Luke's Day
by Adrian Hogendoorn
Luke woke up at dawn, as always. He had a million and one chores to accomplish before he could head off to the Toshi Station with Biggs. Uncle Owen was strict as ever this morning, and gruff towards Aunt Beru as well. Luke ducked his head while eating breakfast, trying to stay out of conversation (out of uncle's wrath).
As Luke headed towards the moisture vaporators, the Laars homestead's key to survival on the harsh desert world of Tatooine, Uncle Owen called out, "Luke, don't forget to be free for when the Jawa's come. We need a few new droids to talk to the machines, and you'll need to fix them with their restraining bolts."
Luke sighed heavily – this would definitely interfere with his plans! "Yes, uncle", replied Luke. He headed outside, and got to work on his maintenance tasks. The sun was low in the sky, but already the air was hot and dry. Tatooine could be unbearable during the day. Luke wondered why anyone would choose such a home when literally thousands of worlds were known to the Galactic Empire.
The Empire. If ever there was an uglier word, Luke did not know. Tatooine, far removed, located in the Outer Rim of planets far from the gaze of the Emperor, and yet, Luke saw the presence of the Empire all around Tatooine, especially Mos Eisley Spaceport. Here, Stormtroopers patrolled certain districts, and merchants were subject to the high taxation on their goods and services. Of course, there were ways around all this – Luke had heard of the Hutt gangster family and smugglers – who hadn't, but his family earned an honest living, and when the Governor's agent came around to take the Empire's cut, Uncle Owen always complied. "We don't want any trouble from them", Uncle would say.
The day dragged on. Luke's thoughts were broken by the clanking of metal on metal, and the crunching of sand, compacted tightly. The Jawa crawler was making its way towards the homestead. Luke saw it off in the distance. "What junk will they try to sell us today?" he wondered aloud. Jawas unfortunately were the main suppliers of robotic parts and droids on this side of Tatooine. Almost always defective, Luke had overheard Aunt Beru and Uncle Owen discussing how the jawas acquired their parts and droids once. "What choice do we have?" asked Owen. "Do we need a droid? Their stock is either stolen or found in the waste, Owen. Can't we take a trip to Mos Eisley and buy a new model for once?" countered Aunt Beru. "You know we can't afford the time away from here. Besides, we can't leave Luke alone. You know who might come around and poison his head", said Owen. Luke, listening from the other room only assumed Uncle was referring to Biggs, his older friend who had enlisted with the Academy a few days earlier.
Luke was again snapped back to reality at the sound of Uncle Owen's voice. "Luke, get over here will ya? I want us to be united when we're dealing with the Jawas. You know how they try to fleece you at every turn!". "Yes, uncle", Luke replied obediently. The sooner this was done, the sooner he could be off, enjoying what little free time he had.
As the giant mobile machine inched its way closer, Uncle whispered, "We'll low-ball the Jawas, and pretend we don't need anything, but we both know that if there's an interpreter, we need to scoop it up. You check for structural deficiencies while I bargain price points." "Uncle, might we get a "R" model in order to do maintenance? Like that, we could also program the sandspeeder's navcom system to alert us to ambushes?". It was a long-shot, but Luke had to try. Every time in fact, but one of these days Uncle had to relent. "We'll see". Uncle's typical response, which meant no.
As the big bay door swung down, Luke could hear the relentless chatter of the Jawas. He could understand their language, but unlike Uncle, he couldn't speak it. He waited in anticipation as the Jawas unloaded the droids, and bins full of spare parts.
To be continued…