Star Wars - Kenobi

way.” She looked back at her mother, who was admiring the interior. “But it’s the only way we’d ever get something like this.”
    “Oh, I could afford to buy it myself,” Annileen said. “But I never would.”
    Ben raised an eyebrow. “I didn’t think a frontier merchant did so well.”
    Annileen smiled. “What, did you think the personal deliveries to new arrivals cut into the profits?”
    “I really don’t—”
    “It’s twenty-plus years of scrimping and saving—and avoiding whatever new thing Orrin had for us to invest in.” She ran her hand along the rich fabric on the seats. “But this is amazing. I didn’t think anything like this existed.”
    “It is amazing, isn’t it?” asked a husky voice. The dealer, a happy, squat human in his fifties, patted the rear engine lovingly. He gestured to the backseat. “It’s the extended model, ma’am, straight from Sullust. Extra room in the back for light cargo, or for your children.” The retailer looked at the teenagers fawning over the vehicle, and then at Ben. “Congratulations, sir, on raising such a fine family.”
    Ben stammered. “Oh, no, these aren’t—”
    “—as fine as you think,” Annileen finished. She grinned at his unease. Breathe, Ben. She turned to the dealer. “But the landspeeder looks wonderful, Garn. What happens next?”
    “Master Gault authorized the contract yesterday afternoon, ma’am. She’s all yours.” The seller passed her a pouch containing the vehicle’s maintenance codes. “Be sure to tell Orrin that Garn Delroix provided good service.”
    “I will.” Annileen looked back to see that Kallie was already in the passenger seat, and that Jabe had started the engine. “I’d better go now, if I ever want to see it again. Come on, Ben!”
    Ben followed her into the backseat. Annileen gasped as she sat down. “Have you ever ridden in anything as nice as this?”
    “It is nice,” he said.
    Jabe guided the vehicle out through the wide doorway and into the busy streets of Mos Eisley. The foot traffic was noisier than the landspeeder by far. “Take it easy, now,” Annileen warned her son, leaning forward to be heard.
    “No problem.” Jabe smiled broadly and gripped the control stick—
    —and the landspeeder rocketed ahead, accelerating at a sudden rate that pushed three Calwells and a Kenobi back into their luxuriously cushioned seats. Jabe guided the gleaming vehicle through the curved streets at a breakneck pace. The landspeeder drew close to one building and then another, before whipping under the neck of a surprised saurian ronto. By the time the giant bolted, the JG-8 was careening down another street.
    “Stop! Stop!”
    A second after Annileen yelled her command, Jabe punched the brake—and the world stopped moving outside. Driver and riders were tossed forward into the restraint webbing, which caught them like a mother catching a child.
    Annileen was less gentle with her own child. “Jabe, what were you thinking?”
    “Sorry! I just touched it,” Jabe said, stroking the steering yoke admiringly. “Not as good on the turns as I’d like. But I’d bet Gloamer could really soup it up.”
    “Not going to happen!” Annileen said. Ben seemed amused.
    She looked at her daughter. “Both of you, switch into the back. The grown-ups are taking over.”
    Kallie opened her door and stepped out of the hovering vehicle, while Annileen stood in her seat, wondering where they’d wound up. They were in a bazaar in a part of Mos Eisley she’d never been to before. Standing by her mother’s side of the vehicle, Kallie pointed off to the left. “Hey, is that the Bezzards over there?”
    Annileen turned to look. It was a young couple, yes—but they were older than her recent houseguests. “Not the Bezzards,” she said, squinting. “But I do know them.”
    Reclining in his seat, Ben smiled mildly. “Annileen knows everyone.”
    “Yeah, the man came through once looking for parts for something,” she said. “That’s Cliegg Lars’s son, Owen.”
    Ben’s eyes widened—and locked on the couple emerging from behind the fruit stand, a basket of purchases in the man’s hands.
    “Sad story, the Larses,” Annileen said, only half noticing Ben’s sudden move to adjust his boot. Across the road from the landspeeder, the brown-haired woman with Owen Lars turned, and Annileen saw what she was carrying. “Hey, they’ve had a baby!”
    Kallie started to wave to the couple. “Let’s call them