Star Wars - Kenobi

after you with a big metal cleaver?”
    “No!” Kallie shrugged. “Well, if he did, I didn’t see.” She bit her lip. “But now that I think about it, earlier I did see something …”
    Annileen was almost afraid to ask. “What?”
    “Well, he was sitting, like I said, with his back to me. And he was in front of this trunk. And I think he was holding something—something special, I think. He talked about putting it away—and then he did.”
    Jabe stared. “What was it?”
    “If I knew that, I would have told you,” Kallie said. “Idiot.”
    Annileen sat, back underneath the spell. “ ‘And yet, when I think about her, I have to consider—’ ” She looked up and sputtered. “What in the Great Pit is that supposed to mean? You sure he didn’t say any more?”
    “Any more about you, you mean?”
    “Kallie!”
    “No,” Kallie said, leaning dejectedly with her elbow against the table. “And he didn’t say anything at all about me .”
    Jabe smirked. “The ingratitude. After you’d let him save you, and all.”
    Kallie grumbled. “Yeah!”
    Annileen struggled to take it all in. “And you say there was no one else there.”
    “I don’t think there was—but I don’t know.”
    Annileen thought. He could have been speaking to someone on a comm system, yes—although transmissions from the Jundland were often problematic. Or he could have been dictating.
    Or he could have that secret family he was taking about. Was that what Kallie had seen him holding—some possession that reminded him of the family he’d left behind? That might explain some of the sadness that seemed to hang over him at times.
    Jabe had another explanation. “He sounds deranged,” he said, rising with his dishes. “Crazy kook, sitting in the wilderness, talking to himself.”
    “You don’t know that,” Annileen said. “And that crazy kook helped save us here—and helped me track you down to the canyon.”
    “Where I was in no danger at all,” Jabe said, wiping his hands. “You were in worse trouble out there alone with him.”
    Annileen looked down. “We weren’t very alone when the Tuskens showed up.”
    “I mean besides that,” Jabe said. “What do you know about this guy?”
    “Not enough, evidently.” Annileen stopped to reflect. After a few moments, she laughed. “Don’t you see, Kallie? He heard you. He knew you were out there. That was all for your benefit!”
    Kallie rose from the table. “Think that if you want. But I think Ben Kenobi thinks about you.” She patted her mother on the back as she passed.
    Annileen put her head in her hands. “I can’t believe this. I’ve raised a sadist and a voyeur! Are both my children insane?”
    Standing in the open doorway with his sister, Jabe answered. “I don’t know, Mom. You’re the one who took off after the Tuskens with the crazy man.”
    As her kids headed off to work, Annileen sat motionless at the table. “He’s not crazy,” she said, her face twisting into a frown. “He just … talks to himself. ” Setting aside her cup, she decided the matter deserved more thought.
    Then she promptly fell asleep in the chair.

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
    “KING OF THE JUNDLAND!”
    Orrin just nodded and waved as the family of four cruised past, cheering him as they departed the oasis. There was no use being modest, now. The vigilantes had won a historic battle the day before, and word had spread across the region. Orrin would see that it reached the Devaronians in Mos Eisley, too. They’d know he’d avenged their partner without delay, and there might yet be hope for the hotel contract.
    Even after the late-night celebration, Orrin had risen early in anticipation of starting his good day as soon as possible. So far, it had exceeded his hopes. Everyone around knew this was the day of the week he kept his office hours in the Claim, and many had visited him. The plaudits from his neighbors were nice, but—more important—people he’d intended to make calls on were arriving to subscribe to the Fund’s protection services.
    Success sells.
    He hadn’t let anything get him down today. Not when Ulbreck had arrived at the Claim after breakfast, armed with a new batch of stories with which to bore the clientele. Orrin would wait to pitch him again on the Settlers’ Call after the man had run out of people to torture.
    Nor had his expensive meeting with Gloamer the mechanic bothered him. It was funny that, while most of the damage the Tuskens had done to