Anakin sat slumped at the Lars' dining room table in the grey desert dawn watching his mother sort the mushrooms she had gathered from the vaporators near the house. "Even if I were to leave the Jedi - which I can't for Master's sake - Padme would never abandon her duty to Naboo for me or anything else in the universe." he explained, then sighed in discouragement. "I don't know what to do, this is the first time the Force has ever asked me for something I can't give It."
"But Ani, must it be now?" Shmi asked, puzzled. "Can't you and Padme wait until after you've fulfilled your other responsibilities?"
Her son stared at her. "Wait." he echoed blankly, then the word sank in and he laughed a little hysterically. "Wait! Of course we can wait, it's been ten years already what's a few more?" he jumped up, paced the length of the little room twice, then standing in the open archway laughed again. "Oh, Mom, the universe is in big trouble; the Sith are rising and the Chosen One is an idiot!"
"No, just young. And perhaps a little bit impatient." Shmi smiled.
"More than a little bit." he shook his head. "I can't believe I got myself all worked up over this, the answer should have been obvious: Once I pass the trials I can leave the Order without it reflecting on anybody but me. Master will have finished his job and not feel he has to come too, and Padme means to abdicate in a year or two anyway so that's all right. All we have to do is wait and everything will come out just as the Force intended. " he grinned at Shmi. "But it took my mother to see it. Thanks, Mom."
"You're welcome son."
Padme had unpacked practically her entire trunk searching for something suitable to wear but none of the bright garments scattered around the small bedroom she shared with Beru seemed plain enough for Tatooine.
"Don't you have any simple things?" Beru asked, fingering the amber colored silk of the dress draped over her knees.
"These are simple things - for me." Padme said helplessly.
Beru held up the yellow gown, with its high waist and slashed sleeves and edging of winking green and gold sequins. "It looks like a queen's dress."
"I'm afraid it does." Padme agreed discouraged. "They all do."
"Well they are a queen's dresses after all," Beru said reasonably, then frowned. "It wouldn't matter if nobody but family was going to see you, but this is the fallow season and neighbors will be dropping by ."
"Maybe I should just stay in my room." Padme said.
"You'd die of boredom and Naboo would probably declare war on Tatooine or something." Beru answered. She put aside the golden silk and reached for a colorful short tunic decorated with tassels. "This isn't too impossible. Do you have a skirt or something to go with it?"
Padme went down to breakfast in the tunic, worn over a long straight chemise of thin, crinkly linen with no jewelry and only a pair of combs to hold back her curly hair. Beru, to help her feel less conspicuous, had put on one of her own best outfits; a pale yellow tunic edged with blue and green embroideries over a long blue skirt all of much finer cloth than her usual work clothes.
Cleig grinned at the sight of them. "You two look much too pretty to sit around the house all day."
"I agree." Owen said promptly, eyes fixed appreciatively on Beru. "What do you say we go into Anchorhead for the day?"
Padme looked at Anakin, a little alarmed.
"Why not." he said promptly, then smiled reassuringly at her. "Anchorhead's a much more respectable place than Mos Espa with no Hutt agents to worry about. They don't know I'm a Jedi either."
"Everybody in town thinks Anakin's a gypsy spacer," Owen explained, "Master Qui-Gon thought it was better that way."
"Rumors of Jedi might attract Hutt attention, and nobody wants that." said Anakin. He grinned at her; "And you can be my off-world girlfriend, Padme."
For a moment she was perturbed, but then reminded herself they'd talked it all out and Anakin had agreed it was impossible for them to ever be more than friends. Maybe joking about it made it easier for him.
"Sure." she said as lightly as she could. "But maybe I'd better not be from Naboo, just in case."
Anakin nodded. "Right, you can be my girl from Corellia. Nobody in Anchorhead will know the difference."
Owen changed into a red and tan outfit more in keeping with a festive outing than his usual drab work clothes. Anakin seemed to feel leaving behind his Jedi robe and lightsabre was all the disguise he needed.
Cleig and Shmi were to stay at home. "We'll find something here to keep us busy." Cleig said, with a wink at his wife that made Padme's stomach twist with an emotion she barely dared recognize as envy.
"What do you say we take the Swope Bikes?" Anakin suggested as they entered the garage.
"What do you say we take the skimmer," Owen countered, "and I'm driving!"
Both girls laughed, then looked at each other. Obviously Beru had had a dose of Anakin Skywalker's piloting too.
"You sound just like Obi-Wan." Anakin said, sliding into the back seat of the closed skimmer next to Padme.
Owen shot a quick, interested look over his shoulder as he started the vehicle. "He doesn't like your driving either, huh?"
"To put it mildly."
"Sounds like my brother is a sensible man." said Owen.
Anchorhead was the trading and transport hub for the moisture farms and dewback ranches of the southeastern Jundland. Normally it was little more than a cluster of adobe buildings baking in the twin suns but today it was bright with color and bustling with activity. In the fallow season after the harvest the farmers and ranchers had money to spare and scores of itinerate peddlers descended on outlying towns like Anchorhead to help them spend it.
Their booths and tents lined the main street and the regular shops behind them competed with racks of new goods set out on the dusty sidewalks to tempt customers inside. Not all the traders were humans. Small brown robed creatures were everywhere fingering, and being chased away from the merchandise on display or standing hopefully next to rows of battered droids and bits of salvaged machinery.
Suddenly Beru clutched at Owen's arm. "I don't believe it, Sand People!" she was staring at a group of tall humanoids, at least Padme assumed they were humanoids from their shape but it was impossible to tell for sure as their bodies were completely enveloped in robes of sand colored cloth and their faces hidden behind yards of wrapped bandages or metal and hide masks. They were sitting or standing silent and motionless by bales of intricately patterned carpets in shades of brown and tan and yellow.
"I've heard of them coming in to trade for metal, but not often." said Owen. "Usually they steal it instead." he looked at Anakin. "Seems your truce is holding."
"It'll hold as long as Urglu is chief." his stepbrother answered. "however long that is."
"I remember Sand People shooting at the pods at the race." said Padme. "I gathered they were usually hostile."
"Mostly yeah." Anakin agreed. "When Master and I were here a few weeks ago they were all stirred up, had this notion the Settlers had deliberately desecrated one of their sacred wells -"
"Like anybody on Tatooine would be that stupid." Owen put in.
"Yeah, must have been off-worlders but we'll never know who." Anakin resumed: "Anyway they were getting real aggressive so Master and I went out to talk to them -"
"We were horrified," said Beru. "we were sure Ani and Master Jinn would be killed."
"Settling disputes is what Jedi do." Anakin explained to his future sister-in-law. "Anyway," he continued to Padme, "we had a real stroke of luck. Years ago, when I was just a kid, I shared my water and campfire with an injured Raider, and who should he turn out to be but the new chief of the local clans."
"I thought Jedi didn't believe in luck." Padme teased.
Anakin shurgged. "Luck, the Force, just two different names for the same thing. Anyway Urglu owed me one so he was willing to listen, and Master and I managed to convince him the Settlers had nothing to do with the desecration. Then Master re-consecrated the well so the whole tribe owed him big time and we had the leverage to negotiate a truce."
"I think I'll get some of those carpets." said Beru. But since Sand People have no use for money first she had to buy some scrap metal from the Jawas.
Unlike the Jawas the Tuskens bargained silently. Beru put down pieces of metal and when she'd put down enough another carpet would be rolled up and handed to her. She got six; two medium sized, one very large, and two small. Beru was especially pleased with one carpet beautifully patterned in tones of ochre and yellow. "We don't put rugs on the floors here," she explained to Padme, "the sand would ruin them in no time. We hang them on the walls or use them as throws. This one will make a lovely coverlet for our bed." then she looked at Owen and their eyes locked.
Padme felt another bitter twist of envy. It wasn't fair, everybody else could be with the person they loved, but not her - she cut the thought off. 'Stop it! You sound like a child.'
"I'd like another look at that Treadwell." Owen said. He'd noticed the multi-armed household help droid while Beru bargained for the scrap metal. It was in prime condition, unlike most of the Jawas' stock. "Probably stolen." he muttered, but he bought it anyway.
They stowed carpets and droid in the cargo compartment of the skimmer then went back to shopping, strolling slowly down the street looking at the booths and sidewalk displays.
Padme bought herself a red stone pendant, polished and carved into convolutions by the sand filled desert winds, and strung on a rope of braided glass. And Anakin got them each a pallie from a fruit vendor.
Midway down the street they came upon a number of small, drum like, stone tables and stools scattered over the sidewalk under brightly colored awnings in front of Anchorhead's cantina.
"How about something cold to drink?" Owen suggested just as the comlink clipped to Anakin's belt sounded.
It was Shmi and she sounded slightly worried. "Ani, I think you'd better come home. Your R2 droid has a message from Master Jinn."
"Okay, we'll be right there." Anakin clicked off and smiled reassuringly at Padme's suddenly pale face. "Don't look like that, sweetheart. It could be good news."
But her feelings told her it wasn't, and for all Ani's Jedi control she could see he was worried too.