Nar Shaddaa - 15 years ago
I hadn't given a lot of thought to the guestion.
What do you want to be when you grow up?
I looked at the holo flimsy and then back at the woman who'd given it to me. She looked tired, and ready to get the hell out of this job at a drop of a hat. Not that I cared. I mean, that was all on her. Stuck trying to reach me? Did I look like I cared if she tried or not?
Riding low in my chair, I humored the question.
"I wanna be a gangsta."
I could see the bitch deflate before my eyes. Not the answer she wanted.
"You're thinking small, young man. You can be anything you want to be. Star Pilot. Doctor. Politician. I'm here to help you do all these things."
I shrugged.
"I wanna hustle and make easy money."
And that was the rub, wasn't it? She didn't get it. She'd never get it. I got all I needed to know in her exasperated sigh.
* * *
I'm Sanis Prent. AKA Sanis Young Sleazy. AKA 2Fab U Lix. AKA Da Trill Trillionaire.
I rep the VRT. That's Nar Shaddaa. Vertical City for you offzies. Tuka district level 312.
I live with ma mum. Her name's Tilly. She's on gov stamps on account of her being a disadvantaged mum. What that means is that as long as she's knocked up, we get an Imperial stipend. Did I mention I gots six brothers and sisters? I do. But they don't really figure into this. Story's bout me, ya see?
I'm special, you see. Not special like them suits say. Like I'm on scholarship right? Not like that. No, I'm a cut above, see. Me dad's a real mover. Space Pirate, me mum says. Means I'm cut out to be somethin' else. She says he's got a treasure locked up and waitin' to come back Nar Shaddaa way and move us all to the big life. Maybe that is. Maybe that ain't. Me mum's me mum, but she's small time. Waitin' for that ship to come in. I ain't content to wait.
We live in Imperial Social Domiciles, the ISD. Means four walls and enough cots for heads to lay on. The Moff packs us in tight as we like, cause let's be serious right, we ain't shit, is we? Don't matter to me, mum gets rent free, so we gets stipend to spend. We ain't supposed to spend it on shit like booze and shit, but I knows people and they turn stipend to creds, easy peasy like. Weekly stipend goes to cheap food, but what we get on the side we put to this man named Loti on the corner. Met Loti by way of Razadi, cause she was on the block first and she knows people.
I ain't got a big sister. Razadi's closest thing. She's sorta like that, but sorta like a business partner. We put our stipend together, and what's left after sundries goes to cheap Nar Shaddaan swill. Beggars ain't choosers ya see? We take our cut, put it together, and between that and a little street hustle here and there, we make enough to blow the block up every weekend. Razadi's been at it longer than I have, so I look up to her like that. She says she's punchin' her number in this gangsta game, so I figure that's where I'm at too.
Bookmarks