Childhood

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16+ chapter ahead. --------------------------------------------------

After that trip, my father began to take me with him to the workshop, telling me what was what. It didn't feel like learning, but that's what it was all about. I wonder if there are institutes here. Well, or academies other than the Jedi?

I grew up unsociable as a kid, at least that's what the people around me said. How the fuck am I supposed to grow up social, huh? I'm not an old man, of course, but how am I supposed to behave in the body of a three and a half year old child, but with the mind of a twenty-four year old? Fuck you again! Do I have to talk to my father about life? Or talk to my peers about the Dark Lord theory? And I've seen those peers.... In fact, I've only seen them three times.

With incomprehensible to me periodicity traders come to our planet, but my parents, and not only them, always know when the event happens. And exactly one day before the event, the whole gang gathers and goes to hell, leaving us, the babies, for one of the mothers. And women who have a child under the age of three do not participate in this lottery.

The first time I was in our gop company of minors, I hung out with a human woman I didn't know until that time. And she had nineteen young terrorists between the ages of three and eight. I felt sorry for her, honestly, but I couldn't do anything to help. Except to sit quietly in the corner and not show my face. I don't like children.

The second time I was with a woman of the Twi'lek race. Once again I was convinced that the stories about their women's flexibility and coordination were not exaggerated. I saw her, picking off some little brat from a cabinet, manage to bend and keep another one from falling down, standing around the corner. With her foot. No, I get it, no miracles, all within the bounds of what, say, a trained gymnast can do. But damn it! She's just a regular housewife!

So the third time this kindergartner came to us. When I found out about it... I felt so bad for my mom... so I decided to at least keep an eye on my peers. And you know what I realized? Little kids, they're like animals, they don't even have to fight. It's enough to strike a spectacular pose, different in different situations, and press them with your gaze. On very rare occasions, snarling. And when the sister of one of the little ones I cornered decided to defend the honor of the family, I "crushed" her, too. The eight-year-old Twi'lek girl. It wasn't any easier than it had been with her brother. Yeah. I almost felt like a king at the end of that meeting. All the boys under five and the girls under eight, all of them, obeyed me. The rest tried not to mess with me. And, if anything, they did what I asked them to do. And that day was probably the most "sociable" in my practice of communicating with my peers.

In fact, why did I even bring up this conversation in the first place? I was almost sent to my uncle, my father's brother, who lived in the city and had four children. At first they wanted to send me there for six months. I cried. Well, what else could I do? At my present age they wouldn't see me any other way. So I cried. And so astonished my parents, that all at once they dropped the term to a month. I'm almost for the first time in my life began to cry. I did not count when I was a baby, although even then, according to my parents, I was not a particular fan of crying. After such a concrete surrender of my position, I had slowed down a little and was only sobbing. But then suddenly my mother took my side, and all my father could get out of it was two days a week. Which only lasted a month.

First of all, I began to act universal sorrow at my departure and the same universal joy at my return. And secondly, each week I reduced my communication with my parents. It turned out that their scheme only made things worse. So they gave up. How easy it is to screw around with parents, and I'm more than sure that all kids do the same. Not as thoughtfully as I do, but somewhere around there. And that's another reason why I don't like little kids.

Interesting, by the way, is the planet itself, on which I was born for the second time. It is true, though, not at first glance. A traveler arriving here will see an ordinary agrarian planet, whose main income is food. Both plant and animal. Everything here is ruled by the Council, which consists of the thirty-eight richest and most influential inhabitants of the planet. Among them, by the way, is my father. My father, as I eventually found out, is one of the four, EXACTLY four, technicians on the planet. And his first brother, the one who lives in the nearest town, is the second technician. And his youngest brother is the one who farms grains and rickrites, vicious-looking animals that are bred for their meat. I don't know how the brothers split the profits, though. Either daddy is in charge of ONE enterprise, or each of them has a share in his brother's enterprise. But if so, then daddy has a big share, because he's not shy about giving orders to his younger brothers.

The planet itself is at the junction of the Outer Rim and the Wild Territories. On the one hand, that's cool. There's a huge chance that no one will pay attention to this planet. I mean, there's all kinds of Palpatines and Yuuzhan-vongs out there. So if I want to live a quiet, measured life, it's better to keep my head down. On the other hand, it's not even under the jurisdiction of the Republic, and it's a bit far from the Republic, so it would be a bad life if pirates or slave-traders were to come here. But I knew from my parents' conversations that EVERYONE here had a gun. And who would be worse off: the innocent victims or the vicious aggressors, that's the question.

In general, at first glance, the planet is pretty mediocre. But there is something that sets it apart from the rest. I learned about it a couple of months before my fourth birthday. I was sitting at my uncle's, the one who lives in the city, waiting for my father to return, who was meeting with one of the local owners of his own ship. There are only eight of them on the planet, by the way. And yes, they are members of the Council. So, I am sitting there, waiting, and then my father bursts into the courtyard of the house, happy and practically glowing about it. And the first person he saw was me, crouched on a bench by the door of the house.

- Rayne, baby! - he flew up to me. - Your daddy is very, very, very happy!

Then I was picked up and tossed slightly upward. And again. And again. Daddy was interrupted by his brother, who for once, I was glad to see. He's actually not a bad guy, but he's got kids. Fucking spinsters. And if they were older, I wouldn't have a problem with them either. But since my uncle and his kids were inseparable to me for the time being, I wasn't usually happy to see the man either.

- If you drop your son in joy, what will you tell your wife later? - he greeted his father that way.

- Ha! That I would drop little Rayne? Not a chance.

But on the ground, he did let me go.

- Come on, tell me the good news. What happened there?

- Gaari came home today.

- Oh, so he's back," said Uncle with a chuckle. Who my father was going to meet, even I knew.

- He managed to get her, Ram," said my father, turning on the second level of brightness.

- Her?

- The jewel of the krait dragon.

- So that's it," Ram said. - Suddenly it was an idiot's dream come true. I'm not even going to ask you the price.

- Two hundred and thirteen thousand! - My father exclaimed excitedly. - It's green. - And picking me up in his arms, he tossed me again.

- Oh, you. If a miracle happened and you sold your collection....

- I did...

- A miracle! I repeat, a miracle. If you did, you'd be rich by a few million.

- We're not poor as it is," my father said.

- That's right," my uncle nodded. "And if you had gone into economics and left the ironwork to me. ....

- Oh, don't start.

- The Dacari clan could be the richest on the planet," Ram finished. They don't take me for a full man, as usual. I'm not offended. It's only four years old. Soon will be.

- Am I all right? I'm doing fine. Are our families thriving? Thriving. So let's not talk about it.

- You know, I, unlike you, am ONLY a technician," Uncle began to speak in such a tone, as if he had already made this speech a hundred times, "and our youngest only thinks about his animals. But if...

- You'll get something in your eye," said my father, smiling. Holding me in his arms.

- A... - my uncle interrupted. - Your wife will kill you. Mind that.

- What?" my dad was surprised, and then he looked at me. - Ah-ah-ah. Nah, you don't have to worry. I got a tough son. You, Rayne, make sure you get your head in that man's eye. Okay?

What was I supposed to say to that?

- Yeah!

The Dacari brothers are very friendly after all. And that's without any irony.

About an hour later, after saying goodbye to Ram and his family, my father and I went home. All the way home I wondered how to approach my father with my questions, for my curiosity was at its limit. I wasn't going to ask him anything on the way, in case he was distracted from the road, and good riddance to him, but no one was keeping me from figuring out how I was going to start a conversation. If my body were older, I would have asked, but I'm only four, almost... so I decided to play it safe. Even though I knew it was bullshit. Don't think I'm paranoid. I just got here with my adult mind, and I just couldn't take anything for granted. And that's why I was afraid of saying the wrong thing.... Eh, it's hard to explain. Never mind.

When my father arrived home, he put the speederbike in the garage, picked me up, and was about to go into the house, but halfway there froze for a few seconds. He looked back at the speederbike, at the door to the house, and shook his head and said:

- "I don't see why not. I'll have to show it to you sometime. Come on, kid, let's go tell Mama we're all right, and I'll show you something interesting.

We found Sana Dakari, my mother, in the kitchen, where she was pouring juice into glasses.

- Hello, darling," my father kissed her ear. - Look, baby, what a wonderful mother we have. The men had just gotten home, and there was this wonderful drink waiting for them.

Then he sat me down in a chair and pulled one of the glasses over to me.

- So tell me, man, how was your meeting? - said the woman with a smile.

- Wonderful! New consumables for the droids, new seeds, and even a bag of Jedi wheat.

- Wow. You did it, didn't you? I didn't believe it.

- Not at all," he said conspiratorially. - After all these years, I am now the owner of a krait pearl. - he exclaimed at the end.

And his mother smiled. Sincerely. I felt her joy and just a little bit of pride. But not the joy you feel when you get something long desired, like my father's now, but the joy you feel for the person you love, rejoicing with him. Experiencing the pleasure that HE is rejoicing. How lucky they are to have met each other after all.

- You got her," she said, smiling. - What color is it?

- Green. Let me show you.

- Finish your juice first, you hurry.

- I have.

After these words my father drank the contents of the glass in one fell swoop, and my mother, shaking her head, nodded at me. I at this point, knowing my father, and fearing that I would be left here, tried to finish my portion. But because of my age, it was physically impossible for me to drink it all in one gulp, like my father. Besides, my glass was twice as big as my father's and mother's.

- Don't rush, honey, we're not going anywhere without you," the woman said, smiling.

My father took the bag out of the trunk of the speederbike, like some treasure. And in the same way, but from the bag, he took out a small metal container. And with what face he was opening this container...