Chapter 14
Since the day of my first misdemeanors in the market place, I have been continually beaten and punished for various offenses I never intended to commit. I have various tasks I am to accomplish, but mostly just doing what I am told by any and everyone about this horrid place. Ani saw me being beaten today for the first time, and the effect it had on him was shocking.
I expected him to cry, or to stand there looking frightened, or to run from the room. As soon as it was finished, and I began to slowly stand up from the ground, I caught sight of him – a small pale-haired figure standing in the corner. My heart sunk – I did not know he had been watching. But he neither cried with fear nor ran anywhere at all. He just stood there, with the most upsetting expression on his face. His eyes practically glowed, and his teeth were set firmly behind his round mouth, his hands clenched into fists by his side. He did not move until Gardulla and the others left the room. Then he ran to me, and gave me a hard hug. I held him close, and kissed the top of his head. He pulled out of my embrace quickly, and looked up at me.
"Why did they do that to you, Mom?" he demanded, his brows drawn together. I sighed, and wiped a stray tear away from my face.
"Don't worry about it, Ani," I began, but he gave me a little shake.
"Why? Is it because you are a slave?" I nodded. The next question came quickly.
"Am I a slave?" Shaking my head violently, I knelt down and looked him in the eye., speaking in a low voice.
"No. You are a person, Ani. You are not a slave. People may tell you that you are, you may have to work hard for someone else, but you do not belong to them. You are your own person, and nobody can change that, no matter what happens."
He listened with attentive eyes, and then we hugged one last time. "Can we run away?" he whispered, his face pressed against me.
"No. I can't. Remember this?" I tugged on the neck of my tunic and showed him the scar left from the implant of my transmitter. Anakin felt his own shoulder. "But, Mom, I don't have one."
"Shhhh," I hushed him. "I have to go to the market now. Do you want to come and see Jira?" We have made a few friends here – there are several young slaves that Ani will play with in the streets of the city when they do not have tasks to do – a young Rodian whose name I haven't gotten yet, as I am not quite fluent in Huttese, and a boy named Kitster. The Rodian is quite a little vandal, and not a very good influence, but his family just moved here, and Ani says that he was lonely before they met. He agreed, and we set off.
At the marketplace we bade hello to Jira, who asked us,
"Are you going to see the hunt later?"
Anything at all is a big event; at the center of the city there is a grand arena used for podraces, so I hear (though I have never seen it), but apparently a race had been canceled and instead a group of hunters were going later to track down a herd of bantha that had been sighed near the city.
"I don't know if I will be free," I said, and we began to laugh about whether it was worth it to be out of work to be roasted to a crisp under the hot suns in the name of a little entertainment, and then I noticed that Ani was gone. I assumed that he had run off with some of his friends, and that I would spy them shortly, playing a game in an odd corner, or running about together.
But soon I finished purchasing the large quantity of tezirett seeds I had been sent for, and still saw no sign of Ani. I was beginning to be worried, but I couldn't very well return to Gardulla and ask for the rest of the day off so I could look for my son. I decided to wait and not say anything, in case he showed up soon, lest Gardulla were to think he had purposefully run away.
Then the thought hit me. He asked if we could run away, and then I had basically told him that I couldn't but he could. I have been worried all day, but trying not to show it. He is only five, and doesn't not think about the consequences his actions may have. At last, this evening the question came: where is the little human boy? Then I told what I knew, and a group was immediately sent out over the city and the Dune Sea to look for him. If he is found, he will most certainly receive a transmitter now. I hardly knew what to hope. That he has gotten away? That he will be found?
We wandered the trackless sand for hours under the hot suns and were about to give up when one of the party spotted something not far away – it was a group of riders in the distance, going back toward the city. As soon as they sighted us, they began to head in our direction. One of our group called out to them, and asked what their business was. It turns out that they were the hunting party that left the city several hours ago searching for the herd of bantha, but that they were nowhere to be seen.
"But we did see a lone figure heading south out across the dunes, headed in the direction of Anchorhead. But it's nearly 80 kilometers –" With one accord, the party did an about face and we surged south across the sea, looking for the lone figure. I hardly remember what I was thinking.
At last, the lost herd of bantha was sighted; at it's rear a small figure ran, and then stumbled and fell upon the hot sand. We finally reached him, and I knelt by his side.
"Ani!" I gathered him into my arms, my heart beginning to beat again when he opened his eyes and gave me an exhausted smile. The search party crowded around us, providing a tiny bit of shade in which he was revived with a drink of mineral-laden water from a sidi gourd.
"What on earth are you doing?" I asked him at last, brushing his sweaty hair away from his dirt-streaked face.
"I was chasing the herd away, Mom. I didn't want them caught by the hunters..." he managed at last. I hugged him close. It was a long journey back, and I had to carry him most of the way because my little son kept collapsing from heat and exhaustion, but when we finally reached the city, he had another question ready.
"Mom, if the banthas were caught, would they have been slaves too?" I hushed him, and we hurried inside to get cleaned up and rested as the suns set.