Binary Sunsets: The Shmi Skywalker Story

Two.

I never understood what people meant when they spoke of being chosen for a certain life. I never could get my head around the idea of being one thing for the entirety of your time. But walking through the streaks of sunlight as they flooded in through the high canopy of the forest overhead. The only thing I wanted was to stay in those stolen moments forever, I didn't need anything else or want anything else, and perhaps that was enough to set me apart from the others. Even from a young age everyone around me seemed to know...there was something different about me....and it frightened them. Home was the sparse outpost near Black Spire and our house on the banks of the river. When the blue shadows would fall over the edge of the high cliff like cascading waterfalls and the stars reflecting off the waters shining in the indigo shadows. It was like reading the pages of a story time itself had forgotten. The sound of the rushing waters of the river were my lullabye and the sounds of the saffron colored egrets calling out to one another. The low flutterings of invisible wings as the world slowly became washed away in a flowing blanket of stars.
How could there be any place more beautiful than this? The small out of the way home where the grand designs and complexities of politics never ventured. This small world was where I belonged, each night watching the stars fall into the glowing, rippling waters of the river like the flickering of thousands of candles. I would lay in my bed by the window watching the streaks of starships as they broke atmo and headed out into the black skies. Whenever I would see the blue, green, or violet flares of the thrusting sublight engines kicking the craft out of the magnetic hold of gravity, I would hold my breath. There was something about leaving this place which made me shiver with disquiet.
My world was here.
My life was here.

But like everything in the grand design of things, you cannot know what is truly meant for you, until it reveals itself. The world had a long memory I didn't comprehend how long until the small silver and emerald yacht pulled up alongside the bank. I was standing along the bank picking up the small smooth stones that lay buried. My mother was humming a soft tune from the kitchen when the tromp of heavy boots on the dock caught my father's attention.

Ahna: What? What are you looking at?

My father's face drew up in an angered scowl, but then he heard my laughter from the bank. He lurked up knocking the small black wood stool over as he tore his way through the house. As he reached for the door handle there came a heavy handed knock on the small oval doorway. My mother came into view behind him her face full of questions, but only as his eyes had sparked with fearful rememberance. Again the loud thudding knock came....

Young Shmi: Papa! Papa...Open the door!

Ahna: Luca...

My father motioned my mother to be still as he solemnly punched the release for the mechic door to open. There standing were the small group of three, two men and a pale lilac skinned Twi'lek, a rosey hued veil covering her sharp angled face and the twin head tails neatly pulled behind her. I sat craddled in the arms of the leader of the small rabble, Keithen Grey. There were few bounty hunters in the area who didn't know the name, or the bloody history it foreshadowed. Grey, Djora Sil, and Mal Wexer....there used to be a fourth member....once in another life time. I looked down at my father trying to hide behind his fake smile and welcoming tone, but as I felt the grip on my ribs tighten I began to realize something was different about these visitors.

Luca: Keithen, been a long time since...Must be about ten years now?

Keithen: Yeah, there about's...I think I found something belongs to you? Man, should keep a close eye on such a treasure...it'd be terrible if something were to happen to such a beauty. 

My father reached out taking me in his quivering arms quickly passing me off to my mother, as Grey and the rest of his cadre sauntered into the house and began cataloging every item they laid eyes on.  Safe now in her embrace my father turned to look over his shoulder as Grey moved towards the mantle of the small fire place and peered down into the burning embers of the fire.

Luca: Take Shmi in the kitchen with you. This won't take long, I promise.

Ahna: Luca...don't do anything foolish...you got your way clear of all that, you're free now. You don't owe them anything....

Luca: He's just wanting to talk...so I'll let him...don't worry. Everything will be fine, I promise, now go.

As my mother brought me close and I locked my tiny spindlly arms around her, I could smell the fresh bread and the warm spices from the fish she'd been preparing for supper. But the thing that frightened me the most was the feeling of her heart beating out through her chest. I still remember the last glance my father gave us as we disappeared around the dimly lit corner into the kitchen. The sound of the metal door sliding shut as the pneumatic lock setting as she turned to face the open window looking out onto the bobbing shipe moored alongside the small skiff we used as a transport through the treacherous river passages. I clung to her, my eyes staring at the deep burgundy color of the metal door, my ears open and waiting to hear what these strangers had to do with my father.

Luca: I thought we settled this a long time ago? I'm out. You know that. I'm not bound to that life any longer. I delievered as promised...it's not my fault the guy on the last leg of the exchange botched it.

Keithen: I know, I know it wasn't your fault...But I have job and I need my best guy...Just one last job and we're even, Luca. Come on, I'll double your fee if that's what it takes.

Luca: I said no, Grey. Besides you'd need...you'll never be able to pull what you're planning off. You'd need eighty guys to subdue and hold off the guards, minimum. Besides I hear Rexler already took the job...

Keithen: Rexler? You might say he's been...downsized. Besides Rexler was a fool and an amateur, not like you....Rexler broke the CODE and there's only one punishment for that...

My father watched as the tall dark main tossed a small bad filled with zince coated ringlets and arm bands. In some places, you could make out the scorched marks of the fire where the flesh still clung to the metal.