The Life Of Normal-Taro

"Construction work?" Everyone seemed surprised at the revelation, except one.

"Yes!" Taro screamed inwardly. Finally, the construction work he did back in Wados to pay off his student loan seemed to have some use.

"What else? It's the one workplace which has Taro lifting inanimate objects rather than animated ones, lowering the risk of injury by a considerable amount." Lonappan explained to which Kunjan asked.

"Haven't you heard about certain workplace incidents?"

"Ha, if that happens—well, we can look into it then." The agent replied.

"So, how are we approaching this new venture?" Gibli asked.

Out of nowhere, Thankappan jumped back into the conversation yet again. "Cut it out for a minute. You?"

"…What?" Lonappan had no idea what the rookie was talking about.

"You just said 'you'." Thankappan spoke.

"So?" Lonappan wanted to see what his junior was getting at.

"You didn't use 'we'. You excluded yourself out of it." Thankappan looked mildly infuriated of it.

"Ah, yes. I won't be doing the construction work though." Lonappan smirked.

"Wait, didn't you say we were gonna work together?" Thankappan asked. He couldn't believe it—a betrayal in plain sight, yet the one that no one expected—since no one other than Thankappan cared.

"Nah, I meant it as the organization, not me as an individual." Lonappan elaborated.

"I see." It took Thankappan a few seconds to get what he meant. "You bastard! You meant me, didn't you?" The mild infuriation turned into a fully-fledged fury.

"Truly, for once, you didn't act like an idiot." Lonappan clapped and others joined in.

Even though, it was for the ongoing joke, Thankappan was slightly happy that Lonappan didn't call him an idiot. Therefore, he calmed down and asked. "I don't get it, why?"

"Look, the people around here know me as this hotshot employee of a certain establishment that gives an extremely stable pay. I would like to keep that face if I wanna stay relevant enough—if I wanna keep those connections I talked about. You stop being that, you're relegated to the lower grades of the society." He explained.

"Like us?" Gibli asked.

"Exactly." Lonappan was not one to mince his words. "I can't exactly risk it with my wife and kids too, you know? I don't want my kids thinking that their dad is a degenerate of this society." He spoke.

"I got a question. How come you got wife and kids? Aren't the MIB not supposed to have these relationships?" Kunjan asked. An MIB employee leading a normal life in the background was such a weird sight for him. He expected the field agents to have their names erased from all the records or something.

"Well, I mean, it's a perfect cover, isn't it? No one suspects a damn thing when you're married. Like, rarely anyone asks me of my job after I got married." He chuckled.

"Weird." None of them got the reason.

"Have you placed any thought on what would happen if your cover is confiscated? Wouldn't that place your wife and kids in danger?" Kunjan asked yet again.

"Hmm, let's see. MIB has a shelter protocol for its employees. Even though my wife and kids aren't MIB's employees, they still are an accomplice in keeping my cover up. So, they'd be included in it as well." Lonappan took in a deep breath and stood up. "Now that I'm done explaining that, let me get to thing that we were talking about."

#

Early morning in the next day. The five of them stood before an oddly decorated building. It had flags of similar design all over the place and occasionally, a board consisting of some random guy's face was seen. "What's this place?" Taro asked.

"The Worker's Political Party (WPP) Ward office." Lonappan replied.

"Come here." Thankappan dragged Lonappan to a corner and asked. "What are we doing here? I thought we were going to the Worker's union or something."

"We are, aren't we? Almost ninety percent of the Worker's union are WPP's members. You wanna get into the Worker's union? You have to get WPP's blessings." Lonappan briefed the task they had in their hands.

"Is this really necessary? Associating yourself with a political party is dangerous in and of itself, isn't it?" A concerned Thankappan asked.

"Do you even read the newspapers, my dude? If you knew who the ruling party of the state government is—you wouldn't have said this." Lonappan said in a condescending tone.

"I know WPP's ruling the state. However, haven't you heard the rumors surrounding the party? That they're involved in killing people and all." Thankappan whispered as he replied.

"That's like literally every other party in this country. And why do we have to get so political about it?" Lonappan asked.

For once, Thankappan agreed. "Exactly! We just wanna do some construction work. Then, why are we in here?"

"Do you really think you can waltz in and do construction work? No. If you were to do that, the worker's union will make your life a living hell. They'd make it their mission to ruin your every gigs. So, yes. This is indeed necessary." Lonappan gently pushed away Thankappan's arm and grabbed it instead. "We're going in, boys!" He proclaimed as he dragged Thankappan alongside.

#

Inside the WPP's establishment, Lonappan met up with a middle aged man. "Hello, Gopu-chetta! How are you?" He gave out his greeting.

"Lonappan! I'm fine. What are you doing here?" Gopan, an active member of WPP, asked.

"Chetta, these are the kids that I talked about yesterday. They wanted to do construction works and they wanted the party's blessings." Lonappan replied, pointing towards his comrades.

"I see. What are your names?" Gopu asked them.

"I'm Thankappan."

"Kunjan here!"

"Hello, I'm Gibli."

"…" Taro didn't reply.

Confused, Gopan asked Taro. "What about you, kid?"

Instead of Taro, it was Kunjan who replied. "Ah, he's Sadanandan [1]. Sorry, he's a bit shy." He gave out a faint laugh.

Just as it happened, Taro grabbed in Kunjan for a private discussion. "Why did you say that? Couldn't you just have said that I'm a mute?" He whispered.

"Dude, you're gonna get your translator sooner or later. We have to prepare for that event too!" Kunjan explained.

"Very well." Taro agreed with the notion. He bowed towards Gopan and smiled.

"I see. I'm extremely happy that you've agreed to join our cause." Gopan looked genuinely happy as he said those words.

"What's their cause, though?" The aliens and Thakappan wondered.

"Rule the nation, maybe?" Kunjan put forth his thoughts.

"Silence!" Lonappan eyeballed them, causing them to quicly shut up.

Gopan was visibly confused about all the weird facial expression the guys were putting in. However, he regained his composure soon enough. "Hmm. Anyhow, fill these in and a fifty rupee donation would suffice." He gave out a membership form.

Few minutes later, Lonappan returned the filled form with said money. "Here you go!"

"Thank you. From now on, you guys are official members of the WPP. Cheers for the new beginnings and a long-lasting partnership!" Gopan smiled.

#

On the way back home, Kunjan finally blurted out his concerns that he kept relatively hidden for the entire time. "I don't get why we did that! Like, I know the Worker's union has about ninety percent WPP members, but that mean there's like ten percent of the opposing party's members. So, even if we joined the WPP, there's still this possibility of them ruining the gigs for us."

"Ah, Kunjan. There's this thing called the majority's rule. Whoever leads in number, leads overall. So, if the other party dares to invade our gigs, WPP's vast majority will crush them under the premises that they bullied the new members." Lonappan laughed off the concerns.

"Now, are you sure we'll get work?" Kunjan asked, just for reassurance.

"Of course, this world thrives in nepotism and influence. Sure, we don't have the family background, but since a leading political party is backing us, they're bound to call us; maybe out of the devotion towards the party or out of fear." Lonappan explained.

"You know, it sounds too good of a deal for a mere membership and a fifty rupee donation. So, what's the catch?" Kunjan asked. He had doubts about this and he really didn't want them to come true.

"Well, there's no catch, per se. Rather, an influx of new members is always a good sign for a political party." Lonappan answered. "And also, there's the elections too."

"Election? But we're aliens!" Gibli jumped in with the reply.

"Aliens under the guidance of the world government backed MIB, that is. Do you think it's difficult for us to get you some ID? We'll get you the voter's ID and you're good to go." Lonappan rubbed his nose on that.

"They're gonna do it just for the votes?" The more Lonappan explains, the more Kunjan got concerned about WPP's objective.

"Dude, political parties does everything just for the votes." Lonappan laughed. "However, they also expect you to bring in new members on your own. In addidtion to that, there are a few other things too. But, you'll learn about it eventually."

After barraging a series of questions towards Lonappan, Kunjan's doubtful mind eventually subdued as he let out a sigh. "Huh, after staying politically neutral for the longest time in my planet, I ended up joining a political party in a different planet. Life works in weird ways!" The plankton exclaimed.

#

[1] The name 'Sadanandan' means someone who remains happy at all times. It has no connection with normal or ordinary. However, just to remind you, plankton named him Sadanandan because of 'Sada's' similarity to 'Saada', a derivative of 'Saadarana' which means ordinary/ normal.