Binary Sunsets: The Shmi Skywalker Story

Nine.

The air felt colder up here, as I gripped the lip of the overhang struggling to keep my handholds spaced evenly, & my eyes on the horizon ahead instead of below. How do I always manage to get myself into these situations?! Gelk was ALIVE! Djora was stung & looking for a bit of payback, & Grey was hiding something. There had to be some reason he would risk another run in with a JEDI after the last time. I still remember the way his face looked in those last few moments. There was a pleading in them & at the same time a strange sense of forgiveness as well. I'd never had someone look down into me the way I felt that young man, nearly half my age, do just as he began to slip away into that other place. I couldn't shake the sensation of his blood spurting out of the gaping wound from Grey's nev'l knife. There wasn't anything to be done, I remember Grey calling my name. The young man looking, fear written across every line in his tensed expression as he fell to the ground clutching his throat. I caught hold of him pulling away from Grey as he reached back to yank me away from the grizzly mess he'd made. No one was supposed to get hurt. But then again things never ever did seem to go to plan with Keithen Grey at the helm. The boy struggled to breathe as he stared up at me. I hurriedly unfurled the knots in the sash Ahna had tied around me that morning when I left. There was nothing I could do, but...he was just a boy...I couldn't, I couldn't leave him there to die alone. No one should die alone, afraid of every dimming sound or sight, until there was nothing left but the black blankness of eternity to swallow you up. I took hold of his hand & held onto to it as if our blood had been the same. That was when I heard him mumbling through clenched teeth biting agains the pain washing through him.

Young JEDI: I am one with the Force & the Force is with me. I am one with the Force & the Force is with me. I am....one...Force & the...the...

I didn't know what else to do. He was fighting back against the haze & exhaustion of death. I gripped his hand tighter & began to speak the words he'd recited.

Luca Skywalker: I am one with the Force & the Force is with me. I am one with the Force & the Force is with me. I am one with the Force...

I didn't understand the magic these words had over him, but the melodical hum of the ringing in his dying ears seemed to give him comfort. As the fear washed like the blood pooling beneath the sash & his robes, seeping into the ground where it would stain that place with rememberance. I barely noticed another body come in closer to where we sat, me reciting the dying eulogy of a dead boy. The taller man's face was shrouded by the deep russet hair & stone colored robe that gathered around him as he knelt beside us. He reached his hand out & lay it across the boys face, sweeping his eyes into to that peaceful repose only the dead know. I hadn't realized it but as I looked across as the scarred face & ghostly opaque eye of the man, I felt the tears falling from my face freely into the open air. I had never seen such a face. It was like weathered stone from ages unseen by mortal men, the gaze of that one bright blue eye as it frantacially searched for the right words, which neither of us ever managed to find.

JEDI Master Yoda: Gone, is he?

JEDI Master Nathe': Yes. He's gone.

JEDI Master Yoda: Back to the temple we should take him, honors he shall have for his service to the Order.

It wasn't until the three green fingernails reached out raking across my chin pulling my eyes towards the ageless orbs housed in the small lineless green face.

JEDI Master Yoda: Know how this happened, do you?

I couldn't look at him. I simply looked across at the shattered tightening grimace of the boys mentor. I tried to form the words. But my throat was filled with stale vocals & empty explainations. I didn't have any idea what was happening to me. But I soon realized, the slight touch of the small creature's hand on my face had granted him the ability to search through my mind, & witness the moment through my own eyes. His face was solemn, as he glanced from my eyes down to the whitening face of the dead boy.

JEDI Master Nathe': Did he suffer? Was it quick?

Luca Skywalker: He....It was quick. He didn't have time to feel much.

It was a lie. They knew it. But the seemed to be satisfied with my fiction enough to resign themselves to drapping the boys body in the robe of the older scarred JEDI. I hadn't realized the extent of his wounds as they were revealed as he shrugged off the robe. The old man was missing his right arm from the elbow down, the raw wrecked flesh tightened over the stump fought to pull the limp fabric over the boys face. Without thinking I slowly took hold of the robes hood & pulled it softly & carefully across the brow of the dead boy, as if I were merely tucking him into bed to rest.

JEDI Master Nathe': Thank you. Thank you for staying with him...until the end...ahem. What..what's your name?

Luca Skywalker: Luca, but...most people just call me Skywalker.

JEDI Master Yoda: Well, young Skywalker...grateful we are for the kindness you showed this young padawan today.

JEDI Master Nathe' reached out struggling to secure the boys weight across his bare arm to hoist him high onto his shoulder. Looking away, I couldn't think of more to say...but I knew the weight of the sorrow falling on him. While he was clearly not the boys father, there was little else which would have distinguished him otherwise by the manner he fought against his own tears.

Luca Skywalker: I'll help you carry him.

JEDI Master Nathe': That's not necessary...Skywalker.

JEDI Master Yoda: Let the boy help, Master Nathe'. A kind act never should go unappreciated, agree do you?

The older JEDI bowed in acceptance of my offer & together we carried the young boy through the market, through crowded streets of bowed heads. I had never seen anything like it. People stopped whatever they were doing & turned to take measure of each step of our small procession. The small sage JEDI Master saw the disbelief written all across my brow.

JEDI Master Yoda: Life, precious in every form deserves respect. Alone, none of us are.

I had tried to understand what it was he'd meant by that. It hadn't been until the moment I'd looked down at the new soul Ahna & I had brought into being, through Shmi, I finally understand what the JEDI had meant. There were unseen, unspoken, & unbroken threads which bound us all together...this force surrounding each of us leading us right where we belonged. And the ties which bound us to the people we loved were at times the most delicate & fragile, so it was entirely in our hands which we severed & which we strengthened. Looking up as Djora struggled up the rock face unnoticed by Grey the lesson came back to me like a thunder crack in the sky. There were plenty of bonds I'd cut to stay with Ahna & Shmi. As  I looked across a the smug face of Wexler scaling the height alongside me, I began to realize some bonds were made to be broken & if I were ever going to be free, I would have to cut myself free from them. Even if it meant weilding the blade myself, but I knew one thing for cetain...there was only one way this could end. History often repeated itself in violent forms when mixed equally with ambition & creatures of habit.

I could feel the sameness of that moment from years ago crawling up my spine.
We continued the climb until we reach a stone balcony carefully crawling over the edge into the warm glow of a thousand candles.
As I felt my feet settle on solid ground again I made myself a promise.
This time I would be on the right side.