• Chapter One

    The Unlikely Dream

    Quiet. Too quiet.
    I sat at our glassless window and gazed outside at the sandstorm.
    "Karrissma, come help with the dishes!" I can hear mom from the other room, even though there's barely any dishes to wash, there isn't enough food to eat. Watto hasn't payed us in months, even though my brother and I do all his work for him. We are his slaves so we have to anyway.
    "Coming mother!" I answered as I leaped away from the dirt window, all the buildings here are dirt and rock, thats all we have here on Tattooine, because all it is is a vast desert.

    I walked into our small kitchen to see mom filling a bucket with hot, soapy water. She isn't really my mother. She found me outside her doorstep when I was a baby, I don't know who my parents are. She's the only family I've had along with her son who's my age.

    I gathered up the small, wooden plates and bowls and dumped them in the hot water,"Ani, come and help your sister!" mom yelled. In came my brother, covered in dirt and dust as usual. Ani and I had been working on a protocal droid for mom so she will have help around the house when we leave. Well, hopefully anyway. My brother and I have our own dreams and they can't be fulfilled here.

    Anikin and I put our hands in the hot water and started scrubbing the pea soup off the dishes,"Just think about it mum," Ani began,"When C-3PO is done, my sister and I won't have to do these dishes."
    "Oh I don't think so," mom answered as she sat down at a small table,"You kids are more than capable of doing those for yourself, it isn't like your sick or anything."
    Ani and I exchanged looks than started coughing, fake of course, just to mess with mom. The coughs slowly turned into laughs.
    "Really funny," she said smiling,"Now get the dishes done and go to bed, you can use some shuteye before Watto gets you up extra early tommorow. Ani and I groaned. Why can't he do things for himself? It's not like he's sick.

    After we finished the dishes, we ran towards the bedroom door,"Goodnight mum!" we said in unison as we walked inside our room. It was in it's usual state, dirty, untidy. Anikins bed was on the left wall, mine on the right. Above my bed are pictures I drew with charcoal and next to Anis bed is a bookshelf we built...with no books in it, they were scattered across the floor. The unfinished C-3PO was laying against the wall in front of my bed.
    "OUCH!" I exclaimed.
    "What?"
    "I stepped on something," I answered as we flopped on our beds. Ani sighed,"Maybe we should think about cleaning our room every once in a while."
    It was silent, but that silence was broken by our laughter, us...clean our room...pishposh.

    "Lights out!" mom told us from the front room.
    "We might as well, more Watto tommorow," Ani said as he blew out his candle. I went to blow mine out and that is when I saw something from the corner of my eye,"A shooting star!" I exclaimed as I leaped toward the window.
    "So?" he asked. I turned to him.
    "Don't you know what people do when they see one? They make a wish."
    "Come on,"he said as he walked towards the window beside me,"Everybody knows those don't really work."
    I gazed back outside,"Then why do they still do it then?"
    I closed my eyes and made my wish. I hoped it would come true...only time itself can tell.