Sunshine and Lollipops

-michael hoblak

“Why do you do it?” she asked, inspecting the actor’s mini-fridge, taking out a soda. She opened it, took a sip, and added, “You already have everything you want; there’s nothing left in it for you except risk.”

Tyler, unbothered by his sister’s bantering, continued over his script silently to himself, working on a short speech that had been causing his memory some problems.

“Well? Are you going to answer me or not? It’s not me who has anything to lose from this, you know,” Kayla continued to dig, never satisfied until she got what she wanted. Taking another sip of her soda, she plopped herself down on the couch opposite of the chair Tyler was occupying.

A few moments of silence went by before Tyler lifted his head and inquired, “Do you know what God Mode is in video games?”

“No,” came his sister’s simple response.

He smirked, knowingly. “Well,” the actor said, “it’s when the player gets infinite health and ammo, or whatever else you get in the game. Basically, you become unbeatable.”

“Oh.” Kayla took another sip of soda. “Is that important to your movie?”

“No, it’s just something you should think about in comparison to life – it’s impossible to ever achieve God Mode in the real world.”

“What are you talking about?” the dumbfounded woman asked, not sure where the conversation was heading.

“The results you seek will one day come, but like your present haste, shall not last,” Tyler expelled.

A look of grave puzzlement overtook Kayla’s face. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

Looking up at her and flashing the script he was reading, Tyler told his sister, “It’s one of my lines from the movie. It’s really profound if you think about it; I mean, nothing lasts forever, does it? We’re not living in God Mode. One day you can have something, and then you can just as soon lose it the next – you never know when things are coming or going; you just have to go with the flow and hope everything comes out for the best.” He winked, then returned his attention to the script.

Kayla drank some more soda. “I suppose that’s true, but it’s life. And besides, what’s that got to do with your continuous life-risking in order to keep making these silly action movies of yours?”

“It has everything to do with it – people tend to forget that we’re always living in yesterday’s future and tomorrow’s past. Life changes on a daily basis, and who knows, you could be well and alive yesterday and today, but what about tomorrow? What if something were to happen? The only way to insure a lasting legacy in this world these days is to create, for to create is to live forever.” The actor stopped there, allowing his sister time to process all he had said and form a response.

But a response didn’t come, nor did any sipping of soda, as Kayla stared blankly at her brother, the look on her face similar to that of one having a sudden realization or epiphany.

Tyler nodded to let his sister know he understood her silence.

It took Kayla a few minutes before she could say anything, being: “So you live to feel achieved.”

He nodded. “The world these days makes it seem as though the only way to live is to live to be successful, any way you can, but I believe that the meaning of life is to find sunshine and lollipops, and when you think about it, it shows itself to be a very obvious conclusion.”

“Sunshine and lollipops? What does that mean?”

“The happy things – it’s like the saying, ‘play to win or don’t play at all, because then you’re just wasting your time.’ Well, I say live for sunshine and lollipops – or happiness – or don’t live at all, because then you don’t really have anything worth living for,” Tyler explained his philosophy on life. “Making these action movies, it’s what I want to do in life, it’s my one true love, what makes me happy. Without acting, I don’t know what I’d do to make it by each and every day – it’s my sunshine and lollipops. And it doesn’t hurt that it’ll let me live on forever, long after my happy ending.”

With that, Kayla nodded, finished her soda, and left the trailer, leaving Tyler by himself to finish memorizing the tricky scene.

“And cut!” yelled the director. “That’s a wrap!”

fin.