Eedy Dearest: Tales of Motherhood and Megalomania
Chapter Five: The Interview
Coruscant, 18 BBY
It had been two weeks since Empire Day. The brief local celebrity that Eedy Karn had enjoyed had died down. Syril had gone to work day after day, and Crunchies had resumed their place as the main course at every meal.
Eedy had been pleased with her Imperial flags, but now they just seemed in the way. She decided that today would be a good day to neatly store them in a box until next Empire Day.
She hummed tunelessly to herself as she scuttled around the Karn apartment and gathered up flags. She could not remember if she had put flags in little Syril's room, but she went in anyway.
Eedy scanned the room; Syril had been tidy all his life. She had seen to that. The room was clean and orderly, and everything was where it belonged. She noticed that she had placed a medium-sized flag to hang over his bed, and she walked over to climb on the bed and take it down for storage.
When Eedy reached the bed, her foot bumped against something.
Odd, she thought. My little Syril never leaves junk under the bed.
Leaning down, she saw a small box under Syril's bed. Curiosity got the best of her, and she opened it. When she saw the contents, her small hands balled into fists.
She had always wondered what she would say to her husband if they saw each other again. Probably something scathing about money, with a slap thrown in for good measure. Eedy felt massively betrayed to find such an image under Syril's bed, clearly hidden from her. Was she not good enough for him?
The Dex's Diner hat disappointed her as well. That greasy alien was a Jedi sympathizer and not to be trusted, and here Syril was keeping the little diner hat with his logo like it was a little treasure.
The Republic flags were puzzling. Why would he need to hold onto them? They were the Empire now!
Then there was the datapad. How could he try to keep such a thing from his mother? Had he used money to go towards their living expenses to pay for it? Did he steal it? What was he doing that he needed his own private datapad?
She booted it up and tabbed through his history and messages, and her heart suddenly jumped into her throat.
This cannot be allowed to stand, Eedy thought, gathering her wits about her again. Her rage was still boiling, but she began to focus on this shocking betrayal.
Leaving the box of Imperial flags on the floor, she swept from the room with Syril's box under her arm, grabbed her coat, and exited the apartment to go and find an airspeeder to CoCo Town.
"I hope you're doing well in the new economy," Syril said to Dexter Jettster.
Dex gave a tired smile. "A lot of places like mine are going to be digging out from the Clone Wars for years to come. Still, it's good to see you again. FLO will bring you something to eat."
"I can pay for it," Syril insisted.
Dex put one of his hands on Syril's back. "If I can't offer lunch to an old friend, why would I even have a diner?" He tromped back into the kitchen.
Dex's Diner looked almost the same as it had on the day Syril had followed Eedy out the door. The décor was a bit more faded and there were far more human patrons than there had been before, but it was still Dex's. Syril had been worried when Dex remembered him when he showed up at the bar, but he was pleased that the Besalisk hadn't held Eedy's outburst against him for all these years.
"Here you go, hon!" FLO wheeled out with a nerf burger and a jawa juice for Syril.
"Thanks, FLO," he smiled. "You still see Hermione around here?" He had never forgotten Hermione Bagwa, and he was hoping she might be impressed with the momentous choice he had chosen the diner as the scene for.
"She's all over the place, but we still see her sometimes," FLO chattered.
Syril sat at the bar and ate his food when the doors slid open, and the room went quiet for a moment.
A young, bearded man in a starched, white uniform was striding towards the bar.
Syril stood up and stretched out a confident hand. "Syril Karn," he offered.
"Recruitment Officer Croy," replied the man. "Pleasure to put a face to the name."
"The pleasure is all mine," Syril said with a smile, gesturing towards the bar for Officer Croy to join him.
Croy's eyes scanned the red barstool and his surroundings before he sat next to Syril. "This place a favorite of yours?"
"This place was my first job," Syril explained. "Which is why I thought it would be a good place for us to meet." He certainly didn't want an ISB agent to see the dingy care home where he was working now.
"If everything goes well today, it could very well be the place where you earn the most important job of your life," Croy said, eyes flicking down to the half-eaten nerf burger on the tray in front of Syril. At his place, he placed a briefcase on the bar and tapped the combination to open it, revealing a datapad loaded with forms for Syril to complete.
"That's all I've ever wanted," Syril said. "I wanted to fight in the Clone Wars, but my mother insisted she needed my help bringing money into the house, and she didn't want me anywhere near the Jedi—"
"—We no longer speak of the Jedi," Croy said in a quiet but firm tone.
Syril flushed an angry red. "Of course. I'm sorry. But all I wanted was to be on the bridge of a Venator, fighting the Separatists."
"Fighting takes many forms, Syril," Croy said, flagging down FLO for a jawa juice, which he took from her tray. "Combat is one, but what we do in the ISB, rooting out dissidents, ensuring that the Emperor isn't undermined, advocating in all corners for the peace and stability of the Empire, this is one of the most important and most rewarding missions of all."
"I'm ready," Syril said, eyes aglow with mental visions of him passing out food and flags to smiling citizens, just like the ISB agent who had given his mother those nuna steaks.
The door slid open again, and Eedy Karn stormed into the diner. Syril gasped and leapt from his stool. FLO's photoreceptors flashed a warning back to the kitchen.
"Syril!" she snapped. She looked between Syril and the ISB officer, deciding how she wanted to play this.
"And this," Syril said bravely (with only the slightest quaver in his voice), "is my mother, Eedy Karn. Maybe you saw her on Emperor Palpatine's Empire Day broadcast a few weeks ago."
"Ah, yes," Croy smiled politely. "I never forget a face. Always good to meet a loyal citizen, Mrs. Karn." He offered his hand to shake.
Syril remembered the last time his mother had stormed into Dex's Diner, and he feared she would slap Croy's hand away or act out in some other embarrassing way. Instead, she smiled sweetly and shook the hand offered to her.
"Thank you for your service to the Empire," Eedy said sweetly. "May I join you?"
"Of course! Syril and I were just discussing his future with the ISB."
"Oh, you were, were you?" Eedy asked, hopping on the barstool on Croy's left side, two seats from her son. "By all means, continue!"
Hope swelled in Syril's heart. He was baffled that his mother had even found him (he had intentionally kept his whereabouts from anyone at the care home), but was she finally going to relent and allow him to serve the Empire?
"Our training is intense," Croy proceeded, turning back to Syril. "I'm not sure whether it's more grueling for the mind or the body."
"And my Syril being such a sickly boy from birth," Eedy lamented.
"I'm strong, mother!" Syril said, trying to be as polite as he could in front of Officer Croy.
"Yes, dear," Eedy said with a hint of a sneer. "Pushing those mops around at the care home has given you great muscle tone."
"And you would have to submit to a full background check," Croy continued.
"I have always been loyal to Emperor Palpatine," Syril said. "Even before he was Emperor."
"That's good," Croy nodded, noting the tremulous fervor in Syril's voice.
"You left some things behind at home today, Syril," Eedy cut in. "I'm sure you'd want to show your loyalty to Officer… what's your name dear?"
"Croy," the officer responded politely.
Eedy reached into the inside pocket of her coat and withdrew Syril's private box. "I'm sure Officer Croy would love to see your Republic flags."
Croy looked in Syril's box and saw the blue pennants featuring the Republic Insignia.
"Just junk from when I was a kid," Syril said, waving a hand and giving Eedy what he thought was a threatening look.
"But Syril, you took such pains to make sure this was hidden under your bed where I wouldn't find it," Eedy said with a smirk.
"When the Clone Wars ended, COMPNOR offered citizens the chance to trade in old flags and Republic memorabilia for Imperial standards free of charge," Croy said. "Is it possible you were clinging to the ideals of an outmoded form of government that sought to hold back our enlightened ruler from caring for his people?"
"What?! No! I've always loved Palpatine!" Syril's voice was getting higher and louder.
"Emperor Palpatine."
"And I hate Bail Organa and the Jedi—"
"I told you once before," Croy said in a menacing undertone, "That we no longer speak of the Jedi. And now you are creating unrest in this diner."
"I keep telling him to move on from the Je-, well you know," Eedy said, satisfied knowing she had won once again. "My poor son has always been weak-minded. Can you really blame a mother for wanting to keep her son away from those awful people during the war?"
Officer Croy snapped his briefcase shut. "Well, Mrs. Karn, I respect you for doing the best you can for Syril, and perhaps it's best that I leave him in your charge."
"We all do what we can for the Empire," Eedy sang. "And an Empire needs its mothers just like it needs its agents."
"And as for you, Syril," Croy said, "A career in the ISB requires mental sharpness, attention-to-detail, and good decision-making skills. I think your heart is in the right place, but you and the Empire are better served for you to stay where you are. Good day."
Croy drained his jawa juice and left Dex's Diner.
"Mother, how could you?" Syril demanded.
"How dare you turn this around on me!" Eedy hissed. "When you've been keeping secrets from me for who knows how long? Your father's holo? I never wanted to see that man's face again, and you'll never be seeing it either. And your secret datapad? Have you been holding back funds from your mother?"
"No! The datapad was a gift from a resident," Syril said, trying to keep his mother from creating another scene in the diner. "He said it was just for me."
"Well, he's not your mother," Eedy snapped. "You deceived me, you hid things from me, and you came back to this place that I told you to stay away from, and somehow you think you deserve to be in the ISB? Forget it! You can think about it on your long walk home tonight, and if you put one more toe out of line, I hear the Mining Guild is looking for personnel."
Syril gazed down at his mother with deepest loathing and snatched his coat from the hook at the end of the bar, stomping out into the chilly, Coruscant air.
Some of Dex's patrons were gawking at the scene they had witnessed.
"What are you looking at?" Eedy snapped.
The diners went back to their meals and their quiet gossiping.
Eedy heard a clink behind her, and she turned back to the bar to see Dexter Jettster pouring caf into a metal cup in front of her.
"What do you want?" Eedy snarled.
"I thought you might need a pick-me-up before you go home," Dex said kindly.
Eedy rolled her eyes and sipped the caf. It was better than what she had at home, much to her chagrin.
"You have a good son, Mrs. Karn," Dex said. "He still has a good heart. He wants to help people. You're lucky to have him."
"Of course he has a good heart!" Eedy snapped. "As if I could have raised any other type of son. And I don't want you to come near him ever again, with your Alderaanian food and Jedi friends. You're lucky I didn't report you to that ISB officer and have you shut down."
"I haven't seen your son since the day he left with you," Dex said. "He just showed up here for today, I assume for that interview."
"Well, neither of us will be in here ever again!"
Dex crossed all four of his arms. "Do you promise?"
Eedy glared at Dex one last time before going to hail an airspeeder home.