Sean Tano woke up at dawn, of course. For five years now, he could have allowed himself to get up later, but the habit developed during slavery did not allow him to lie in bed for long. And so, as soon as the sun's rays peeked through both windows on opposite sides of the room, the man opened his eyes and felt a surge of energy and a thirst for activity. He quickly got up, washed hastily, and began to enthusiastically prepare breakfast. Or rather, for himself and the little girl who had recently come to live with him. She was still sleeping peacefully at the other end of the small house on the outskirts of Tatuin, one of the typical buildings of a workers' village near a moisture-extracting farm. Sean had been living in this village and working on the farm for several years. After a hard day's work, this seemed almost like a holiday to him, and often, after finishing his shift, the man would go for a walk in the central sector of the planet, sometimes buying something in the shops, and sometimes just wandering aimlessly, remembering the past and thinking about the present. The man tried not to think about the future, simply afraid to look there and not see what he wanted to see. What had been aching in his heart for many years. Today, after finishing up in the kitchen, Sean went out into the small but clean courtyard of his house, sat down on a bench, and looked up at the clear, cloudless sky, brightly lit by twin suns. It was clear and unclouded, but then, very far away and at first glance indistinguishable, a small dark dot flashed on the horizon, leaving behind a thin white trail that gradually faded away in the air. It was easy to miss, but Sean's trained eye spotted the ship flying high in the sky and watched with a twinge of pain as it disappeared into the distance.
"Maybe my little girl, my Asoka, is there now. How long it's been since I've seen you," the Togrut said aloud, wiping a tear from his wrinkled face. He hadn't changed much over the years, except for more wrinkles and calluses on his hands that had almost disappeared from his palms. And he had more thoughts and desires to spend long periods of time alone, visiting that corner of his heart where he had always kept what he would never reveal to anyone else — memories of Asoka, thoughts about how she was now, whether his girl was well. The only thing that had connected him to her for eight years were these memories and the rare holographic messages he received every six months. They were short and arrived late. Tano kept them in his old datapad and often reread them before going to sleep, admiring the photo of his grown-up daughter and asking the Great Force to bring them together soon. Only a couple of years ago had his longing diminished slightly, giving way to a living being just like him, lonely and in need of care and warmth from a loved one, longing just as much for the loss of the last person he had ever known. It was a little Torguta girl whom Sean met at the market in Mos-Espa, where she was begging and stealing from the merchants. This annoyed them terribly, and they often beat the young beggar, not even noticing the unusual way she snatched fruit and pastries from them. She would simply hold out her small hand, and whatever she wanted would seem to fly right into it. She was dirty and ragged, and she greedily devoured the stale loaf of bread she had managed to get. However, she was not allowed to eat her fill. A merchant arrived, from whom she constantly stole food, and who was extremely angry today with the customers who were avoiding his stall. When he saw the girl, he decided to take out his frustration on her. He pulled a whip from behind his back and was about to flog the unfortunate girl when he was suddenly grabbed by someone's strong hand. It was Sean, who, as always, had decided to take a walk after work. The merchant tried to break free, but the togrut twisted his arm behind his back and he was forced to promise that he would not touch the "little brat" again. Sean was about to leave when he suddenly felt a small hand clasp his palm. He bent down and saw the little girl, who was looking at him and speaking softly and timidly:
"Thank you.
Her eyes were full of tears and a crazy, almost impossible hope that something good could still happen in her little life. It was a timid hope, almost crushed by the realisation that it could never come true. She had already seen too much in her seven years. Sean saw all this and, unable to bear the small but terribly unbearable pain of her suffering heart, said involuntarily, looking at the girl:
"Will you come live with me?"
Togruta paused for a moment, as if she had misheard, and at the same time, with adult deliberation, weighed all the pros and cons of the offer. Apparently, she found more pros, because the next moment she said doubtfully:
"You won't beat me?"
Sean almost cried and hurried to assure the girl that she had nothing to fear in his house. He picked her up and took her to his home. Then he fetched some water from the farm and told her to wash up and put on clean clothes — Asoka's old dress. The girl was instantly transformed and looked like her peers, who were happy with their parents. At dinner, she said that her name was O'Well, that she had recently been orphaned and had nowhere to live. Now that she had a roof over her head and someone willing to take care of her, the girl tried with all her might to please her second father, helping around the farm and trying not to make any noise when he was resting. Gradually, Sean grew accustomed to Owell, appreciating her helpfulness and modesty, and even refrained from scolding her when she once, seeing the C-3PO robot that Asoka had not finished building in the corner, she took it out into the yard, went to the scrap yard, brought back the right parts, and made beautiful golden shields to cover the wires and gears. Only then, having done her job, did the little Togruta become terribly embarrassed and hide behind the house, where Sean found her when he returned from work. The man was very pleased with his little stepdaughter's resourcefulness and treated her to sweets, and the robot finally took on its finished appearance and was no less pleased with it.
"Master Owel, 3RO loves you!" he said, his eyes shining. So peace and quiet reigned in the house, clouded only by the father's worries about his daughter. Two years passed, and today, before going to work, the elderly togrut once again became lost in his memories, sharing them only with the silence of the early morning. Soon, Owel woke up and ran out into the yard, standing quietly behind the bench so as not to disturb her adoptive father's thoughts. But the man already sensed her presence and turned around. The girl was wearing a pink sundress and was barefoot. She reminded him of his daughter in some subtle way, although, apart from their race, there was no particular resemblance between them. Ouela was thin, almost transparent, with dark purple skin, and the stripes on her lekka and montralla had a lilac hue. Her green eyes shone with an interest in life and a timid desire to help.
"Good morning, little one," Sean smiled, stroking her head. Ouela responded by rubbing her cheek against his palm.
"Were you thinking about your daughter again?" the sensitive girl guessed easily. "Don't worry, she's not here because she doesn't want to be, but because there's always a lot of work to do in the Order, old Ben told me."
Sean just smiled sadly. He knew all this as well as she did, but it didn't make it any easier for him. This sweet, kind girl could only help him overcome these difficult thoughts to a certain extent, but she couldn't take them away completely. She understood this and therefore tried not to remind the man about it unnecessarily, so as not to disturb an old wound. He understood this too and was very grateful to Owel. Now he was pleasantly surprised by such delicacy and hastened to cheer up the girl.
"Thank you, dear, you know how to comfort an old man," he said with feeling.
"You're not old," Owel waved her hands immediately. "You're the best there is," and she kissed him on the cheek.
"It's good to have you, little one," he replied, finally moved. "After work today, I'll bring you something you like."
The girl hugged the man happily, and they returned to the house for breakfast, after which Sean went to the farm. As soon as he arrived, he realised that it was going to be a difficult day. The owner, a very large man with an unkind face and greedy eyes, was particularly demanding and angry. He constantly yelled at the workers and picked on them for no apparent reason. Later, Sean was told that one of the workers had taken it upon himself to drain water from the condenser in the evenings and take it home for personal use. This was strictly forbidden. Water was distributed to the residents of the village once a week, in quantities strictly calculated for food and washing. A certain amount per resident. And now, for a week, there had been a shortage of enough water to provide half the workers in the village with enough to drink and wash themselves. This posed a serious problem for the owner when it came to paying taxes to Jabba. This drove the owner into a rage, and he set himself the goal of catching the thief and taking out all his anger on him for humiliating him in front of the khatt, in an attempt to beg for a deferral of the debt payment. But time passed, and the thief was not found, and the debt grew, and Jabba was losing patience, reminding the man more and more often of the need to pay, otherwise threatening to raze his miserable farm to the ground and make his daughter his chief slave and concubine. This had the strongest effect, because his daughter was the only person in the world he loved, and so the farmer decided to catch the ugly thief today, not going home until they caught someone who at least roughly matched the description. However, he already had one clue, obtained at the end of the working day — a video recording from an outdoor condenser showed a short, thin figure in a cloak, the hood of which had fallen off briefly, inadvertently revealing the criminal. The owner stubbornly refused to believe it and decided to check his thoughts today, staying at work until nightfall. He didn't have to wait long, literally until the end of today's shift. The criminal appeared five minutes later, without hesitation.
"Grab him!" the owner shouted to his guards, and they immediately rushed towards the looter, without even thinking to find out if he was really a criminal or if he had been led to the condenser by a completely different, simpler and more harmless motive.
At that very moment, little Owel sat by the window, looking at the darkening courtyard and waiting for her adoptive father to arrive.
***
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