Once Upon a Dream…
by Ruby-Flame Jedi Queen, lover of P/A and of feedback...
Once upon a time, in Watto’s junkyard, a young boy named Ani has a dream…
He is on Tatooine, fiddling with broken machinery as usual. Watto’s grating voice is droning in the background, bit this is nothing new. Anakin imagines the broken droid he is working on suddenly leaping up into the air, shooting fire beams all around the junkyard. The beams of fire melt away all of the coarseness and the slavery and replace it with green meadows and a freedom Ani wishes that he and his mother can taste. It would taste sweeter than the sweetest dish his mother has ever made him.
But, unfortunately, the droid is still a broken heap of metal in his hands, and he is still a slave.
Suddenly, the door to Watto’s shop is flung open! In walks a being, more beautiful than anything Ani has ever seen before on Tatooine. She must be an angel, for she shines as brightly as the Tatooine sun, but unlike the sun, she is a relief to behold.
The droid Anakin is working on falls into a heap on the cold floor. Anakin has no need to imagine it as his savior; SHE is here before him now.
Watto hears the angel come in and tries to pull Ani away, but Anakin extends his hand…
(he has been waiting for this so long …)
…and she gently reaches over Watto, the movement of her body so smooth it even seems to caress the harsh Tatooine air, and she takes Anakin’s hand in hers.
Her hand feels as smooth as the metal encasing of a brand new droid, but unlike the droid, it is imbued with life—with freedom—and slowly Anakin feels himself melt into her soft and radiant embrace.
Together, they start to rise: the angel and the slave boy.
Anakin is not afraid to look down, and when he does, he sees the home he has known all his life fading away into one giant blur of yellow sand.
He is not sad.
(he has been waiting for this so long …)
He only wishes his mother could be with him, but it is almost as though he can feel her soft cheeks, her radiant smile, and her motherly touch in aura of this angel. She is not gone. She is climbing ever higher with him into a city of lights, a city where even slave boys have the power to be free…
SMACK!
Once upon a dream, harsh reality has to flood back in, in the form of pain shooting up Ani’s right cheek.
“No sleepin’ now, get ta work!” Watto barks.
Anakin reluctantly opens his eyes and squints them, defiantly, at Watto. But he picks up his tools and the broken droid, and continues his work nonetheless.
But when Watto isn’t looking, he slowly, gently, lays his right hand over his right cheek.
Slowly, cautiously, but fearlessly…
…he smiles.