Drabble #7
Nov. 7th, 2006 02:06 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
matrilEmma is saying her brother's name now. I can't begin to say how wonderful that is. She had been saying mommy, daddy, nanny for some time, and it was worrisome that she didn't have a name for her brother. I had all sorts of panicked theories that it was because he seldom responds to his own name, or because he doesn't say his name himself, or because she thought of him as a non-person...but I really think it was the far simpler fact that "Luke" is kind of a tricky word. Even now she says something more like "Yuuuke." But it's clear what she means, and I'm very, very happy.
And now to finish the first week of drabbles. I accidentally started a pregnancy theme before; I'm going to intentionally continue it today. :P
He Hopes
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At the beginning, it was hard to imagine a higher power of any sort. How to reconcile such a belief with the undeniable existence of cruelty, and slavery? Shmi had, in general, found it easier to bear life's suffering without wondering too much about a mystic power or force that could have halted such wrongs, and hadn't.
Her pregnancy didn't change her mind, not at first. Whatever bizarre phenomenon had allowed her to conceive this fatherless child hadn't made provisions for a way out of the trouble it was going to cause her. Her master was furious when he discovered what had happened, assuming that she had been fooling around with someone else's slave. "If I want to breed yeh," he growled after slapping her face, "I'll decide who's to be the father." She was denied her meals for three days. She feared that the near-starvation would make her lose the child, and was then surprised to realize that she wanted the child to live.
That was when the change had started. She wanted the baby, for all the problems it would bring. And her pregnancy become less of a burden and more of a gift. It helped, of course, that her master lost her to another slaveowner, a shrewd but kinder master who saw her condition as a way to gain two slaves for the price of one. But external circumstances alone could not change her outlook. It was something deep within her, a strange and inexplicable hope. If miracles such as this child could happen, then anything was possible.
Shortly after his birth, their fortune began to improve again, little by little. They were sold from one master to another, each a little easier, more inclined to be lenient toward the soft-spoken mother and her precocious boy. Might they even, someday, see a future where they enjoyed complete freedom? It seemed an absurd hope, and yet Shmi found that it would not be smothered, and watched it grow within her little boy even more strongly than in her.
She had named him Anakin, a word from the ancient language of her home planet that seemed lifetimes away. Its meanings varied depending on dialect - He brings change, The Dreamer, One who suffers, even Bearer of wrath. But she liked one meaning the best, the reason she had chosen the name. In travails, he hopes. Together with the name he had inherited from her, from his long-lost grandparents and ancestors, her boy carried a promise that she believed with all her heart. One day, he would rise up from his suffering. And he would walk the stars.
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Hmm...a trifle cheesy, I'm afraid. ;)
And now to finish the first week of drabbles. I accidentally started a pregnancy theme before; I'm going to intentionally continue it today. :P
He Hopes
---------
At the beginning, it was hard to imagine a higher power of any sort. How to reconcile such a belief with the undeniable existence of cruelty, and slavery? Shmi had, in general, found it easier to bear life's suffering without wondering too much about a mystic power or force that could have halted such wrongs, and hadn't.
Her pregnancy didn't change her mind, not at first. Whatever bizarre phenomenon had allowed her to conceive this fatherless child hadn't made provisions for a way out of the trouble it was going to cause her. Her master was furious when he discovered what had happened, assuming that she had been fooling around with someone else's slave. "If I want to breed yeh," he growled after slapping her face, "I'll decide who's to be the father." She was denied her meals for three days. She feared that the near-starvation would make her lose the child, and was then surprised to realize that she wanted the child to live.
That was when the change had started. She wanted the baby, for all the problems it would bring. And her pregnancy become less of a burden and more of a gift. It helped, of course, that her master lost her to another slaveowner, a shrewd but kinder master who saw her condition as a way to gain two slaves for the price of one. But external circumstances alone could not change her outlook. It was something deep within her, a strange and inexplicable hope. If miracles such as this child could happen, then anything was possible.
Shortly after his birth, their fortune began to improve again, little by little. They were sold from one master to another, each a little easier, more inclined to be lenient toward the soft-spoken mother and her precocious boy. Might they even, someday, see a future where they enjoyed complete freedom? It seemed an absurd hope, and yet Shmi found that it would not be smothered, and watched it grow within her little boy even more strongly than in her.
She had named him Anakin, a word from the ancient language of her home planet that seemed lifetimes away. Its meanings varied depending on dialect - He brings change, The Dreamer, One who suffers, even Bearer of wrath. But she liked one meaning the best, the reason she had chosen the name. In travails, he hopes. Together with the name he had inherited from her, from his long-lost grandparents and ancestors, her boy carried a promise that she believed with all her heart. One day, he would rise up from his suffering. And he would walk the stars.
----------
Hmm...a trifle cheesy, I'm afraid. ;)
