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“Are you an angel?”
Padmé turned to the child sitting on the shop’s counter. They stared at her from underneath a wavy, dirty-blonde mop, hands fiddling with a rag and some small item automatically, but eyes widened in an expression of something like awe. Actually, it was the first look she had received from outside of her entourage that was not some combination of annoyance and wary leer.
“What?” Padmé couldn’t keep a small smile from her face. The kid was cute, focused, and held their body in a slouch of familiarity. They clearly weren’t joking, but she also had no idea what they had meant by the comment.
“I…Um. I heard the deep space pilots talk about them. They’re the most beautiful creatures in the universe. They live on the Moons of Iego, I think.” The kid’s face reddened quickly as they realized their mistake. Was she their first crush? Padmé almost felt bad for the embarrassing memory this conversation could quickly become.
“You’re a funny kid. How do you know so much?”
“I listen to all the traders and star pilots who come through here. I’m a pilot you know, someday I’m gonna fly out of this place.” Their eyes lit up as they landed on their favorite subject.
“You’re a pilot?”
“Mhmmm. All my life.”
Not very long then. They looked maybe nine or ten, if they were human. Padmé was used to being the youngest one in the room, but even to her, this kid looked like they had spent too much time hanging out with adults and droids.
“How long have you been here?”
“Since I was little. Three, I think. My mom and I were sold to Gardulla the Hutt, but she lost us betting on the podraces.”
Padmé let the intrusive thought slip out before her brain caught up. “You’re a slave?” Wow. So much for royal composure.
“I’m a girl , and my name is…” The kid opened and closed their mouth. Were they being cautious? “My name is Anika.” They looked torn between offended and embarrassed, but they also held in their breath like Padmé might respond badly.
Oh. Padmé knew a thing or two about hiding your real name, and how much sharing it meant.
At that moment, Jar Jar decided to bop open a repair droid, and bring down half of the storefront in his attempts to retrieve it. Shortly after Anika helped the Gungan resolve the issue, Qui-Gon strode out of the yard with a sour look on his face.
“We’re leaving. Jar Jar.”
As Jar Jar crashed into something else in the background, Padmé got up. “I’m glad to have met you, Anika.” She spoke quietly, and smiled into the eyes of the younger girl beside her. She wished there was something more she could do, or say, but all she had at the moment was a name, and a rather clueless Jedi escort.
“I was glad to meet you too.” Anika looked like she wanted to say something else, but fell quiet as the Toydarian loomed in the doorway. Padmé followed Qui-Gon into the blistering heat.
—
Anika stared at the dark clay roof. The common advice for this situation was to count banthas until you fell asleep, but whenever she closed her eyes to picture the shaggy beasts, Anika instead returned to the same face, over and over. The girl in the store had worn the prettiest braid Ani had ever seen, twisted over the nape of her neck like the curve of a canyon, and hanging down her back in waves of space dust. Her smile had made Ani’s stomach drop worse than the start of a podrace, and the stupid things Ani had decided to say to her made her want to stay wedged in this cot forever.
If the angel girl asked Watto, she would know Anika wasn’t a normal girl, and she’d probably wish she’d never talked to her. Worse, Watto would know she was disobeying him again, and she would catch the end of it for weeks. She could kiss the next few races goodbye, and he might even decide to get off his leathery blue butt and sell her. As bad as Watto was, some slavers in Mos Espa were worse. She had heard the stories.
What was her story going to be? Anika knew she would fly out of Tatooine one way or another. If she got shot for jacking an old freighter, at least she’d get to see the stars again first. If only the girl with the pretty hair would take her when she left…
A gentle daydream dipped slowly towards the head of the bed, and Ani’s breath slowed. She felt safe when that girl was looking at her.
Pain struck. The dark edges of her vision swam as the face blurred, twisted into an older, equally beautiful woman. She spoke words Anika couldn’t quite hear, and heavy, fiery air twisted behind her. She was angry with Anika. Hurt, betrayed. She was crying, and now clawing at her throat, gasping for air.
Ani looked down in horror to see her own hand, clenched and held forward, tied to the energy around the woman’s neck. She tried to make her hand let go, but it only squeezed tighter and tighter.
And then she was awake. She was on the floor, covered in sweat. Mama had heard her tumble, and had come to wrap her arms around her, brushing her hair back with a hand. She was humming a melancholy tune.
Take heart little blue jay
There’s still air enough for you
You fear tomorrow, but have you seen today?
If you’re lost at sea the stars will guide you through
Ani sobbed into her mama’s gown under her breath, and wished more than anything that the hum of the generator in the background was the roar of a hyperdrive, and the stars peering through the slits of the window would stretch into long thin lines, turning from scenery into signpost. If she squeezed her hands hard enough, she could almost feel the starship taking off.