Chapter 36 Apologies and Curses

As it turned out, the diner that Saliday took Roy and Celia to was one that Roy recognized. It was the Spring Fling Diner; the cruddy place to end all cruddy places. It was so cruddy, it got a negative five out of five star rating. It was so cruddy, the only interesting thing about it was the fact that it was open at all. It was SO cruddy, that the walls on the outside were even the color of crap, almost like the architect knew exactly what they were doing.

Yeah. Roy loved it.

He had only been there once in his life, but it really stood out to him. Sure, one could argue that was because of the poor decorations, service, layout, smell, etc. Buuuttttt one could also argue that it was because it had kickass food. That was why Roy remembered it; the food there was to die for!

(Not literally, of course. Roy sincerely hoped nobody was dying because of the food served at Spring Fling).

Anyway, the trio seated themselves fairly easily, mostly because there were no other customers there. Roy settled into his seat. "Ahh!" he said as he stretched his arms back. He leaned backward before, suddenly, the back of the chair broke and sent him right onto his back. Celia looked at him in concern.

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah; yeah, I'm fine," Roy said as he stood up.

Celia looked at his head. "I think you've got a little bump."

"Pfft," Roy smirked. "Celia, please. If you're worried about me getting brain damaged, don't. There's not much up there to get damaged."

Roy laughed. Despite the fact that his lack of intelligence was a huge source of insecurity for him, he decided to laugh about it for the sake of cheering Celia up. Soon, she was laughing nervously. Then, she was laughing casually. Finally, she was laughing as hard as a hyena at a circus.

"Okay, okay you two," said Saliday. He motioned toward a booth. "Let's sit somewhere that won't send us straight toward the hospital."

Roy and Celia nodded before making there way over toward the booth. Once they were firmly situated and ordered their meals (Celia only ordered water, as all the dishes contained poison mushrooms and she didn't want to take any chances), Saliday let out a weary sigh. It was the kind of sigh one only lets out when they were about to admit to making a horrible mistake in their past.

"Okay," Saliday said. He seemed to sink a little into his seat. He looked at the two people sitting on the opposite side of him, all while wearing an apprehensive expression. "I..suppose that now is good a time as any to start telling the truth."

Roy looked over at Celia. Her expression became serious, extra serious. She didn't look angry, nor sad, nor hate filled. She just looked at Saliday seriously; that was really the only way that Roy could describe her expression.

"What is so important that you couldn't tell us in the street? Why'd you have to bring us to this dump?" she asked.

Roy squinted at Saliday. He looked extremely apprehensive, extremely weary. He looked over at Roy, seeming to notice him for the first time. He cleared his throat.

"Mister….what's your name?"

"Oh, Roy. My name is Roy."

"Yes, Roy. Do you mind if you can step away for a little bit? This is something I want to tell to Celia exclusively."

Roy's heart sank. He cast a glance at Celia. Really, there was nothing he could do. He was a stranger in this situation; a stranger to her and a stranger to Saliday. He recognized that a stranger shouldn't be listening to sensitive, personal, family information. No matter how much he REALLY wanted to.

"Alright." He got up out of the booth. "Call me when the food's ready; I'll be near the bathrooms."

With that, Roy got up and left. He stood near the bathrooms at the back of the restaurant. He was close enough to see Celia and Saliday, but not close enough to hear a word that they said to one another. The way Roy saw it, it was the perfect spot.

…

Saliday sighed as he looked at Celia. "Where do I begin?"

Celia leaned forward. She didn't know if that question was rhetorical or not. It probably was, but she decided she would answer it anyway. "Where do you want to begin?"

Saliday ran his hands through his baby blue hair, or what was left of it. There was a lot of pain present in his eyes. A lot of it.

"Well...I suppose I should tell you that your father is...was?...is a decent koopa. He always has been; he has always had a big heart and has always been kind to others. He was kind to others regardless of what species they were. And therein lies the problem.

Your grandmother and I grew up in a time that was...divided to say the least. Not our generation, but the generation before us were the ones who came directly after the Koopa Mushroom War. So, our grandparents as well as parents instilled a spirit of fear within us. And with that fear, came anger. And with that anger...hate."

Saliday placed his palm directly down on the table. "But while that explains our behavior, it doesn't excuse it. Nothing can excuse that kind of behavior, Celia. There is no excuse to do what is wrong; none. Every person under the sun deserves to be treated fairly, regardless of what they happen to be.

Unfortunately, that was a lesson that a lot of my generation never learned. I was different, but not because I was better. No, I was different because I woke up one day and recognized how scummy I was. I woke up one day and realized that I wanted to change.

Unfortunately, that came at the cost of a relationship with my son."

Saliday took in a long, deep, sad sigh.

"When Singe came and told me he was going to have a child with a human, we were...furious. We couldn't even begin to open our minds to the possibility of having a half human grandchild; we couldn't. We yelled at Singe for hours and hours and hours...all without stopping. We yelled into we could yell no more. And by the time we were done, we had effectively disowned him. And you. We told him that if we ever saw or heard about him being with your or your mother, we would have a magikoopa put a terrible curse on him. On all of you."

Celia's heart leapt into her throat. That...that was awful! Her grandfather said that? That was the the reason why her father abandoned her? Because he was effectively...no, he was threatened? How could anybody do that? To their own child?

"Saliday…"

Saliday sniffled. "I know." He dried a tear from his eye. "I...it's my fault. All my fault. If I hadn't been so closed minded. If I hadn't been so...selfish. I should have accepted Singe, and you, and your mother. I should have loved him unconditionally, like a father should." He buried his face in his hands as the tears flowed even faster. "I'm a horrible excuse for a koopa!"

Celia didn't know what to say to this, what to think about this. On the one hand, she was watching a grown koopa feel sorry for himself. A grown koopa who was at fault for all of this. He was husband of the woman who called her an abomination. HE was the reason why she had never seen her dad. HE was the reason why both her mother's heart and life were broken beyond repair.

She...she couldn't believe this.

"You're horrible," she said as she squinted her eyes at him. "You know that, right?"

Saliday picked his head off from the table. "I know. And I know...that I can never make this up to you. There is nothing I can do that can properly give you the years that you lost, nor the father you need. I..can't even tell you where Singe is now. After that day, Mavery and I...stopped caring."

Celia sighed and drummed her fingers on the table. She didn't know what to do. She really didn't. She knew what she wanted to do though, and that was tell Saliday off. After everything that he had done to her, it was the least she could do. It was the least she deserved.

"I have spent my entire life wanting to know who my dad is," she said. "For the longest time, my mom told me it was Bowser, and I believed her. She wanted me to believe that my dad wasn't a major scumbag." She squinted her eyebrows even deeper. "And now I know that it was my grandparents who were the scumbags. It was my grandparents who hated me."

Saliday started to cry. He wiped the tears away, but they still came full force. Nevertheless, Celia wasn't going to show sympathy for him. She couldn't. There were just somethings that were unforgivable, and this is one of them.

"I...I see." He got up from the booth. "I'm sorry that I was not what you needed in a family member." He looked over and saw that the waitress was coming back with the food. "Well, I'll let you and Roy have your fill. It's the least I can do, the bare minimum. I'll...leave you all alone."

With that, he gave the money to the waitress and left. Celia watched him go, feeling some form of satisfaction. Yet, at the same time, she also felt a form of emptiness. He was her grandfather. Her paternal grandfather, a koopa who she had only just met. She looked down at the table, realizing that there were still a lot of unanswered questions there. Questions that might never be answered at this point.

"Hey."

Celia looked up. She saw Roy standing next to the table. He slipped into Saliday's seat. "He left, huh?"

Celia sighed. "Yep."

"Wow. What a deadbeat," Roy scoffed.

"Yeah." Celia picked up her water and started to drink.

Roy started to cut into his pancakes. "Well, at least he left us food," he said as he shoved a bite into his mouth. He laughed. "If anything, we can consider this our first official date."

Celia laughed as well, more so to cover up the fact that the joke made her uncomfortable than anything else. "Yeah." She smiled at him. "If nothing else, I'm glad that you're here."

Roy beamed. "And I'm glad to be here."

The two sat in silence for a little bit as they enjoyed their food and water. By the time Celia got to the bottom of the glass and was starting to sip air, Roy cleared his throat.

"Where do we go next?"

"What do you mean?"

"With finding your dad?"

Celia felt her heart sink. She realized she had absolutely no leads, nowhere that she had been directed to. No clues at all.

"I don't know."