Chapter 19

Owen Lars picked up Luke and threw him over his shoulder on his was back from checking the last vaporator. The boy screamed with laughter and pounded his small fists on his uncle's back.

"Put me down! Put me down! Uncle Owen! HAHAHAHAHA"

Owen grinned and tickled him without mercy. For once, he was in good mood. They had spent the afternoon doing routine maintenance on the vaporators furthest from the house. He had showed his nephew how to check that everything was working correctly and then described how the machines operated. Luke had listened with rapt attention, always curious and interested in anything mechanical, and for the first time he felt a real connection with the boy.

While he loved Luke like a son, he didn't really understand him. It always seemed as if he had his head in the clouds while Owen was happy with his feet on the ground. Many times he found Luke staring at the sky when starships would pass over their farm on their way out of the atmosphere. He always had a dreamy, far-away look in his eyes that made Owen uneasy for some reason. It was time to start doing something to bring the boy's attention back down to the planet's surface where it belonged.

He knew his stepbrother had been a Jedi and had possessed the "gift of the Force" as Shmi called it. Gift! He scoffed. It was hardly the word he'd have picked to describe the cursed powers that had caused those corrupt Jedi to take him away from his family and use him as their poster boy during the Clone Wars. In fact, his wonderful "gift" had ultimately gotten him killed.

He had heard story after story from Shmi about what a good boy her son was, but that was certainly not the impression he had gotten. A few days after Anakin's abrupt visit, they began to hear rumors about an attack that had wiped out an entire village of Sand People. Everyone including the women and children had been murdered. It hadn't taken him long to realize that this was the group that had kidnapped Shmi and his step brother was responsible for the slaughter.

While he held nothing but hatred and contempt for the desert raiders, he was still shocked at the breathtaking viciousness, brutality, and cold lack of emotion it would take to kill that many people. Life had value, even the life of a Tusken. These were certainly not the actions of the sweet, loving boy Shmi had described, and since he trusted his stepmother, he could only assume that Anakin's time with the Jedi and his use of the Force had twisted him into something ugly and unrecognizable. At the time, he had breathed a sigh of relief that Anakin had been uninterested in keeping in touch and secretly hoped he would never see him again.

When Ben Kenobi showed up on their doorstep with his nephew and informed them that Anakin was dead, he had been seriously conflicted. What if the boy turned out like his father? There was something about Anakin that had scared Owen and he didn't frighten easily. All he wanted was to build a life with Beru and run their farm unmolested. The last thing he wanted was a Force sensitive child.

"No!" he had said with conviction. "Absolutely not! We cannot take him." He'd meant every word. But then kind-hearted Beru, who had immediately melted at the sight of the boy, turned to him and pleaded.

"Please Owen. This may be our only chance to have a child. Please!"

He paused. They had wanted a baby for so long, but a terrible string of disappointment and miscarriages had taken a hard toll on them both. As he stood there, her beautiful face began to crumple and tears streamed down her cheeks. Try as he might, he just couldn't bring himself to refuse her request and so they took the boy. Thankfully it had tuned out to be the right decision. Luke brought such joy to their lives it was impossible to imagine things without him.

For a while, everything had been fine. While Owen knew that Luke was almost certainly sensitive to the Force, he had dismissed it from his mind and pretended he was just like any other child. It had been a nonissue until he started exhibiting odd behaviors. The boy had an uncanny way of knowing things before they happened. It was deeply unsettling how he could tell who was about to call on the com unit, or how he would get a strange look on his face and say the Tusken's were cutting through the electric fence before it actually happened. He had insisted to Beru that it was all just a coincidence, but deep down he knew differently.

What he didn't know was what to do about it. Even the mere suggestion that someone might be Force sensitive was a death sentence these days. The only thing he knew for certain was that no one could ever find out about Luke's special talents. Fortunately Tatooine was far enough away from civilization that nobody paid much attention to it and the likelihood of him being discovered was relatively slim as long as he stayed here.

That was easy enough for now, he thought, but what about when the boy was older? He was already obsessed with star fighters and talked about piloting them around the galaxy nonstop. Maybe he'll get over it, Own thought. After all, he'd wanted to be a professional smashball player when he was Luke's age. Perhaps he'd grow out of it. What Luke needed was to stop dreaming about space travel and flying and pay attention to the here and now and the best thing he knew to focus the mind was good old fashioned hard work. Today had been the start of his plans to turn Luke into a farmer.

As they entered the house the smell of roasting meat caught his attention. Beru was a marvelous cook and his stomach growled loudly. Setting Luke down he told him to go wash up and then turned his attention to his wife. She was at the stove stirring something. Without a word, he crept up behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist. She started with surprise and then relaxed into his arms.

"Owen! You scared me." She laughed.

"It smells good in here. What are you making?" he squeezed her tightly and nuzzled her ear.

"Roast Bantha and tatoes with eopie cream pie for dessert."

"Mmmm…sounds delicious!" He gave her a quick peck on the cheek and went to the sink to wash his hands.

"So how did it go with Luke today? Did he help you at all?" Beru asked curiously.

"He tried. I'll make a moisture farmer out of him yet Beru, just you watch."

"Mm." She nodded as she dished up the food and carried it to the table. "Are you planning to take him out again tomorrow?"

"Yes, I think so. The more he learns the better. He'll be starting school soon, and I'd like to teach him some chores that he can do everyday when he gets home."

Luke came bounding out of the refresher and flopped into his seat at the table. He apparently had overheard their conversation and looked at Owen curiously.

"I'm going to school?" the boy's eyes sparkled with excitement.

He inwardly chuckled, wondering how long this enthusiasm for school would last once he actually found out what it was really all about. "Yes, you're going to school. We can't have you growing into an ignoramus can we?"

"What's an ignoramus?" he said around a mouthful of roast bantha. "Is that like a space pirate or something?"

Owen and Beru laughed.

"No, sweetheart." Beru answered. "It means somebody who isn't educated."

"Oh." Luke said, focusing on his tatoes. He scooped them into a mound and hollowed out the middle with his knife and then reached for the gravy which he poured into the hole. "Look, it's a volcano!" He grinned happily pointed at his handiwork. "Mount Luke-suvius".

Owen smiled to himself. His nephew could be so silly sometimes, but it was best not to encourage it at mealtimes. Gruffly he answered, "Don't play with your food Luke."

…

The next day they started early. Owen rousted Luke out of bed at the crack of dawn and they began their long trip around the perimeter of the property checking the fence line and repairing any snags or breaks that they found.

After breakfast they checked on the remaining vaporators they hadn't gotten to the day before. Once that was finished, he decided to give Luke a break. After he sent him back to the house, Owen decided to do some work on their speeder. The repulser had been giving them problems lately and the vehicle now sat parked on the ground inside an outbuilding instead of floating the way it should.

It was going to be a terrible job. All the mechanical parts he needed to fix were on the underside of the speeder in a hard to reach place. Why did the manufacturers always make repairs so difficult? He thought as he wedged a jack under one corner and began pumping the handle. With a groan, the vehicle slowly rose off the floor. It took some time, but before long he had enough room to maneuver himself underneath where he could reach the panel more easily.

Once the panel was open he began his work. About half an hour later he was still working. A particularly stubborn bolt seemed frozen in place and refused to move. He heard the door slide open and looked sideways at two small feet as they entered the building.

"Whatcha doin' Uncle Owen?" Luke asked.

"Fixing the speeder. Get me a hydrospanner would you, Luke?" He stuck his hand out from under the the fender and pulled it back as soon as he felt the tool in his palm. Hopefully this would do the trick. He placed it on the bolt he was trying to get loose and twisted. Nothing happened except that he severely jammed his finger. He muttered a few Huttese curses under his breath as he stuck the throbbing digit into his mouth.

"What did you say?" Luke asked.

"Nothing." Owen grumbled.

"It didn't sound like nothing. It sounded like a really bad word. Aunt Beru says it's not nice to say words like that."

"Well, your Aunt Beru isn't under here trying to get this bolt loose. If she were, she might think otherwise." Sweat rolled off his brow and into his eyes. Owen decided to give it one more try. If he couldn't get it off this time, he'd just have to call the garage in Anchorhead to come tow it in. He hated to spend credits on things he could do himself, but even he had his limits.

He put the hydrospanner back on the bolt and, moving slightly to give himself more leverage, twisted with all his might. Suddenly the bolt gave way. It all happened in a flash. Without the resistance of the bolt to stop them, his arms shot out and hit the jack knocking it out of place and the speeder began to fall. A flash of terror shot through his mind. I'll be crushed, he thought and screwed his eyes shut waiting for the end.

But the end never came. Something was holding the speeder up. He scrambled out from under the vehicle as fast as he could, his heart racing with adrenalin, and looked around for the source of his salvation. What he saw made his blood run cold. A few feet away, Luke stood with eyes closed and one hand extended, his small body shook with effort as he held up the end of the speeder using the Force.

"LUKE!" he shouted, breaking the boy's concentration. The speeder fell to the ground with a terrible crash and he opened his eyes with a gasp.

"Uncle Owen! Are you alright?!" Luke looked up at him with panic in his eyes and then his knees gave out and he collapsed on the floor, exhausted.

A powerful rage like nothing he had ever felt gripped him and he lost his temper completely. In an instant all the hopes and dreams he'd had of Luke living a normal life were crushed. Someone had been training him. That much was clear. What happened next was something Owen regretted for the rest of his life. He thought about it often in the years to come and wished he could go back and change the words that came out of his mouth for while they eventually smoothed things over, his relationship with Luke was never the same again.

"Don't you ever do that again Luke. Do you hear me? NOT EVER!" he shouted.

"But you…" Luke started, tears forming in his eyes.

"I'd rather die than be saved by what you just did. Those powers are unnatural and wrong and I don't ever want you to use them again." He took Luke by the shoulders, dragged him to his feet, and shook him until his teeth rattled. "DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME!"

"I'm s-s-sorry." Luke looked at the floor and began sobbing.

"You're lucky I don't thrash you. GO TO YOUR ROOM AND STAY THERE!"

The boy ran for the house as fast as he could go leaving Owen trembling with fury. Having premonitions was one thing, but levitating a speeder was entirely another. This had to be the work of Ben Kenobi, but how had he gotten to the boy? He couldn't have, unless Beru had allowed it when he wasn't around. Could his own wife have betrayed him and gone against his wishes behind his back?

Owen stalked across the yard towards the house, kicking a small utility droid that crossed his path so hard it broke into several pieces. Beru met him at the door. She looked concerned.

"I've never seen Luke so upset. He couldn't even tell me what was wrong. What happened?"

"Why don't you tell me? Or should I ask Ben Kenobi?"

Beru gave him a startled look that all but confirmed his suspicions. "How could you?" He spat. "I specifically told you I didn't want him trained."

She didn't even try to deny it which made him angrier still. "Owen, you don't understand. These abilities don't just go away if you ignore them. A person with Force powers who doesn't receive the proper training is much more likely to have uncontrollable outbursts."

"Is that what he told you?" he scoffed. "Stars you're gullible. He'd say anything to get his hands on Luke and turn him into..into….some kind of monster."

"Luke is NOT a monster and never will be!" she rounded on him. "He can't help the way he is Owen."

"Yes, I'm aware," Owen was still seething, "But I'll be damned if Luke spends one more minute with that crazy bastard Kenobi filling his head with tripe about the Force. This is the last time we're going to see of these powers of his if I have to tan his hide with a strap to make him stop." He turned on his heel and stormed off towards one of the outbuildings where he kept his old speeder bike.

"Owen!" Beru called after him.

"Go to hell!"