Last Days on the Tigris
My eldest sons, identical twins in fact, were playing on the banks of the river. It was a siesta day in the spring, quite warm, but not enough to be called hot, where nothing got done. The smell of the water, fetid and fertile, was potent in the air as the Tigris flowed lazily down the steams. I never looked it up but it's easy to imagine that river hadn't overflown its banks since the dawn of the Republic. Everything is tame on the Homeworld, except the people.
"You can't win Darth, if you strike me down, I shall become more powerful than you can imagine," came the mock heroism of the eldest of the twins, Benji. He swung his plastic sword around confidently.
"Don't try you sorcerer's ways on me Jedi scum. This is your last blasphemer!" came the cry of Owen, brandishing a toy gun. He fired three foam darts at his brother, two of which Benji dodged easily and the third was deflected with the sword. I felt my eyebrow go up in fascination; Jedi iwere/i famous for doing that kind of thing.
"Ha!" Benji exclaimed in delight. "I am a Jedi, for real, not just pretend!" He stuck out his tongue at his brother.
Owen turned to me and exclaimed "Mom! Ben's not playing fair! We're supposed to be playing Crusaders and Jedi!"
"No we're not laserbrain!" shouted Benji, "We're supposed to be playing Jedi and Sith Lords! You were supposed to be the evil Sith Lord Darth Rama in disguise of a Crusader. Don't you know anything?!" And the shout came almost as much to me as to Owen.
"That's stupid Ben" said his brother, "And you didn't say anything to me," he said pointing at his chest, sweat covering his shirt and matting his hair. Benji on the other hand seemed un-extended. He was breathing hard for a four year old, but that iron look in his eyes was so cute, I couldn't help but chuckle. I got up from my lawn chair, stepped in some goose crap, not exactly by favorite part of this memory, but it happened, and first scooped my right arm around little Benji, then dragged him over to Owen and scooped him in my left, he gurgled a protest, and hugged them tight to my ever expanding belly.
"You guys are the greatest," I said, kissing the top of Owen's head, then the top of Benji's head, and this time it was Benji who protested it was 'icky.' He squirmed a bit, but I held him fast, "Now come'on, let's get cleaned up for dinner. We're gonna have Smelly Ramones." That is, Meat and tomato sauce and way too much garlic in bantha or mozzarella cheese wrap. "And then we can go vampire hunting."
The yah from the boys was intense. Benji said "Mom, you weren't fooling when you said breath from a Smelly Ramone will kill a vampire at 5 meters."
I rubbed his head "Kid, there's so much garlic on that thing, Smelly Ramone breath could probably kill a Hutt at five meters." I chuckled a bit and then made a hiccup sound as I felt a kick.
"Hey!" squealed Owen, "The baby kicked me!"
"I guess she doesn't like you very much either" came the instantaneous reply from Benji. I could feel his smile growing on my stomach. And then of course Owen felt me grab the back of his shirt as he tried to claw at Benji. He separated them as best I could to avoid a bloodbath.
"Benjamin Alexander Kenobi! Apologize to your brother right now." I chuckled a bit, it was funny, "And mean it."
Benji sighed, I was asking the impossible and I knew it. He looked down and scraped some dirt around with the toe of his boot "Owen, I'm sorry I said the baby didn't like you."
"Why?" I asked
"Because the baby doesn't know any of us…and she'll love us all when she does" he said flatly.
"There we go!" I said in my most happy-motherly voice, "Now you two pick up your toys and we'll go."
Well Benji went to pick up the foam darts from the hours of play (there were about 20 of them scatted around) and Own picked up the clips. But seizing an opportunity, Own loaded the last clip into the toy gun and shot Benji in the butt as he was picking up darts.
"Owen Glendower Kenobi!" I exclaimed
"Yes mother?!" Owen said in fear and surprise, as if he should be surprised to get caught when I'm right there.
"Apologize. Now."
Do you recall Benji's unconvincing apology? Owen's was worse. He didn't even try to hide the fact he'd enjoyed shooting his brother in the puttoot. The only reason I don't say here and now men are strange creatures is because I've known enough women to know they're no better.
After we got the toys picked up I decided to talk to Benji "Benji, dear why do you want to play Jedi? The Jedi are no good. They snatch babies away from people, they don't let their students see their families, or let themselves have families of their own. They stand aloof for the Galaxy and all its problems. No, you wanna be a Templar or a Hospitaller or Totenkopf Volunteer."
"Do the Templar have cool laserswords or use the Force to blow back their enemies or do Jedi Mind Tricks like uncle Dan always talks about? Besides, I don't care about having a family, I have you and Dad and Owen and the Baby" came Benji reply as he struggled to keep up with me. I wanted to teach them that universe waits for no one, so you have to keep up. I wasn't walking too fast, but fast enough to challenge them. It also kept Owen somewhat quiet.
"Uncle Dan, I'm going have to talk to him," i.e., I might beat him up. Then I stopped and got down on my knees on the dirt road back to the farmhouse, and took Benji by the shoulders "Listen Benjamin," I began.
"Ya, listen to your mother!" chimed in Owen
"Owen!" I said; he backed off a bit "Listen, there was a time when I couldn't conceive of ever having you or your brother or your sister. I had no family, no friends, and no ambitions but to serve my master. So I know how important family is. Benji, you iwant/i a family, you want to find a nice girl and settle down with her and have lots of children; grandkids I can spoil and send home."
"Then I can't I be the first Jedi to have a family and lots of grandkids for you Mommy?" he asked me.
"They won't even let you keep the faith of you fathers. That's why they only take babies; so they never know what family is, what love is. It makes them inferior creatures; and sooner or later they will fall, hard. It's not hard to see, for grown-ups who aren't in love with the spoon-binders."
"But they don't make daddy stay here like the Theocracy?" asked my son his eyes boring into mine.
"You're a clever little bastard aren't you?" I replied "No, no honey, I meant that as a compliment. Don't lose that; don't ever lose that. And don't worry, we'll find a way. We'll send you all to the finest schools on Alderaan…"
"Where's Alderaan?" asked my son Owen over my shoulder.
"It's a beautiful place far, far away. The people make it even more beautiful and they love to learn and love democracy and can kick ass sometimes. Sort of what Empire was like 1000 years ago; before the dark times, before the Theocracy took the Emperor's power for themselves. Course it was a different galaxy then; the Republic was mighty and strong and no matter how hard the Sith or the others tried to conquer the Republic, they'd fight them off every-time. I want you to remember Benji, you two Owen, Teanaarians are fighters. Don't fight blindly for anything, not even democracy. The republic is rotten to its core and the only way people will miss it when it's gone is if they rule even worse afterward. Owen," I pointed to him over the shoulder; I could feel my face taking on unpleasant seriousness "What is a pacifist?"
And he replied "A weakling."
"The Republic has no army and no real fleet, Benjamin. What do you call the people who want to continue this?" My face became stern.
"Uh, uh, a fool, mommy?" came he stammered reply
"What do you both call anyone who accepts the division of either the Republic or the Empire?!" I asked
"A traitor!" they roared, just as they'd been taught in school.
"And what do we do with traitors my lovelies?"
"Kill them!"
"Death!" These two came together, the first from Owen, the second from Benji.
I hugged them again, then let go, as my knees were hurting a little bit. "It's good to see the schools are doing their job. My tax dataries at work." It was about 1500 hours, and the sun felt good on my face, but I had to get the dirt magnets in and washed so we could have supper at precisely 1700 hours. And as any patent knows, wash time can…take a while/water damage everything below the bathroom/require multiple changes of clothes.
We came in from the back door, and I sent the boys to start the bath while I started the over; Marcus, my husband, was checking the rice paddies all day. Being that it was our only source on income of late, I figured I could do the cooking tonight. I was about to turn on the oven when I heard something behind me. Without even thinking, Templar training snapped through me and a knife from the knife drawer was in my hand and I turned around expecting to see the Theocracy's death squads, albeit I had never believed in them before.
The man I saw was almost as shocked as I. He had long brown hair, and a beard. He was dressed in robes so I figured he was a monk, maybe Nashteen, maybe Assisians, hell, maybe Jedi.
"Oh, I'm, I'm terribly sorry miss," came a resonant voice from the dinner room, as a tall aristocratic man came into view, "my friend here seems a bit impatient. Well, you've startled the poor woman, introduce yourself."
The younger man smiled sheepishly, "Beg you pardon miss, but we'd been waiting in the front room for over an hour. My name is Qui-Gon Jinn, and this" extending a hand to the right and back of him to the older man "is Master Dooku. We are from the Jedi Order and wish to speak to Colleen and Marcus Kenobi about…important matters."
"Get out," I said plainly.
"Well I see Christian Love does not extended to the Jedi" came the reply from Master Dooku. My goodness was he handsome.
"Besides," I continued, "I'm not due for another three months local and two months standard. You're early; guess the Force doesn't aways work right. You steal me kids, I'll slit your frelling throats. Just a curtosy from one Knight to another." A tossed the knife into the air and caught it without difficulty
"Mrs. Kenobi," the one called Ginn said to me, as calming as he could be, He touched my arm, and I'm pretty sure he used the Force to calm me a bit, "This in not about the child you carry, and the Order would never NEVER induct a child without the permission of the parents. Please, just allow us to to make our case and whatever you decide, that is the will of the Force."
"Oh really?" I chuckled a bit, "You wanna take one of my sons, raise him heathen, strip him of all that's good in life, so you can expand your dammed Janisarry Corps? Oh this will be good." And nothing was said for a moment, "So talk, Jedi, if nothing else I expect to laugh a lot."
And thus began easily the worst mistake of my life.
Author's Note: I hope you like this. I have to work on finishing it though and I'd like feedback on how to make it better. Thanks in advance.