Padmé could have slept longer if her roommate Dormé hadn't woken her up.
"Hey Missy, tell me how was it last night…..dancing with Kenobi again, huh? Honestly Padmé, I think he's too old for you, something younger might be more appropriate."
"You mean like twenty, twenty-two?"
"Why not...like that student you mentioned once, who was flirting with you."
"Flirting? ...He was pretty direct about what he wanted and that in a dirty way."
"He didn't know you were his professor, you said."
"Anyway, that's not how you talk to a woman."
"Maybe it's his way of sounding interesting."
"I don't know why I feel like you always blame me."
"You're way too uptight and take everything so seriously, take it easy."
After a few long seconds Padmé said, almost whispered. "I met him at the nightclub last night….and danced with him."
"WHAT !?"
"Yes. It was amazing, Dormé, I'm still high. He's as beautiful...like reincarnated Adonis and he wasn't as pushy or obscene anymore, he was still flirting, but in a more subtle way."
"Awww..."
"What?"
"It sounds like…..uh, never mind. I have a plan. Well, you just have to survive until May, and then he'll get his master's degree and be away from MIT. He is then no longer a student and you can grab him and fuck him without bans or remorse, to satisfy your hormones, you know. If you also use your mind that tells you he is the one, then the wait will have been worth it. What do you think?"
"OMG, Dormé, you're always about fucking... but hey, the idea isn't bad. I will think about it." She laughed.
"You think too much and act too little."
"...and you act too much and think too little."
"Two ways, the same result, huh?"
Then they burst out laughing.
Padmé and Dormé had known each other for half an eternity. They actually knew each other since high school. They had lived together since their sophomore year.
Dormé studied law at Harvard, completed bar exams, and was an lawyer at one of Boston's most prestigious law firms, Crane, Pool & Schmidt.
Padmé studied management at MIT where she stayed to pursue her PhD and start the professorial career.
The two were very familiar, one knew the deepest secrets of the other, they supported and helped each other. Padmé loved Dormé as much as her sister Sola and was afraid of the day their ways would part forever, and she knew it was coming.
And this day came sooner than she thought. Dormé met a young man who turned her head in no time, she knew it was him and moved out.
Padmé stayed alone in the small apartment. This was the first one which she and Dormé rented. This was on the top floor of an old house on Bigelow St, a typical student cave conveniently located for both, MIT and Harvard.
Now, she could rent or buy something better in a nicer area, perhaps. Better area costs a lot of money, of course, so she decided to talk to her parents, after all, Sola also got money for the house she bought with Darred. Furthermore, Sola and she shared her grandmothers Thule inheritance and that was not a little.
One evening, after work, she went to her parents' house and after they exchanged the usual news, she dropped the bombshell.
"Mom, Daddy, I found an apartment I want to buy. I wanted to ask you for some financial support...uh, no more than Sola got."
"Well, Ruwee, what can we give our daughter?"
"How much does the apartment cost?"
"1.2M."
"Quite a lot. How big is it?"
"Two bedrooms, two baths, half bath, living and dining area, kitchen, pantry and it's on Beacon Hill...uh, and I just have to drive over the Longfellow Bridge and I'm at MIT."
"Pricey area, Padmé, but if you have to..." Ruwee laughed, "...you can have four hundred thousand Dollar."
And so Padmé was able to buy the apartment. That nice apartment was on the second floor, 45 Hancock St and her parents, as promised, paid thirty percent of 1.2M purchase price. She didn't have to take out a mortgage, only a loan for a completely new furnishing. Not a lot, but not a little either.
She settled in nicely and moved. A party concluded. This was her home now, permanently, something for the future, but she didn't know what that future would look like. At the moment she was single and there was no prospect that would change...either the right one comes unexpectedly. As she knew herself, it won't be that sudden. After Palo and Rush she had become sceptical, investigating thoroughly, but eventually...who knows…
Spring semester didn't want to end and the thought of every coming Wednesday was agony for both, Padmé and Anakin. Anakin was always attentive and kept active in class, always having a matter-of-fact question to signal that he was trying twice as hard. Padmé remained correct and professional.
Spring break might be a welcome break for freshmen, but not for those preparing for final exams. Anakin was always a good student, and whenever he needed serious study for his exams, he would retreat to his childhood bedroom at his parents' house. Since he had no disturbing persons named Rex and Cody.
So this time he locked himself in and learned to get a good average. In mid-May the most important subjects were on and he was ready.
He finished his studies.
Approximately 2250 undergraduate and graduate students were scheduled to receive more than 2500 degrees at MIT's 137th grand opening on Monday, June 9 at Killian Court. Traditionally, MIT opening exercises are held on Fridays. A change was made this year to avoid conflict with observance of the Jewish holiday of Shavuot.
Around 1200 bachelor's, 1100 master's and 220 doctoral degrees were presented. Anakin was among the 1100 graduates who got their hands on their master's degrees. He was mechanical engineer now.
As always, the celebrations on Killian Court were an important event for both, the graduates and their families.
In his robes and mortarboard, Anakin was serious when he got his hands on his diploma, but after the tassel was turned to the left, a big smile appeared on his face, he was happy. His gaze sought his parents and then the woman to whom he lost his heart. She smiled at him.
He intended to visit her after the celebrations, but then she wasn't there. He couldn't even say goodbye.
Padmé was angry with herself, she had given in to her fear, walking away, was afraid to meet him... it could have been the last time she saw him. Running away didn't feel any better. Own stupidity hurt. Dumb.
Anakin was no less desperate than Padmé, but it wasn't his fault that he was never going to see her again. Fate? Maybe better that way. He will forget her at some point... after months, or years, decades... or never.
Anakin wasn't just American, he was Canadian as well. He was born in Vancouver where his mother and the Skywalker family came from.
The mother had no contact with her family, they had rejected her when she became pregnant with Anakin. They didn' like that American, Anakin's father, who had left her shortly after the child was born.
Anakin had never asked about his biological father, nor about his mother's family.
Now, that he got his master's degree, he decided to find the Skywalker family in Vancouver. Besides, he wanted to look for a job there, maybe stay two or three years, gain experience abroad. He hoped that whatever he was about to do, would occupy him enough, that he would forget about Professor Naberrie, or at least think about her a bit less.
Shmi Skywalker was quite sceptical about his plans. She thought her family would reject him like they rejected her when she got pregnant. On the other hand, Anakin wasn't to blame for any of this. Still, she didn't want to talk him out of his decision to go to Canada.
Anakin had one last party with Rex and Cody and said goodbye to twins, who were getting ready to fly back home to Texas.
A few days after he packed his own suitcase, took some good advice from his mother and the last address of Skywalker family. He booked a one-way ticket with JetBlue Airways to Vancouver, as well as a private room somewhere in West Point Gray, where his mother's parents last lived.
The accommodation was shabby, but he had no money for expensive hotels, only a few thousand dollars he made working at Watto's garage on weekends and money that mother could give him.
It was important to find a job as soon as possible. He was Canadian so there were no problems and his MIT master degree even gave him chance to choos, BUT ! The cost of living in Canada is the same as in the USA, his annual salary of sixty thousand Canadian dollars would be half what he would be paid in Boston. Still, he decided to stay. That would show up well on his resume.
Anakin chose the job at Boeing in Richmond. He wanted to look for a better room, or one that was closer, later, to be precise, after he had visited his mother's parents. Yes, they were his grandparents, but he couldn't call them that name, they were complete strangers to him.
A week after arriving in Vancouver, looking for a job and carefully considering what he wanted to say to them, why he was visiting them, he took a taxi to reach the address he got from his mother. W 13th Ave was a nice street with old trees, newer or older houses left and right, front yards well-tended...and then on the left side, toward Pacific Spirit Regional Park, he'd stoped the taxi. He paid and got out. First, he looked at the house with the front of stone. Nice, he thought. People weren't poor...if they still live here…..but the name on the mailbox: Skywalker. He found them.
He climbed the eight steps and stood in front of the door, breathing deeply in and out and rang the bell. His surprise couldn't have been bigger when a woman, who looked exactly like his mother, only older, opened the door for him.
"Hello Mrs. Skywalker, I'm Anakin...Anakin Skywalker, your grandson."
The woman's eyes filled with tears, but a smile spread across her face. She turned her head slightly and called over her shoulder:
"George, come to see who's finally here." She kept smiling, and now Anakin was smiling too.
A man, about eighty years old, walked slowly to the door with cane in his hand, and scrutinized Anakin.
"Really you are...you look like your father." He said nothing for a few seconds and then... "Come in, Anakin."
He was led into the living area and instructed to sit down. Order received, OK. , let's see what they have to say.
Grandfather Georg told him the whole story, from his point of view, of course. Anakin remembered Mother's version, but you can only see the things from your own point of view.
"...and then when she was gone, your mother, and time passed, we realized it was a huge mistake to cast her out. We overreacted, just thinking about our reputation and what the people would say. We thought she would come back, but she didn't, so we lived with the heartache and burden of our stupid decision, through all those years." Pause. "I like watching football, you know, college football too, and then I saw you once. I knew right away it was you...and how many Skywalkers there are...not many...but you didn't make the NFL."
"No, there is much more players who are better than me, and my studies were always more important. I have a master degree from MIT now, which means something and opens a lot of doors for me."
"That's right. Tell me about your mother."
Anakin told everything he could remember about his mother, not so wealthy childhood but great love she gave him, how she later married Cliegg Lars, how she is fine now, that he has no contact to his biological father and many other things.
He learned that his grandfather was, also a mechanical engineer and worked at Boeing.
"Is that the reason I got the job at Boeing?"
"Who knows, who knows? You can live here Anakin….if you want."
"Thanks for the offer, but I'm looking for something close to the Boeing, I have no car."
"Or do you want to be alone... because of visitors?"
"No, no !" he laughed.
"Do you have a girlfriend in America?"
"No."
"No? Such a handsome young man and no girlfriend? I thought women were chasing you in droves?"
"Yes, but I am not interested."
"Really? You're not interested in women, but maybe just in one…that you can't have?" Grandfather laughed, knowing he'd hit the mark.
"You could say that." Anakin admitted and smiled.
"Don't give up, my boy."
He spent a few hours with his grandparents. Grandmother cooked something, they ate, Anakin helped to clean up and when they said goodbye, he promised to visit them often.
As long as he was in Vancouver, he complied. It was no problem to come for lunch every Sunday, he was alone anyway. Now he lived near the Boeing factory as he didn't have a car. He wanted to save and he didn't know how long he would stay in Canada.
He thought of Padmé very often and was sad he couldn't say goodbye to her. Maybe she didn't want to meet him and left earlier. Instead of forgetting her, he wanted her more and more, so his hand slipped sometimes below the waistline and brought relief. He refused to think of other women. There was only her.
Greetings from Germany