The Life Of Normal-Taro

The sly smile didn't stay in Thankappan's face for long. He reverted to a shocked look since changing expressions were easy as hell for him, although sometimes the reaction time takes a big delay like right then.

"What are you even saying? It's pretty costly, you know—the trip, I mean." The MIB agent replied.

"As if I'd believe that!" Kunjan spoke while looking dead straight into Thankappan's eyes. And since he had a stoic exoskeleton, the stare had a great impact

"I'm not kidding! It's real!" Thankappan stopped midway through his sentence as Kunjan's stare did quite the mess up with him. However, being the rationale man that he was, he somehow recovered pretty quickly from that. "…As I was saying, the trip is quite costly." He tried "speaking sense" into their alien brains.

"Nah, I don't believe you. Especially not in this case. But I do know of a person whom I can believe in." Kunjan spoke.

"And who might that be?" Thankappan asked.

"Just wait a second." Kunjan said as he picked his phone up and dialled a number.

"It's gotta be Gopan, isn't it? I don't get the point of asking that question, Thankappan." Taro shrugged as he interrupted the conversation.

"Ha… I know that as well. But I felt like it would be bad manners if I don't play along with him." Thankappan shrugged back as he replied back to Taro.

"I guess I can vibe with that." Taro nodded his head as he heard Thankappan's answer. "But, you do know that your lie is gonna get revealed when Gopan takes that phone call, right?" He asked.

"Yea, I know…" Thankappan sighed before continuing. "I just wanted to rile you guys up this time. So, yea." He spoke.

"You see, I know that we've only been near each other for months now, but after noticing the way you talk and stuff, I can smell the lie from a distance. So, don't try bullshitting and just say that you were hoping that we never knew of that." Taro spoke back.

"Well, if you already knew about it, why should even try telling you the same thing that you know of. It's way too good lying to a person about something that they know the true nature of. I mean, if you're capable of making a person believe in your lie even when they know of the truth, then how skilled you have to be, right?" Thankappan asked.

"Ah, true that. Ever managed to do that in your entire life?" Taro asked.

"Nah, never managed to do that. But I know of a person who did it. I still fear that person deeply. I mean, it's a fearful skill to possess." Thankappan spoke.

"I guess so. It's like manipulating the world the way you want others to see, right?" Taro asked.

"More like wordly illusion, isn't it?" Gibli jumped in after listening to the conversation for the longest time.

"The master of deception. The word wizard. Which sounds good?" Taro asked.

"Master of deception has a wide range of spectrum. Word wizard sounds better, but it doesn't work with lies, does it? Maybe we should mix both the terms and call that person a master of words or something. Else, we could just call him master of lies. That does sound straight onto the point." Gibli spoke.

"It does sound good." Thankappan nodded his head along.

"Damn, what an unproductive conversation, huh?" Taro sighed.

"It sure is." Gibli agreed to Taro's words that time.

"How come? We just gave a cool nickname to a person with whom I'm acquainted with." Thankappan was about to continue his rant about how the conversation they had was productive, but Taro jumped in the midst of it.

"…Which could be Lonappan or even Ponnappan, according to what I know of you. Probably Lonappan. I mean, you're close with him than you are with Ponnappan. So yea…" The Wadorian spoke.

"You really do think that these two are the only guys I am in contact with, huh?" Thankappan sighed as he heard Taro's words.

"I mean, is that even wrong? I haven't seen you talk to anyone else other than the ones in the Snehatheeram base when it comes to your fellow MIB agents. And among those, it's mostly Lonappan, so…" Taro shrugged as he gave out his explanation.

"You know… You don't really have to talk to each other every other second to be close friends with someone. Who knows, I just might have a lot of good friends I don't usually talk to." Thankappan spoke.

"But do you? That's the big question here." Taro spoke.

"That will remain a secret. So you shall never know that." Thankappan spoke.

"Damn it!" Someone screamed out in frustration from their side. It was Kunjan, who was fed up of calling Gopan for the umpteenth time. The frustrated voice sure didn't match his stoic face.

"What happened? Your call didn't go through again?" Thankappan asked with a bright smile on his face, which Kunjan absolutely hated for some reason.

"Fuck it. We're leaving." The plankton got up and stormed out of the door after saying that.

"Wait, where? To Athirappilly? And how? By foot? Dude, it's like—wait, it's possible to me, at the very least. So, I'm in." Taro said, all excited about the trip.

"What? No! We're not gonna run that distance!" Kunjan turned back and spoke. "We're going to Gopan's house." He proclaimed.

#

After a heated back and forth argument about who's gonna be the one going to Gopan's house, it was decided that everyone would go there together, much to the dislike ot one person in particular.

However, Taro didn't make much of a scene this time around because that would only waste time, so they were in front of Gopan's house way earlier than they expected them to get there.

Kunjan was the one who rang the doorbell since he was the one most eager to see Gopan. However, instead of Gopan, it was his wife who answered the door.

"Oh, it's you guys! Why are you here?" She asked.

"…"

Kunjan, who was expected to answer her question, didn't do so, which brought forth an awkward couple minutes of silence in the front porch of the house.

"What the hell are you doing?" Thankappan whispered as he nudged the plankton.

"Huh? Well, I formulated all the dialogues expecting that Gopan would be the one answering the door and now that's thwarted, I don't know how I should answer now." The plankton whispered back.

"Oh, Dang. That's a predicament and a two you got right there. This is why you should learn how to improv on the spot." Thankappan spoke. "Watch me now." He instructed the aliens as he turned to face Gopan's face.

"Damn, he makes it sound like that's an impressive thing while more than half of his own species knows how to do that." Taro sighed.

"Zip it." Thankappan instructed as he turned back and glared back at the aliens, before reverting back to his original path to talk with Gopan's wife. "Is Gopan there? He asked almost bluntly.

"Nah, he's out for a trip. I don't know how long it will take for him to come back, so…" Gopan's wife shrugged.

"Dang, who's gonna take us to Athirappilly now?" Thankappan sighed a bit loud this time around.

"Athirappilly?" Gopan's wife asked.

"Ah, we were planning to go to Athirappilly like right now, but now that he's not here-" Thankappan didn't get a chance to complete what he was about to say, when someone stormed into the porch from inside the house.

"You guys are going to Athirappilly?" Gopan asked.

"Gopan! I thought you were gone-" Thankappan didn't even get time to exclaim properly when Gopan grabbed his shoulders.

"Never mind that. You guys are really going tk Athirappilly, right?" Gopan asked yet again.

"Yup, we are gonna go right now." Thankappan nodded his head.

"Then hop in to the auto. We'll go right now." Gopan said as he got the keys for his auto-taxi.

"Wait. Before that, I got a question to ask." Kunjan, who recovered from the ailment after Gopan's appearance, spoke.

"Shoot."

"How much does it take to reach Athirappilly?" He asked.

"Hmm, it usually takes around like two thousand rupees or something. However, I'm gonna just give you lot a two hundred discount and make it two thousand." Gopan replied.

"Wait, wasn't it two thousand to begin with?" Kunjan asked.

"No, I said around two thousand, not exactly two thousand." Gopan corrected him.

"Hmm, you said that you'd give us a two hundred discount. And that made it a round two thousand. Which means that the earlier, it was two thousand two hundred, right?" Kunjan asked.

"Roughly, yes." Gopan nodded his head.

"Is that so?" Kunjan asked again, to which Gopan nodded as well. "Great, a room in the resort takes about ten thousand. So, fuck it., I'm paying for the trip and Thankappan, you pay for the room. You can't fool me this time." The plankton laughed like a maniac as he said those words. The laughter was made even more creepy by his facial expression which equated to nil.

#