Our trio were puzzled by the behaviour of the officer, as they were just standing in line to check in with the guards.
The guard came down near Spot and fell on his knees and said with tears in his eyes, "Is that you, Officer Ford?" and continued with steaks of tears flowing down his cheek onto his beard, "It has to be you".
Puzzled by the man's behaviour, Spot replied, "Yes, I am Harrison Ford".
Then he picked the man up to his level and asked, "But who are you?"
"I am Mikey, the newbie. You remember me, right? You saved my life on my first mission," said the man.
"Oh! Mikey fol. I remember you. Why did you cry as soon as you saw me?" asked Spot as he was taken aback by Mike's behavior.
"How can the sheep survive without their shepherd?" said Mikey.
"Okay! Do not use that analogy in the United Kingdoms of A… and what do you mean by that?" Spot clearly could not understand what Mikey was up to, and Mikey could not understand, along with Zen and Ry, what Spot was saying either, looking like Spot was saying some joke or referencing old times. And to make it even weirder, full of emotion, Mikey said.
"A snake without its head, A pack without their leader. That's what I am saying,"
"Stop with those ancient terminologies and just tell me what's the matter?" Spoke a frustrated Spot.
"You were our leader, Officer Ford. Now without you, the city protectors are not the same," replied MIkey and continued, "They have gone mad, they do not do their duties, nor are they good to the people."
"Tell me about it later, first let us check in," said Spot.
"Yes!" Exclaimed Mikey, "Let me check you in quickly". He continued while wiping off tears. Spot breathed a sigh of relief as Mikey was causing a commotion, and he didn't want to get into any trouble with the kids by his side. Mikey didn't care about what the other people standing in the line to check in thought.
Ry held Spot's finger and asked, "Who was that guy?"
Spot answered, "He was a junior colleague of mine when I was an Officer."
"It looked like you were no small-time officer with the way he talked about you," chimed in Zen.
"I wasn't at that high of a position," explained Spot and continued, "Let's get checked in first, then I will tell you guys everything".
Mikey was telling the information about our trio, and another guard was writing it down.
"Write my name down as Spot," said Spot.
"But isn't your name Harrison, Officer Ford?" asked Mikey.
"First, please stop calling me Officer Ford. I got my name changed some time ago to Spot," explained Spot.
"Let me check the database," said the officer, writing down the info.
"Mikey! Can't you believe me?" said Spot
"I do!" replied Mikey.
"Then tell him that there is no need for him to waste time checking the database," said Spot.
"It's a procedure that needs to be performed before I let you pass this checkpoint," said the officer.
"I changed my name in another sector last week. It will take some time for my details to get updated," explained Spot, clearly hiding something.
"Just note down the name as Spot, no need to delve any deeper," Mikey demanded of his colleague.
"Yes, Sir," accepted the officer as Mikey was his superior.
"The kids' names are Zen and Ry Ford. They were checked in last week," said Spot.
"Yes, I can see that," replied the Officer, clearly suspicious of Spot, but he had to let the matter go as his superior had told him to.
After that, they could pass the gates and go inside the city, even tho inside the city, this place was not considered a city by the wall people, this place was called the old slave colony, which has been transformed into a place for misfits as well as the poor.
To get to the actual megacity of Dhas, they needed to cross another gate.
Our trio started to walk with Spot pushing the glider bike, and started the journey to reach that gate. Mikey could only wave them goodbye, even though he wanted to leave his post and travel with Spot.
"Why did you change your name, Uncle Spot?" Ry questioned.
"Who told you I did?" Spot threw a question back at Ry.
"You just said that to the guard at the gate," Ry retorted.
"Did I tell you that I have changed my name?" Spot threw a question at Ry.
"You didn't say that to me, but you did say that to the guard back there," said Ry.
Spot shrugged and said, "Well, I lied."
Ry had his mouth open as he caught his uncle lying; if someone found that, he would be in trouble.
"That's bad," said Ry.
"Why? I don't want to tell them my name." Spot spoke.
Ry tilted his head and asked Spot, "But why, Uncle Spot?"
"There are some troubles I will face if I tell them my real name," answered Spot.
"Okay, Uncle Spot," replied Ry.
Spot stretched his hand towards Ry and asked him jokingly, "Will you protect me if I get into trouble, Ry?"
Grasping Spot's hand, Ry answered, "I will".
Zen side-eyed his brother and Uncle's interaction.
Spot could feel Zen's gaze on him and said, "I might speak lies and half-truths to other people, but I promise you both that I will never lie or hide the truth from both of you".
Ry chimed in with "Me too".
After saying that, both of them stared at Zen to hear what he was going to say.
Zen felt a burden from their gaze and hence faked a smile and said, "I will neither lie nor hide anything from you guys, okay!?".
Spot picked up both of them and put them on the glider and said, " I am hiding something from both of you".
Hearing his uncle say that, Ry quickly turned towards him and demanded an answer to his question,
"Didn't you say that you would not hide things from us? Tell us what you are hiding?"
"I can't," answered Spot.
"You have to tell us," Ry demanded once again. This question-answering happened a couple more times, but Spot declared defeat and confessed what he was hiding.
"I am hiding the fact that I am hungry."
Hearing his answer, Ry pulled out something from his bag and handed it to Spot and said, "If you were feeling hungry, you have to say that. Take this piece of meat jerky I brought from home".
Seeing the innocent Ry, Spot could only smile." You can keep it, I have a better idea".
"But weren't you feeling hungry?" asked Ry.
"Yeah, I am. So I am going to take you guys to a restaurant," said Spot.
Hearing his Uncle say about the restaurant, Zen finally joined their conversations with "Won't it be expensive?"
"You don't need to think about things like that, I will take care of it," Said Spot.
"What's a restaurant, Zen?" questioned Ry, who has never been to one.
"It's a place where food is sold," Zen quickly answered.
Spot was saddened by hearing that his nephew did not even know about a restaurant.
"Let's go, boys, if I remember correctly, there used to be one right around the corner," Spot hyped up the boys.
"Let's go!!!" said Ry with his hand raised.
Spot too climbed on the glider bike and drove it till they reached the restaurant.
Eight years ago, this place used to be home to people who were slaves to the Confederacy. But people who had nowhere to go could call this place home as well.
Riding down the street, Spot had tears in his eyes as he roamed these streets when he was young, sometimes with his brother, alone.
Dilapidated houses, broken homes were still the same as he remembered, only the people were new, as he could not recognize anyone.
But the restaurant he remembered was still standing, the smell, the feeling it invoked were still the same as he remembered 10 years ago.
He parked near the entrance but did not obstruct the way.
The restaurant was a little empty as it was still pretty early for lunchtime.
Our trio went hand in hand to a Spot which looked cozy and sat down.
Seeing our trio, a worker came to them to ask them about their order.
"We would like to look at the menu first," said Spot.
Hearing Spot says that the worker handed him the menu. After that, he left as our trio started to look at the menu.
"What do you like?" Spot, which was directed at the kids.
"I like this thing called spicy-soury meat with Sweet bread," answered Ry.
"Can you even eat that?" retorted Zen.
"Yes! I can," Ry retorted.
"Uncle Spot, you choose something suitable for us," said Zen.
"You can order anything that you think feels good," Spot replied and continued, "I think Ry has already decided what he wants, have you?"
"But he will probably waste the food," Zen reasoned.
"It will be fine, if he cannot finish it, I will do it," Spot assured Zen.
" Ok, then. I would like this thing called meat that rises above the world," said Zen.
Hearing what Zen wanted to eat, Spot was a little taken aback.
"Is that what you want?" question Spot.
"Yes. I would like to eat this," Zen nodded.
Spot called the worker to note down their order.
"We would like to order a spicy-soury meat with sweet bread, meat that rises above the world for the kids, and I would like buttered meat with some soup which has bittersweet cauli."
"You really want your soup to have bittersweet cauli, sir?" the worker questioned as this was a weird order.
"Yes, I would."Spot answered.
Hearing Spot's confirmation, the worker went to the kitchen to confirm the order.
"That wasn't on the menu, Uncle Spot," Ry expressed.
"It's something that was sold here a long time ago," Spot said.
"That doesn't sound good," Ry stated.
"Yes, it isn't the best, but it's something I like," Spot admitted.
Zen put his ear near Ry and whispered, "He probably was trying to save some money, so don't ask anything more".
"What are you whispering, Zen?" Uncle Spot questioned.
"Just not to ask about what people like to eat, as it can be considered rude," said Zen.
Uncle Spot patted his chest and said
"Well, you can ask me anything and I wouldn't find it rude".
"Do you want to save money by ordering that, Uncle Spot?" Questioned, Ry was not hiding what his brother had whispered to him.
"Of course not. I ordered that because I crave to eat it," Spot reassured them.
"Zen, please do not think about these little things. If I do have any problem, I will tell you like I did earlier," Uncle Spot assured Zen, not to worry as long as he is with them.
"Okay, Uncle Spot," Zen nodded.
As their conversation was happening, the worker had delivered their order list to the chef in the kitchen.
The chef was an old lady with ashen hair who betrayed her look as she seemed full of life.
As soon as the chef read the order list, she called over the worker to confirm the order.
"Is this order real?" the lady demanded.
"Yes, aunty," the worker answered.
"How did the person ordering this look like?" the lady was now asking about the appearance of our trio.
"It was an adult man with some spots on his hands with two boys," the worker quickly answered.
Hearing the worker say that, the lady ran out of the kitchen to look at our trio.
As soon as she saw our trio, with tears welling up in her eyes, she approached them and said, "Where have you been all this time, Spot?"
Hearing the familiar voice, Spot stood and turned back to look towards the lady to say.
"I am back, Aunt Rosy,"
Hearing Spot's voice, the lady quickly hugged him and asked, "Where have you been all these years?"
Spot embraced her back and gently spoke once again, "I am back, Aunt Rosy. I am".
"What happened to you? Why did you suddenly quit your work and disappear? What happened to you guys?" Aunt Rosy showered Spot with questions.
"I will explain everything," replied Spot, and gently pulled himself away from her tight embrace.
"Tell me everything," Aunt Rosy demanded to know.
"First, we would like to eat, Aunty. The kids are hungry".
Hearing Spot say that, she quickly wiped away her tears, but her eyes were still pretty wet, and she went back to the kitchen as soon as she came out.
"You sit down. Let me quickly read your order," she said in a voice that was fading away.
"Who was that lady, Uncle Spot?" The kids questioned.
"She is a really kind lady. She fed me and your Father when no one would," Uncle Spot said with a huge smile and his face with earlier tears still making his cheeks damp.
After a while, Aunt Rosy came back with the food she had prepared.
Ry's order looked rather simple as it was some meat covered with spicy-sour sauce and bread that was sweet.
Zen's order was rather extravagant. The bottom layer contained a mixture of veggies and sauces, which made the world, and meat was placed in a way that looked as if it rose from the plate.
Finally, Spot's order was a whitish soup with some meat on the side.
Aunt Rosy directed her worker to close the restaurant for a time.
"You don't need to close the restaurant. It's about to be lunchtime," said Spot.
"It's okay. You have returned after a long time. I want to have a long chat with you," said Aunt Rosy, and continued with her earlier questions. "Now tell me what happened? "
"It's a long story, Aunt," Spot replied.
Spot started to tell her what had happened and what had caused him to disappear all these years.
"You remember that Samuel was caught smuggling people," Spot started.
"I did hear about it from Drun," Aunt Rosy replied.
"He and Eliza got the death penalty for doing that," Spot continued.
"I asked for a softer punishment for them. But that asshole Mash who got the case during prosecution did not move an inch."
"Isn't he the current mayor of the city?" the worker chimed in with a question.
"Yeah. He is the mayor now," Spot replied and continued, "At that time, he was a colleague of mine."
"Privately, he did say that he would get them a little punishment, but he switched up during prosecution," said Spot, and continued as he shook his head with tears welling up in his eyes.
"I couldn't do anything, as Samuel being my brother, I wasn't given a say in this case."
Aunt Rosy looked at those tears and got up to wipe them away.
"The only way I knew I could lessen their punishment was by putting my job on the line," Uncle Spot chuckled as he said this, because he felt that this was what the people who did not like him wanted.
"Was Sam involved with the smugglers?" questioned Aunt Rosy.
Spot just quietly nodded his head.
"But why did you disappear?" Aunt Rosy demanded to know.
"Samuel and his family would become slaves of the confederacy to pay back the damages they caused to the confederacy," said Spot and continued, "I took on some of the punishment. My punishment was to quit my officer role and exile myself, also never to come back to this planet".
"That is stupid," Aunt Rosy burst out with anger.
"Yes, it is. But there was no other way that I knew," said Spot, and looked outside the window.
"Does your father know?" questioned Rosy.
Spot could only shake his head in disagreement.
"You have to tell him, he needs to know that," Aunt Rosy demanded.
"How could I? How can I say that one of his sons got caught smuggling slaves and his other son got fired from his job to save his brother?" retorted Spot.
"We had already brought a lot of pain into his life. I just want to let him live his life," Spot blurred.
"But he deserves to know the truth," Aunt Rosy pleaded.
"I will tell him," stated Spot.
"But when?" Aunt Rosy pressed on.
"I will after I go to the city," promised Spot.
Aunt Rosy nodded in agreement. Then she picked up the jug to pour some water for our boys to drink.
The boys had finished their plates and had heard the whole conversation, but stayed quiet.
Spot looked at the empty plates of the kids and smiled at them to assure them that everything was okay, and told them to take their plates to the kitchen and go wash their hands.
Aunt Rosy directed her worker to help the kids with it.
"Then, which slave colony are Samuel and his family living in?" questioned Rosy.
"Samuel and his wife have left us and gone to the other side," said Spot.
The jug fell from Rosy's hand after hearing it. She couldn't stand straight and fell on the chair behind her.
"Samuel has passed away?" questioned Aunt Rosy as she could not believe what Spot had said just now.
Spot just silently nodded his head.
Her tears couldn't come out as this truth was way too much for her.
"How did this happen?" She quickly questioned.
"You know about the terrorist incident that occurred last week, they were caught in that," answered Spot.
The atmosphere became silent, and only faint sounds of running tap water could be heard.
"Those are Samuel's kids," stated Spot.
Aunt Rosy came back to life as she heard it and asked them about their names for Spot.
"The older one's name is Zen, and the little one is called Ry," said Spot.
Aunt Rosy just stared at the boys as they made their way back to the table.