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Lando was sitting on the upstairs balcony of one of his parent’s restaurants, at one of the largest tables that overlooked the lower part of the dining room, pretending to do his homework on his comms pad but actually messaging his friends on the holonet. As it was the late afternoon, the slow time in between lunch and dinner, there were only a few people and they were all seated in the lower dining room, the upper balcony, where Lando sat, enjoying an cold ice-cream float, was only open in the evenings for VIP patrons.
Lando’s father was downstairs, chatting with the manager, and, slowly, the diners at all but one table paid their bill and left. Lando was engaged in a very important conversation with his friends about their plans for the weekend when he was distracted by a commotion.
The quiet peace had been shattered by loud, angry shouting, and as Lando peered down from his position above the main dining room, he could see the patrons of the last table had stood up and were advancing on his father.
“I won’t have this going on in here, or in any of my businesses. Get out.” Lando’s father didn’t shout, he spoke calmly but firmly, and he stood protectively in front of his manager and the rest of his staff. But there was an unfamiliar hint of menace in his voice and there was a change in his usual posture - looser, less formal, as if he might need to move quickly at any moment. He knew the man he was looking at was his father, but in that moment Lando didn’t recognise him. He seemed….younger, unpredictable.
Just as Lando wondered what exactly was going on and who these men were, things began to escalate quickly. He couldn’t believe it when the men started to shout again and one pulled out a blaster. A real weapon. Lando had never seen one before. Unless you could count the ones in holomovies, but he didn’t think you could.
“I don’t think we need to do that, do you?” Lando’s father remarked cooly, before producing a blaster of his own with a flourish, seemingly out of nowhere, and, this was the part that Lando thought he might have hallucinated because it was so incredible, shot the weapon out of the man’s hand, effortlessly and precisely.
Lando didn’t know his father even had a blaster, let alone that he knew how to use one so skillfully. It was a side of his father that he’d never seen before, one he never knew existed. What other talents did his father have that he didn’t know about?
“Out. And stay away.” Lando’s father ordered the men out, his staff helping to physically remove them from the premises. After they had gone, and he had checked everyone was ok, he made his way up to the balcony where Lando sat.
“Hey, you alright?” He squeezed Lando’s shoulder and kissed his forehead, sitting down next to him.
“Yeah.” Lando hadn’t realised it, but his heart was beating fast, a curious mixture of excitement and fear flooding through him. “Who were they? What were they doing? How come you have a blaster?”
Lando’s father gave a small laugh at the flurry of questions from his son. “Small-time criminals, I think. Working for some more…..dangerous individuals. Anyway, I don’t want that kind of stuff going on here.”
“Illegal stuff?”
“Yes.” His father studied him for a moment. “Lando, I know you probably thought that was exciting but it wasn’t one of your holomovies. Nothing good ever comes from that life. Nothing.”
Lando just nodded. He understood, sort of, but he couldn’t help feeling interested, excited, curious. It was a world he had only read about, had only watched holomovies of, had only imagined, and for a few minutes, this world had collided with his own. He didn’t know what to say or how to articulate that, yes, it seemed scary, but it was also thrilling and he couldn’t get the image out of his head of his father, confident, intimidating, using a blaster like he was straight out of a holomovie about smugglers or pirates.
His father sighed. “Your mother and I didn’t come from money. You know that right? We worked for everything we have now. We started out with one cantina, we worked all the jobs there - serving, cleaning, managing - and back then, this area was bad, it’s not at all like it is now. And we weren’t the same as we are now. Your mother and I, well….we had to defend ourselves sometimes, there was trouble everywhere, almost all the time, it was a wild place. But we’re lucky, we don’t have to do that now, this part of the city is safe, we have all these businesses, people respect us. Things have changed drastically.”
Lando could tell that his father was trying to be vague and not go into too much detail, probably because it might interest Lando further. His mind was racing, he couldn’t stop imagining his parents, young, surrounded by peril, standing up to those who threatened them.
“Your mother and I worked so hard so that you don’t have to live that life. You can do what you like without the danger or the uncertainty. That stuff that just happened, you don’t want any of that, it won’t lead to anything good. Do you understand? Stick to the holomovies and stories, ok?”
“Ok.” Lando nodded again, a serious expression on his face, trying not to show the fact that all he could think about was his parents shooting blasters and getting in and out of trouble. He’d always admired his parents, always loved them so much, but he’d never thought that they were cool, this revelation added an air of mystery and intensity to them. They had had real adventures, been involved in real danger. Yes, they were cool. Wait till his friends heard all about this. Of course, there would be some embellishments to this information. Lando had to add some details, any good storyteller would.
“Good. Now, let’s get you another ice-cream float and you can get off the holonet and actually do your homework.”
“I was doing it!”
His father laughed and pulled him close for a hug.
Years later, when Lando was an adult, he would look back at this moment and realise it was a turning point, that it would change his life forever. It was his introduction to a world of gambling, illegal activities, adventures, and more danger than he ever could have predicted. And throughout his time in this world, he would always remember this brief glimpse of a side of his father he never knew existed. He liked to think he inherited some of his confidence and attitude.