The Lost City of Faar by D.J. MacHale Page B

from my mind, most of the time. So after having spent a bunch of weeks on Grallion with Spader, I decided that my first impression of him still stood. He was a guy with a big personality and an even bigger sense of fun. He was a truly good guy who listened as much as he spoke. He also cared. He was quick to help out a friend, or even a stranger. He wasn’t a slacker, either. He may have liked to have a good time, but he worked hard and he loved his job. This was a good guy to know. I’ll remember those first few weeks on Grallion for the rest of my life. It was a great time.
    But it was soon going to end.
    One evening Spader made me dinner at his house. Uncle Press chose to hang at Grolo’s instead. Spader had speared a couple of particularly tasty Kooloo fish that day and grilled them over hot coals in his backyard. Sounds like home, no?The fish was golden and delicious. After dinner I cleaned up the dishes and Spader went to work cleaning up the rest of his house. There were clothes and pieces of equipment scattered everywhere. To be honest, it looked more like a garage than an apartment. Spader wasn’t big on being neat, but tonight was different. He went around picking things up and putting things away and basically making the place look like someone actually lived there.
    â€œWhat’s the occasion?” I asked. “Got a date?”
    I then noticed that Spader had more energy than usual. Believe me, for Spader that’s really saying something. He was pretty much bouncing off the walls as he worked. It was like somebody took his power dial and notched it up a few amps.
    â€œBig day tomorrow, mate,” he said with excitement. “My father is coming by. Can’t let ’im think I live like a dirty old crocker fish!”
    This was the first I heard about Spader’s family.
    â€œWhere does he live?” I asked.
    â€œHe’s an aquaneer on Magorran,” he said while continuing to clean up. “It’s a manu habitat. Schedule has it swinging by tomorrow for supplies.”
    â€œManu habitat?”
    â€œThey build things. Pieces for machinery and skinners and whatnot.”
    â€œIs that your home?”
    â€œHome? No, mate. Home is Panger City. Lived there my whole life until I went to the Aquaneer Academy. My mum’s still there. Haven’t seen either of ’em for . . . hobey, can’t remember. It’s been a while.”
    I was beginning to get the bigger picture about what life was like on Cloral. These habitats were like cities and peopleleft home to work, just like back on Second Earth.
    â€œDad’s a real spiffer,” Spader continued. “Gave me the aquaneer bug. Had me around skimmers my whole life. They wanted to make him an officer but he turned ’em down—didn’t want to leave the docks. His tour’s up soon so he can get back to Mum. Hobey, I can’t wait to see his face again. Give me a hand here mate, would you?”
    I helped him lift a couple of large water sleds he had been working on and put them into a closet.
    â€œYou never told me about your parents,” said Spader.
    Uh-oh. Up until now I’d been able to dodge questions about home. I’m not a good liar. Uncle Press and I made up a story about how we came from a distant habitat that was a university. We said it was full of intellectuals and professors, which explained why I needed to learn so much about working in the water and how the “real world” worked. Whenever Spader couldn’t believe how little I knew about Cloral, I’d shrug and say: “I didn’t get out much.”
    I hated lying to Spader, but I knew the truth would come out soon enough and hoped that when it did, he’d understand. But now he was putting me on the spot again by asking about my parents. I was going to have to come up with some version of the truth, because the whole truth would have blown Spader’s head