? No, that would be silly. He couldn’t bother Romeo with trying to figure out whatever it was. Father would be so embarrassed if he knew. Manish didn’t want that, he could feel the shame start to take over. Okay, that was better. He knew that feeling. He could explain that one. Thinking about the other feeling was for a different night, for when he had more context for what was happening.

Manish came back to his body in the observatory, the highest point in the house and he couldn’t help the grin that took over his face. It made him think of Ryan when he got all big. That was scary at first. And, well, at second too. But it made them stronger, they could do more, they could help more, and therefore it was a good thing. Being up high brought back that feeling of success from both raids. He wanted more, he wanted to go higher.

With just a slight pull Manish was able to pry open a window onto a small balcony. He stuck his head out and took a look around. It shouldn’t be too hard to climb up on the roof. There was enough of a ledge he could probably get up there. And yeah, at that moment, Manish wanted nothing more than to get up on the roof. He took a quick moment to glance around again to make sure no one was around before he threw the top half of his body out the window. He gripped tight to the ledge on top of the sill and pulled out the rest of his body.

Okay. He was out. What was step two? He didn’t really have one. But he was pretty sure he could reach the outcropping of the roof next to him. Like, 87% sure. Manish tried to think about Lucy. She wouldn’t be afraid. She would have already done three flips to get up there, climbed back down, and then climbed back up again in the time he spent just clinging to the outside of the house. He could do this. He just needed to channel his inner Lucy. He didn’t really think he had one of those, but it was just enough to convince himself to make the jump over to the roof. He scrambled to hold onto it and pulled himself on.

“Oh my jeez. Oh wow. I did it. I did it! Ha! I actually did it!” Manish cheered as he jumped up and down on the roof. He actually got up there, and just in time for the sun to start rising! Manish made his way up to the highest point and sat down with a thump and watched the sun rise.

Would Romeo like the sunrise? Would he climb onto the roof with him? Manish wasn’t sure why that was important, why that was the thought that came to mind. But it was important, in the way the pain he felt earlier was important. Manish just didn’t know what it meant. He wanted to, though, to know why it mattered if Romeo would climb onto the roof with him and watch the sunrise; why it mattered that Romeo was paid to spend time with him.

But that was a thought for a different time, when he had more information, when he knew more. For now, Manish was okay with just letting it all sit in the back of his mind while he enjoyed watching the sunrise.