The Truth

::O N E::

'You may go in,' A Searcher got out of the room and said to Colin Williamson. 'Senior Searcher Ruben is ready to see you.'

This was what Colin had been waiting for. Thirty minutes ago, he had got a call from Ruben telling him to come to the lab immediately. He hadn't informed Colin what he wanted to talk to him about, but Colin already knew it. Ruben wanted to tell him about his father. Sidney Williamson, who also worked for the Space Searchers' Society, had disappeared two months ago on a space mission. There hadn't been any news of him ever since. Colin had called Ruben a few times to ask about his Dad, but the only thing that he said to him was, 'I'm a bit busy. I'll talk to you later, kid.' Eventually, Ruben got fed up with Colin's calls and he himself invited him to talk to him.

Colin opened the door and went inside. At the far end of the room, sat Senior Searcher Ruben with his usual angry face. He was an old man with grey hair, wired spectacles and eyes that seemed to bulge out of his head.

'Kid, aren't you gonna say hello or something?' He said.

'Hello,'

'So let's get over this quickly,' Ruben said without bothering to reply to Colin's greeting. 'Do you have any idea what I'm going to talk to you about?'

'Um...my father?'

'That's right. As you already know, your father went on a space mission to observe Jupiter's moon and find about its climate, temperature and surface. In normal circumstances, the exploration might have only taken a week. But your father left two months ago and did not return.' Here, Ruben paused to take a sip out of his water bottle.

'I already know that much,' Colin said.

'Be patient, kid. I'm coming to the part you don't know. So when your father didn't return, we weren't too concerned at first. But after two months passed, we started to get worried. A few Searchers were sent to Jupiter's moon to look for Sidney. They didn't find him, but they did found a few broken pieces of metal.'

'You mean to say that my Dad's spaceship crashed there?' Colin asked, with tears in his eyes.

'Exactly, though I don't understand how.'

'Is there any chance Dad could be alive?'

'No, it was a severe crash. And Sidney wasn't found anywhere on the moon surface.'

'Maybe a spaceship rescued him,' Colin suggested.

Ruben gave a short laugh, 'This isn't a science fiction story you're reading, kid, it's the real world. And these miracle don't happen here,' he said, 'Now will you leave my office? I have better things to do than to waste my time comforting a child about his father's death.'

Ruben muttered something about Sidney wasting such a nice spaceship and Colin went out of Ruben's office. He rushed to the washroom and tried to fight back the tears which were struggling to escape from his eyes. It is bad enough being told about your father's death, but it's even worse when it's told by the person you hate the most. Ruben acted as if he was enjoying telling him about his father's death.

No, Dad is still alive, Colin told himself. Maybe Ruben was lying. Maybe he made it all up just to make him miserable. But Colin was saying all these things just to make him feel better. Sooner or later, he had to admit that his father was gone.

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Teaser: Colin finds out the truth and gets in trouble.