"Looooooooooooookaaaaaaaas!"
Lucas looked up from the piece of farm machinery he'd been cleaning
(1). He was sure he had heard his Aunt Beru calling his name, but there was every chance that the noise he'd just heard was a gruff drill sergeant ordering a cavalry charge or a hippo clearing its nose. He cocked his head to one side and listened.
"Looooooooooooookaaaaaaaas!"
Yes - it was definitely Aunt Beru
(2) calling. With an overly dramatic teenage sigh he dropped what he was doing and slouched out of the barn. The sun was still high in the sky, so it didn't surprise him that his aunt's tiny form - framed in the doorway of the homestead where she stood - was almost shrouded in a heat haze.
"Yes aunt Beru?"
"Take yourself out of that barn Lucas. Go and help your uncle
(3). He's over by the north ridge talking to some slavers. Make sure any he buys speak Tswana. Go now."
Lucas wasn't sure whether or not he had just been spoken to or telegraphed, but none the less he complied and ambled over to the north ridge where he could make out uncle Owen bartering with a couple of shifty looking slavers. Behind them stood a pair of sturdy looking wagons, chained to which were a host of unhappy slaves of all shapes and sizes. Owen pointed at two of the slaves - a short, squat lad who looked surprisingly cheery despite his predicament, and a tall, thin man whose expression was part dejection and misery and part irritation. As Lucas came up Owen turned to him and waved his hands at the two slaves again.
"Take these two back to the farm, will you? They're in a bit of a mess - get them some overalls and a bath and make sure they've cleaned themselves up before dinner."
Lucas frowned.
"But I was planning on going into town to..."
"You can waste time with your friends when your chores are done. Now come on, get to it!"
With a sigh Lucas pointed at the barn and then at the two slaves.
"All right, come on! Both you! Well, come on - let's go!"
Teeto and Seepo looked at each other, smiled at their good fortune and ran after Lucas.
~~~
The barn was a large, airy building with a high roof and a hayloft. The top level had been converted into sleeping quarters for the slaves - a surprisingly comfy area with blankets, pillows and rudimentary mattresses. Downstairs there was a water pump and a tub for bathing in, and a system of buckets in the corner served as a latrine. Beru served food at the doorway of the house and Owen had erected a small table with hay bales for benches for the slaves to eat at
(4). Seepo and Teeto observed their new surroundings with a sense of grateful relief. Seepo pointed at the bath and almost squealed.
"Thank God! That bath is going to feel so good! I'm so stiff I can barely move!"
Teeto clicked his agreement. As the two slaves bathed and tried out their new farm overalls Lucas paced the barn like a caged animal. Eventually he sighed
(5) and slumped down on a bale of hay.
"It just isn't fair! I'm never going to get out of here!"
Seepo blinked.
"Is there anything I can do to help, sir?"
"Not unless you can alter time, speed up the harvest or spirit me out of this dump!"
Seepo sagged.
"I don't think so, sir. I'm just a humble slave - if I was any good at escaping I wouldn't be in my present situation."
He jangled the chain around his collar for effect. Lucas felt the guilt savage him from within.
"Er...yeah. So what's your name anyway?"
"My name is Seepo sir, and this is my colleague Teeto."
Teeto, happily wallowing in an overfilled tub clicked and whistled a reply. Lucas raised his hand in greeting before standing and sifting through the slaves' rags that were lying on the floor.
"Boy, these are pretty torn up! It looks like you boys have seen a lot of action."
Seepo snorted.
"With all we've been through, sometimes I'm amazed we're still in one piece, what with the rebellion and all."
Lucas spun around so quickly he almost gave himself whiplash.
"You know of the rebellion against the Empire?"
Seepo shrugged.
"That's how we came to be in your service, if you take my meaning, sir."
"Have you been in many battles?"
"Several, I think. Actually, there's not much to tell. I'm only a slave, and not very good at telling stories."
As Lucas heaped up the rags a couple of envelopes fell from the bundle onto the farm floor. Before he could pick them up there was the sound of water spilling as Teeto leapt from his tub and grabbed them, clicking frantically to himself. Lucas looked puzzled, put was quick enough to get a hand on one of the envelopes. It was a solid piece of stationary, sealed with red wax and with neat, copperplate handwriting. On the front was stamped the official seal of the Duchess of Argyle. His heart skipped a beat - this chore was beginning to get interesting.
1. He had no idea of what it was or what it did, but he was feeling sorry for himself and was keeping busy to help forget how universally hated and disliked he was. He wasn't alone - teenagers everywhere at this exact moment in time were expressing similar feelings, but doing it in all manner of weird and wonderful ways. Some of them chose to self-harm, others to smoke and drink, whereas others were busy channeling their inner self-loathing into really bad poetry. Lucas was probably the only teenager in all of Creation that expressed his angst through the sensible maintenance of farming equipment.
2. Aunt Beru was a tiny, sweet looking woman in her late fifties. Although short of stature she was almost as handy as Lucas when it came to lugging equipment, crops and in some cases livestock around the farm. In addition, she also had all the personal presence of a small, localized hurricane. People stopped and paid attention to what Beru said, a phenomenon explained by the fact that her voice was simply so powerful that it overwhelmed the listener's brain and he was forced to simply stand and stare, wondering how such a loud noise was able to come out of such a tiny, little woman.
3. Uncle Owen was a burly, grumpy man in his late fifties. In many ways he was the polar opposite of Beru - built like a bear, yet inwardly focused and softly spoken. He tended to get Beru to relay any messages he wanted delivering, as he was generally too caught up in whatever he was doing to bother interacting with the outside world. This led to Beru getting the nickname of "Owen's bullhorn."
4. Although Owen and Beru owned slaves, they were proud to tell anyone that would care to listen that they believed slaves should be treated like human beings. Human beings who lived in a barn, bathed in cold water, worked without pay, weren't allowed to enter the farmhouse and who had to take their meals outside, but human beings nonetheless. The fact that the farm's dog lived in better conditions was an irony lost on them.
5. Teenagers do this a lot. Generally the words "That's SO unfair!" follow.