The Saddest Instant
Reflections on a bounty hunter's most sorrowful moment
Father looked so gallant that day. A horrible battle had taken place right before my eyes in the Geonosian Arena, and I was only a helpless little ten year old boy. Dad fought hard but with such an ease that I nearly convinced myself it was merely a game, only done with lightsabers and blasters. It was fun and it made me proud to watch him weave his way through the crowd and slip past the dead nexu and the dead acklay, firing his chrome blasters the whole way. Then the Jedi attacked. He was a dark skinned Jedi with a bald head and a grim determined look on his face. He set his glare on my father and started swinging that purple lightsaber. The reek attacked my suddenly startled father and knocked him to the ground with one bull-like swing of his ugly head. Dad shot the reek continuously with his blasters, the red blaster bolts boring into its wrinkly hide. Finally, it wavered and died. I inwardly smiled. I was really proud of him, because I knew that I could be just like him if I really and truly tried, and then he could be proud of me, his son.
The Jedi suddenly swung the purple lightsaber hard down to the left. Before I could calculate what was going on, Jango Fett, my father, was beheaded. I whispered to myself, "Calm down, Boba. You're just imagining things. He's probably okay, right?" But inside myself, I knew he was gone. Forever. I tried to convince myself that he was going to be fine over and over again, tried to clear the horrible thought that was haunting me. The Jedi and all the others suddenly were all halted. Count Dooku rose above the crowd and said with a bit of self-satisfied smugness in his voice, "Master Windu! You have fought gallantly, worthy of........" I stopped listening. I thought to myself, Gallantly?! Father was the one who ought to be recognized. And that was the Jedi who.... no........ he mustn't of! No! Impossible! Suddenly they were gone and I was left all alone in the looming arena, nothing but the dead nexu, reek, and acklay...... and some slain bodies. I rushed down from the stands and weaved my way past the gore. I felt it happen.... and now, when he was usually there, he just... wasn't there. Then I felt something roll into the side of my foot. There was a blue and silver Mandalorian helmet, spattered with blood. I felt tears well in my eyes as my feet gave out beneath me and I fell on my knees next to my fallen father.
