The Life Of Normal-Taro

Thankappan walked slowly towards his senior. He wanted to delay it as much as possible. However, Taro was watching him from afar, so he simply couldn't weasel his way out of it.

"Hey, Lonappan!" Thankappan greeted in an extremely friendly, almost bubble-gum way.

"Hmm, no." Lonappan replied instantly.

"What?" Thankappan looked by the sudden rejection out of nowhere and wondered what that was.

"No for the question you're about to ask." Lonappan replied.

"But I haven't asked you anything." Thankappan shrugged.

"Yea, you didn't. But you're planning to ask one, aren't you?" Lonappan asked.

"…Yes." Thankappan mumbled.

"Well, no would be the answer for that then." Lonappan replied.

"How can you give out a reply like that when you haven't even heard the damn question, huh?" Thankappan asked.

"How, you ask? Well, you see, I know the question that you're gonna ask. How do I know that, you ask? Well, that would be my fantastic instinct and the fact that the guy is peeking towards here for a long time now." Lonappan glanced towards a rather high wall and spoke.

"I'm so far from you! How did you even find me?" A voice came from the wall. Soon enough, a head popped up from there as well. To no one's surprise, it was Taro who popped out from there.

"You see, it's called basic instinct. But I do gotta tell you… Bruh, that's some impeccable hearing you got right there." Lonappan looked surprised as he said that. While he only managed to see Taro by accident and called it instinct, the Wadorian was actually able to listen to him from that far. And the MIB agent was seriously impressed by this.

"Perks of being an alien, I guess." Taro shrugged as he answered.

"I guess that's the case." Lonappan nodded his head to it as well. "Anyhow, back to our point. I'm gonna be telling the same thing to him that I said to you. No means no. I've told you the reason behind my decision and it was justified, wasn't it? I'm not gonna deport your homeboy or something. I'm just gonna have him live in some other house for the time being." Lonappan spoke.

"You just said for the time being! If that's the case, then how long?" Taro asked.

"Well, that would be as long as John stays in the Holy Land." Lonappan replied.

"Then let me ask you this. How long is John gonna stay in the Holy Land?" Taro asked.

"Well, he'll be staying in the Holy Land as long as he stays in Kerala. So yea, there's that." Lonappan replied.

"Okay… If that's the case, then how long is John gonna stay in India?" Taro asked, before stopping Lonappan from answering the question that he put out. "Now, if you're gonna answer it with something like 'as long as he stays in India or something, then I cannot guarantee your safety." He warned before signalling Lonappan to continue.

"Oh boy! Just dodged a bullet right there." Lonappan gave out a nervous chuckle before continuing. "Oh, what was your question? Yes, when will John leave Kerala, right? Probably never, if you ask me. I mean, I don't wanna jeopardize us in any way, shape or form. So, I probably won't allow him to leave. I'm sorry, man. It involves the future of our base as an entirety, so I can't mess that up." He replied.

Taro jumped from the wall and walked towards the two MIB agents. "It will never happen then, huh?" He asked.

"Probably not." Lonappan replied.

"That's unfair! I want him close!" Taro cried.

"He's gonna be close to you though. I mean, we aren't gonna send him that far. As far as I remember, there's a spot left in #305. So, we'll get him there. How about that?" Lonappan asked.

"Wait, #305? That's like one number close to our number, right? Does that mean that place is that close to us?" Taro asked excitedly. He would've been fine with that as well since he could see Park everyday.

"Yea, yea. It's fairly close. It's in Aluva." Lonappan replied.

"Aluva?" For the guy who hasn't gone out of Thrissur after getting to this planet had no idea where that was.

"It's two hours or so from here." Thankappan, who was listening into the conversation chimed in with his geographical knowledge.

"Two hours?! Two freaking hours? Even the MIB base isn't that far from here! How am I supposed to go there everyday?" Taro asked, with surprise filled in his face.

"You simply don't. And well , I remember you calling the distance from here to the MIB base as far. So…" Before Lonappan got a chance to finish his sentence, Taro jumped in.

"Precisely my point! The guy who had difficulty travelling for an hour or so back then is gonna have a really hard time with a two or a two and a half hour journey!" Taro spoke.

"What am I supposed to do then, huh?" Lonappan asked, fed up of listening to what Taro had to say.

"Either you allow Park to stay here with us or you lend him a place that is relatively closer to here. It's as simple as that." Taro replied.

"You see, that ain't gonna be that simple as you make it sound. Look, in an off chance that I approve of it, there's still one above me who has to approve it. Sure, there isn't any decision maker above him for a thing like this, but you do know how harsh decision maker that guy is, right?" Lonappan asked.

"Shall I take this as an approval then?" Taro asked.

"Huh? I said an off chance. I never said that I'd agree to it." Lonappan argued.

"Okay, look. It's fine, isn't it? I mean, as you said right now, even if you accept my request, there's still one above you. So, if he is to reject my request, you won't have to feel guilty about rejecting my heartfelt request. What do you think? Good plan, don't you think?" Taro asked.

"Hmm, intriguing. I'm pretty used to taking harsh decisions in life and having curses thrown at me. So, I'll be fine with it, don't you think?" Lonappan asked.

"You do know that I have the capability of tipping the balance of this freaking world, right?" Taro asked.

"I do be kinda forgetting about it sometimes. Pretty used to "Normal Taro", I guess." Lonappan chuckled upon saying that.

"Ah, that was a good joke... NOT! If you forgot about that, I can make you remember that. If you're gonna refuse asking Ponnappan about my request, I can always destroy at least half of this world and make you the sole person responsible for the destruction. How would you feel about that? The whole world will turn against you with that, you know? You really want that?" Taro asked, after which Lonappan went on the train of deep thoughts.

"… Nah, man. I'm fine with being antagonized by half of the world, but my family will get involved in that mess as well and I don't want that to happen. So, I'll shift the responsibility of giving you a proper answer to my superior then. Let him get the blame!" Lonappan laughed maniacally for a few seconds before turning back to his usual expression. "Ah, but I'll remind you this. He's a difficult man to speak with when it comes to things like this. I can't promise you anything. I'll just ask him about it. Whether he allows it or not is not my responsibility." Lonappan warned.

"Ah, it's fine. It's the feeling that matters. As long as you put in your maximum effort into this, I'll be happy with it." Taro gave out a really friendly smile, which brought goosebumps in Lonappan's body.

"Why do I feel like I'm being guilt tripped or something?" Lonappan asked.

"Ah, there's someone who feels the same as me right now." Thankappan, who stayed silent for the most part since it wasn't time for him to speak till then, spoke.

"So, you thought of putting the blame of the destruction of the world on me, huh? You backstabbing person!" Lonappan looked shocked as he said it.

"Well, you're doing the same thing, right?" Thankappan asked.

"But I don't expect it to get revealed to the person whom I'm gonna backstab! You and me are different in that aspect." Lonappan replied.

"You know, I can just pass this info to commanding officer right now and pull you back to the same level as mine. You want that?" Thankappan asked.

"Hmm, no. I don't want that to happen." Lonappan replied after which a long silence followed.

None of them had anything to say at that point and just wanted to get the hell away from each other. However, none of them were able to give out a word of farewell for some reason and brought in the weird atmosphere.

In the end, they decided to slowly retreat away from each other and go on their separate ways. While two of them were light headed and relieved, one felt like he was about to step into deep trouble.

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