Seven

So this is what happened. We get back to the temple and they put Yani into the healer's ward. Okay, I get to go, too because my arm is all red and thick and there's small white dots all over it. But of course, they don't keep me long. After I was awake again and tell the whole story, I get punishment for trampling all through the garden. Not fair, I was just trying to help Yani, but adults never think.

So I am to help in the gardens. Not in the Skydome, but here in the temple. It's like stompin Agri Corps already. Argi corps is for losers, Yani and me, we're strong, we'll make great Jedi one day, not stompin farmers. But I have to, and I must help a lot, I don't get time to see Yani. That is worst.

Gardener Yantup is okay. He shows me how to use the Force when planting and watering. He was a youngling, too he says, but he's happy. He always liked plants more than people, he says and smiles. He looks a bit sad smiling. Then he shows me how to plant little flowers without messing up. There's a lot you can do wrong, it seems, and then the flower dies. I would just plant a cactus, less work, and those never die.

Ree-flowers do die, a lot. So there is a lot to be careful about: no snapping the roots and not pressing the earth too tight, not too much water, but no to little and they need much light and no panting them on the paths. Yantup shows me how to use the Force when putting a flower into the ground and putting earth around it. It's difficult because you can use the Force only a little.

I am not thinking of the work enough. I have to help in the garden, and Yani is still in the healer's ward. They keep him for days. I went to Yoda, but he said they need to make very difficult tests with Yani and that it takes time and I need to be patient. But how can you be patient when you best friend is sick? And you cannot see him, not even just like see see; through glass or anything.

So I plant little flowers and try to listen to Yantup. He is nice, he never is angry. Often he looks sad, but he always smiles. And he shows me all kinds of plants and tells me about them. He knows all there is to know about them. Swear! I didn't know there were so many gardens in the temple, but Yantup shows me all of them. I like the Yoda garden.

Of course, that's not the real name, it just kinda stuck because everything in there is very small. Trees that go to my knee and that are hundreds of years old, still. No Joking! There are small woods with hundreds of trees and I can jump over it. Or could, if Yantup allowed me. I am good at jumping, I like exercise.

I don't have to do study duty this time. Maybe they think gardening is better. But I don't have any time for anything anyway. When I have some time to myself, I try to see Yani. They don't let me in, but I stand there anyway. Sooner or later they have to let me in. Or I'll, I'll - I'll think of something. Total!

Sian is nice. Sometimes he's there, too, but he tries to get me to go away, too. Not in a bad way, tough. I think he knows what it means to be best friends. He keeps saying they won't hurt him. He doesn't say Yani'll be okay anymore.

I tell him about the tiny trees. I want to get one of those tiny trees Yantup showed me for Yani. It would be like having a forest, but in small. We could make tiny Wookiees and have them live in the tree. I ask Sian if he knows where to get one.

He doesn't but he says to ask Yantup. Stupid of me really. But Yani is the thinker of us. I do stuff. I wait until I have to go for dinner and then there's exercises and recap and I can only think of what they are doing to Yani.

The next day I ask Yantup about the small trees.

"Those trees are hundreds of years old," Yantup says. "They are very expensive and very difficult to keep."

"It's for Yani." He doesn't get it. "For Yani," I repeat. "He likes plants, and tress. He would be happy to have one."

"You will have to get one from the city," Yantup says. "I can give you the addresses of the best shops."

As if. I cannot buy anything, I don't have any money. None of us have, except the old ones when they need to go on missions. I wonder how everybody else gets stuff. I take the addresses, and then I go to look for the shops. They are like everywhere over the city. But I am good with directions. I find the first two without a problem. But they don't give me a tree. I tell them to get the money from the temple, but they laugh.

I wish I knew how grown up Jedi paid for things. Do they keep some money when they come back from a mission? And then they use it to pay for stuff here? Maybe I should have asked Sian. It's too late, then, because I am in a transport halfway through the city. The last shop is on the other side. I can use transport no problem. They see my clothes and that's it. I will tell Yani. We can go anywhere.

I never get to the last shop. At one place, Master Tharen gets into the transport and he drags me away. He doesn't even ask what I am doing. I get a long lecture on running away. But I wasn't even running, I was just trying to get a tree. Master Tharen does not listen. He doesn't like trees, I think. We arrive back at the Temple in the dark. I get more lectures about how people worry when I go off like that and that I must say where I am going.

As if. If I told them where I was going, they would not have let me. Swear! So this is the only way. That is the wrong answer, and I am sent to bed and get more study duty. Maybe I can ask Sian to get a tree for me. If I ever get out here again.