Star Wars - Kenobi

Orrin winked to reassure him. The boy had to know he had an advocate in him. It was just a matter of time.
    Orrin tied the cape around his neck as he made his way around the castle of feed sacks. “How’s Kallie today?”
    Annileen rolled her eyes. “You’ll have to ask her when she lands.” She pointed down the counter to the luncheonette. There Kallie, recovered from her ordeal several days earlier, was in the midst of retelling the story of her rescue—this time, to some teenage friends in from the fields.
    “ … and he just appeared, like he rode down out of the sky. And there were sarlaccs everywhere, but he plowed straight through to try to catch up with me …”
    Orrin had heard this one twice in the past two days. He raised an eyebrow to Annileen. “Sarlaccs everywhere?”
    “Today, yes.” Annileen looked up from scrubbing the counter. “Wait a while. She’s added a giant cliff.”
    “I’m not hearing her mention your role in things,” Orrin said, raising a brown eyebrow at Annileen.
    “Oh, I wasn’t there,” Annileen said, a wry twist to her mouth. “I haven’t been in the story for a long time.”
    “ … of course, I’m a great rider, and I could’ve handled it. But Ben’s the type of guy who can’t look the other way when he sees someone—sees a woman—in trouble. And he knew he had to save me from certain …”
    “When do I meet this deity?” Orrin said.
    “No idea.” Annileen scraped at a stain with frustration. “You know these drifters out on the wastes. He’s probably gotten lost and eaten his eopie by now.”
    Orrin chuckled. This response was pure Annie, but he could tell she was disappointed their rescuer hadn’t paid a call. Orrin was glad she’d found help out there; since she’d left without her communicator, they would have had no way to find her. But the man’s absence was probably just as well. Kindly nomads had a way of moving in once they knew you owed them something.
    The talk had spread to another table, he heard, as Leelee and the older locals tried to identify the Ben in question.
    “There’s that Ben Gaddink who sells the sand sculptures out of the back of his repulsortruck,” Leelee said.
    “You’re thinking Ben Moordriver,” corrected Doc Mell. “Ben Gaddink runs the apothecary in Bestine.”
    “Maybe Ben Krissle, the card cheat,” a young farmer said.
    “Ben Surrep!” proclaimed an old one. “No, wait, he’s an Ithorian …”
    In under two minutes they had expanded the list of local Bens to double digits—and completely exhausted Orrin’s interest. He stepped to the counter and found his lunch box and fresh canteen in their usual place. Annileen noticed his cape. “Going somewhere?”
    “Subscription drive again.”
    “Again? I thought the Settlers’ Fund met the annual goal weeks ago.”
    “Well, safety’s something you can never have enough of,” he said. “And the response to the Bezzard raid shows the Call’s working as it’s supposed to.”
    Annileen lowered her voice. “Not counting a couple of dead people.” The Bezzard husband had moved back home, but Tyla and the baby were still in her guest quarters. “I can’t believe there’s anyone left around here to sign up.”
    “You know the main holdouts,” he said. “But I think we can start offering protection to farms a little farther away.”
    “They’ll be able to disband the militia in Mos Eisley before you know it,” Annileen said, stepping out from behind the counter with an armload of batteries. “Good luck, champ.”
    Orrin clicked his tongue happily and turned toward the door to the garage. That meant walking past Jabe and Mount Feed. The boy was as sad as Orrin had ever seen him.
    “I’m never going to get back on the range with you guys.” Jabe looked up at Orrin forlornly.
    “You might be able to help us out in other ways,” Orrin said. “And give her a week. She’ll have forgotten all about the other day.”
    “She should have kept Tar around,” Jabe said.
    Annileen’s voice sounded from over the shelves in the next aisle. “Tar wouldn’t have stayed, and you know it! You’re family. This is a family business.”
    Orrin smirked. “Better learn now, boy. Woman knows all, hears all.” But he happened to agree. Tar Lup was a hairy-faced Shistavanen that Dannar had brought in to clerk when Annileen’s pregnancy with Jabe turned difficult. Amiable and ambitious, Tar had left for big-city retail, where he was doing well. Orrin