The Masquerade - A scene from 'Miracles'

[Don't wanna reveal names yet. Bear with me please.]

She was cold, choked in the pungent air that filled the miasma. A feeling that had silently perpetuated over the past year deep inside her subconscious was all geared up to surface any moment. She was trying too hard, too hard to shove back the mere thought of losing control. If only she could figure out the precise moment that led her there. Though she had walked down her blurred memory lane, driven through M’s glib and vivid dreams and glided up the myriad of possible futures, the present or anything tangible for that matter seemed to have left her with nothing but uncertainty.

J had caught a glimpse of this saturnine look on E’s face, the last time, right before she vanished into thin air, leaving behind a musty bubble of air.

“Don’t you think this party is a little too low profile to admire your paranormal performance of disappearing? Or going invisible… what was that again?” He said, as he sashayed up to her.

She was always annoyed by these subtle sarcastic comments that J instinctively made. But right then she could use some reconciliation. Her demeanor, by then, had grown too mercurial to pull off a consummate pretence.

“That certainly is disappearing, going invisible would cause people bump and crash into me. It’s a party, your party, remember? And anyway, nothing is further from mind as of now.” She grew defensive and stood on her toes as she spoke.

“Wearing masks as a theme doesn’t seem such a bad idea now. Does it?”

“Not bad, just stupid enough. I don’t understand why you would want to wear masks in a party. Isn’t the entire concept about celebrating, and getting to know people?”

“It indeed is. And I’ve given my guests just that, an opportunity to be themselves and get to know people as they are, not as they would have been. By making them secure of their identities, I’ve given them a chance to leave behind their mundane expectations and apprehensions.”

“That’s not true….”

“…Not everyone can read minds, remember?” J interrupted.

“I wonder if a mask would have taken my mind off M’s untimed visits.”

“I’m sure, you’ll grow habitual. After all, it’s a perpetual masquerade, you see, the kind where everyone is the architect of his own disguise and even the genius of his own malaise. It’s Life.”

[I'm gonna leave you at that.]