ACT VI
SCENE ONE - OUTSIDE
QUI-GON So nothing we to barter have to hand. And without sails our ship’s becalmed on sand.
ANAKIN [enters] My master Watto has closed up his pitch,
To dream his dreams of easy avarice, I
Think he even, longs to think himself,
As kindly in his mastery as is commixed
With goals of making money hand on fist.
Listen good Angel for I see a way, to make from out of nothing honest sails.
Do you have shelter?
QUI-GON We'll head for our ship.
ANARKIN (sniffs) A sandstorm on the wind will close the port, and seal the eyes of wayward travellers, come to my mother’s house there to abide, and take my council.
SCENE TWO - ANAKIN’S HOUSE
ANAKIN Mom! Mom! I'm home.
SHMI My!! Annie, what's this?
ANAKIN These are my friends, I do not know their names, if any names are born by angels hence.
QUI-GON I'm Qui-Gon Jinn, and this is Jar
Jar Binks. The lady’s name is Padme, and
we thank you for your hospitality.
SHMI Take Padme, Anakin and offer her sight of our dwelling and allow her to sluice off the dust of travel er we eat.
[Padme and Anakin go within]
SHMI (to QUI-GON) Why are you here?
QUI-GON I seek a way to win sails from Watto.
SHMI Oh no, whatever Anakin has said, all wagers I forbid. He thinks himself the
bearer of all luck,
But only luck it is, he has not spilt,
Upon the sand the liquid flood of blood to
Waste his youth upon the shining sands.
QUI-GON He may have more than luck. I sense in him
That certain look of eagles in the eyes, that marks the Knights of Avalon and those
Who once at Arthur’s table supped and cheered.
SHMI It’s true he is, especially dear to me:
But say what mother would not laud her son, even without the signs that with his
Birth arose.
QUI-GON What signs were those?
SHMI Yes, signs of which the greatest was
His birth conceived without the help of man, the which my shame believed, lead to my fall and to my slavery, and yet, I can not but avow the truth. Besides he has the touch of alchemy, and has made servants for himself er now. The latest lies unfinished in his cot.
QUI-GON And yet you trust him not to wager, what
Then must the stakes be to deny his skill
And luck that in the skies, birth, and his hands seems writ as large as geese, atop an anthill's peak.
SCENE THREE. ANAKIN'S ROOM
ANAKIN I am constructing an homunculus. A Golem
If you will that set to work, will easy my
Mother’s burdens.
PADME You made him?
ANAKIN He has the frame and body of a man, and yet is still unfinished for I lack the means to grow the skin to coat his back.
PADME Tell me your plan that I to Qui-Gon may
Argue your case, for sometimes adults fail to heed the wisdom that in young wrappings
Goes forth, new-minted to the world.
ANAKIN Do you race chariots within your isle? It is the chief diversion of the Hutts, and every added thrill that they can add, in novelty or spice to the event, they will reward for long their palettes had grown bored of common colours til the clouds must turn to purple to astound, and earth to blue ‘er they will wish good day.
PADME What novel wager in the race would pique the blunted taste buds of these epicures to win from them the price of swift-ship sails.
ANAKIN Myself, for I’m the only child who ever has driven a chariot as fast as those
Grown men, who all their lives and time have spent to learn what I knew in my cradle, in the bone.
PADME Will you then risk your life, to help us
leave.
ANAKIN My mother taught me that all men should help and hence receive help in this universe, or else sit helpless.
I would not see an angel helpless, for that would affront the sky and make the very stars to weep.
PADME smiles Let us share council with the others then,
And hope your plan will end with joy, not pain.
Curtains fall. Drums play. A masque of chariots is wheeled across the stage. First one chariot in black and red leads, then Anakin’s in silver and blue passes it.
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