The Man With The Wig (Part 1 of 3)

It was yet another hot summer day. The girls finished their home work, had their lunch and sat down to play in Ari's bedroom. But Bri is bored of the game and she walks over to the window, looking out at a lifeless road, with not a soul outside in the scorching sun. Across the street, she notices a man holding a wig, setting it right. What was he up to? 

"Ari, come, look", Bri called out. 

Ari walked over to the window and saw the man put on the wig and adjusting it in the mirror. 

"Is that a hat? Wow he looks so different with that thing", Ari remarked. 

"Thing? It's called a wig", answered Bri, "It's like artificial hair"

"But it doesn't look artificial. If I didn't see him put it on, I would have thought it's real. It fits very well on him", Ari said fascinated. She had never seen a wig before. Well, she would have clearly not known the difference anyway she thought as both the girls continued to watch the man. 

"How do you know what's a wig?", Ari asked. Bri seemed to know a lot of things that she didn't know about. 

"My aunt has one", Bri said and waved off the question she knew was coming next from Ari. 

"It's a long story, Ari. I'll tell you some other day. But look, the guy is wearing his coat now. That doesn't make sense".

"Well may be the air conditioner is freezing in his room", Ari offered but immediately realized it was a silly suggestion. 

"He's your neighbor, don't you know about this guy?", Bri quizzed. 

Ari thought about it, she hasn't seen the guy before yesterday. He introduced himself to her mom when they bumped into him at the grocery store. He said he was visiting didn't he? 

"He's from out of town, he spoke to my mother yesterday at the grocery store. I wasn't paying much attention so I don't know anything else but I remember he had a funny accent", Ari said. 

"That's mysterious", Bri said. Something clicked in Ari's mind. No! Could it be? 

"Do you think he's a SPY?" she asked Bri enthusiastically. 

"Spy? What, wait, why would you think..?", but Bri couldn't complete the sentence as she saw Ari was hurriedly searching for something from her little blue almirah. "Look Bri, I read about it in this book. A spy is someone who collects secret information and often takes a secret identity while on their mission", Ari announced excitedly. She was secretly proud she knew something her friend did not. 

"But..", Bri started to speak but their conversation was interrupted by a knock on the door. 

"How's it going girls?" Ari's dad asked brightly as he set the tray of glasses with chocolate milk next to their play table. 

"It's great, we were just discussing about spies. You watch a lot of movies dad, do you know something about spies?" Ari asked, taking the cold glass of chocolate milk. Oh she loved the afternoons for the chocolate milk time and today the milk tasted even sweeter with the scent of mystery upon them. 

Ari's dad was amused, he saw the toys lying around and thought it was very interesting the kids were developing characters outside of the regular. 

"Well, let's see. From what I know, spies are undercover agents, that means they have secret identities. They are trained, so they're both physically and mentally fit. They observe and collect information for their bosses. They may also change their appearances and their accents to suit the characters they are playing. They may look just like you or me, normal. It's a dangerous job, being a spy. A good spy must always make sure nobody catches their act", Ari's dad said. The two girls were listening with rapt attention, their glasses mid air. 

"Tell you what? I'll show you a nice spy movie this weekend", he said and noticed their faces light up like a thousand watt bulb, "Now finish your milk and get back to playing".

After Ari's dad left the room with the empty glasses, Bri looked at Ari, "Ok, I still don't know if he's a spy but if he is, we must be careful. Your father said spies could be dangerous"

 "But he doesn't look dangerous", Ari replied trying to catch the guy from the window but he was no longer in that room. 

"Of course he won't look dangerous, silly. Didn't your dad say they can look completely normal?", Bri said. 

"Hmm yes he did", Ari said, "But this spy could teach us how to be a spy. I want to be a spy when I grow up!".

"You said you wanted to be a pilot yesterday", Bri reminded her. 

"I could be a spy pilot!", Ari announced. 

Once her friend set her mind to it, Bri noticed there was no way pulling her out of it. She needs to protect her friend while allowing her to dream.

"Ok, but if we're doing this, we need ground rules", Bri announced. "First, we learn by observing him. Your dad said spies observe and collect information. So to be a good spy, we must observe and learn."

Ari wrote 'Rule 1 : Observe' on the small board she had in her room. 

"Second, we must never put ourselves in danger. So we stay as far from him as possible. We watch from a distance and only observe him in familiar surroundings"

"Familiar surroundings, how do you mean?", asked Ari. 

"Like here, from this room. Or, if we see him at the grocery store or at the park. I mean, we should only observe him when we are in familiar surroundings, the places we know very well"

"Oh yeah", Ari said, "I don't like to seek trouble. I see bad things happen in cartoons when the children go into unfamiliar alleys". She wrote down 'Rule 2 : Familiar Surroundings' on the board

"And third, we carry whistles now on", Bri said. 

"Whistles? Why? Oooh let me guess, are we getting a dog? I saw some people training dogs at parks with whistles", Ari said excitedly.  

"Nooo. We are not getting a dog, Ari. We need the whistle in case we're in danger and need to call for help. I saw that in a movie. It's a pretty smart thing to do", Bri replied. 

'Rule 3 : Whistle', Ari wrote on her board. How does her friend know so much, she wondered. Anyways, she was lucky to have such a smart friend. What would she do without Bri!

"Ok, so let's write down what we know about this guy so far", Bri said taking the chalk over from Ari. 

She drew a stick figure and labeled it with words : 'wig, coat, new in the town'. 

"Well, that's not much", Ari said looking at the information they have so far. 

"It's a start", Bri said, "We have the rules and we have some information. Now we just have to observe him and collect more information". 

"Play time is up girls. Bri your dad is here to pick you up", Ari's dad announced stepping into the room. He was facing the back side of the board, he couldn't see what the girls were up to. 

"Remember what we discussed Ari, the 3 rules", Bri said as she left. Ari nodded. 

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