Chapter Nine
Ten years ago it seemed impossible
That she should ever grow as calm as this,
With self-remembrance in her warmest kiss
And dim dried eyes like an exhausted well.
Slow-speaking when she has some fact to tell,
Silent with long unbroken silences,
Centered in self yet not unpleased to please,
Gravely monotonous like a passing bell.
Mindful of drudging daily common things,
Patient at pastime, patient at her work,
Weary perhaps but strenuous certainly.
Sometimes I fancy that we may one day see
Her head shoot forth seven stars from where they lurk
And her eyes lightnings and her shoulders wings.
In Progress by Christina Rossetti
Luke sits on the floor of the garage, tools and droid parts spread out around him. His dad had gotten him a bunch of droid parts he had asked for his tenth birthday two weeks ago, thinking those would not be too expensive. He has taken apart most of them until he understood how they worked. When he asked permission to cannibalize the parts he had been gifted to improve the ancient farm droids his dad had shaken his head at him and said he could so long as he did not break anything.
Since then, he has been spending long hours in the garage fiddling with the droids and their parts. It is near midnight and the room is so cold that Luke is grateful that he remembered to put on his coat. He knows he should be in bed because he has school tomorrow but he really needs to finish up one more thing on his dad's present. Tomorrow they are celebrating his dad's birthday.
It is not his real birthday because his dad always refuses to tell anyone his birthday. The militia members started a tradition were they would celebrated his dad's birthday on the anniversary of the day he came to Tatooine instead. They used to celebrate it two weeks before Luke's birthday until his dad corrected them to the real date of it to two weeks after Luke's birthday. It doesn't matter to Luke when they celebrate his dad's birthday so long as they get to have two parties in as many weeks.
Luke opens up a panel on the little droid in front of him and carefully places a new microprocessor into one of its circuit boards. It had taken him the last two months to figure out how to modify this droid to be able to monitor the temperature controls of the food storage unit in the large hydroponic station. He knows his dad hates all the time he has to spend fixing the food storage unit and that they cannot afford to buy a monitoring droid.
Luke checks his datapad to make sure he has installed the processor correctly. He was able to find most of the specs for what he need on the HoloNet and had used all of the allowance he has saved to buy the microprocessor which was the only part he could not retrofit himself. Luke knows dad is having trouble with money even though he has been careful to never say anything to him about it.
It has been almost two years since auntie Dama's sister destroyed one of their hydrostations and Luke knows they aren't making enough money from the two that are left. Luke overheard his dad talking to Huff Darklighter last month about getting a loan from him. Mr. Darklighter is Biggs' father and that he is the one who buys most of their crops every year.
Mr. Darklighter told his dad that he would think about it but Luke knows his dad won't need a loan after tomorrow. Biggs told him that Orrin Gault, the highest ranking militia member after his dad, had got all of his dad's friends to donate money for his tenth anniversary party so he could rebuild the damaged hydrostation. Maybe dad will let him help put in the wiring for the new hydrostation?
Closing the droid back up, Luke takes a rag and polished the metal before throwing a tarp over it so his dad won't notice anything different when he takes him to school in the morning. He cleans up the tools and parts, putting them away and pausing every so often to check the bond to make sure his dad is still asleep. He finally gets everything put away and creeps back to his room. He is so tired that he falls asleep almost at once.
He hopes his dad likes his gift.