| ***** Lilith and Krelo waited at the next bar, and waited, and waited. "They should have been here by now. I don't care how drunk Jemmiah was, Rela's sober and she knows where we're supposed to be," Lilith insisted again. "I don't like it." "Well, what do you want to do?" "We should go look for them. They may be fine, but I don't want to risk it. I've taken a liking to Jemmiah and I'd really hate it if something happened to her." "What is it with you Corellians?" Krelo half complained. "You take ridiculous delight in out foxing each other, but let someone else put just one of you down and all of a sudden you're all acting like blood-brothers." "It's genetic," Lilith relied absently, her eyes glued to the street outside. "Look, you can stay, but I want to go looking. If they get back fine, I had a nice leisurely drive, if not . . ." "I'm not staying. You saved my life once and you're also my friend." "What about him?" Lilith jerked her thumb at Qui-Gon, whom they had propped up on a stool at the bar. "Where's he gonna go? Besides, you already cleaned him out, so it's not like anyone's gonna steal from him." Lilith grinned. "You do have a point there. Fine, but let's be quick about it." The two tall women stood and strode out of the bar, leaving one thoroughly molassed master unconscious at the bar, his head cradled on his arms. ***** "How long have we been in here, d'you reckon?" Spider asked. "Too long." Growled Jemmy. "We can't last in here forever." Spider ventured. "I mean, the air will turn bad and we shall all suffocate…" "Thanks Spider for that cheering piece of news." Jemmiah tried to massage her sore foot. "I suppose you learned all that oxygen garbage in biology class." "You would have learned more about it if you hadn't spent all your free time ogling the tutor." Bit back her former classmate. "He was very…distracting." Jemmiah sighed. Rela sat nearby, shaking as she listened. "If we die, there won't be many who will miss us." She said tremulously. "Speak for yourself." Spider snorted. "My family will miss me. They'll be forever saying how much they wish their Geraldine was still around…to pay back the money she owes them. And think of my poor snakes and spiders and lizards and Dinkos and…" "Stop!" Jemmy insisted. "It's getting like a wildlife holo broadcast!" "Nobody would miss me." Rela mumbled. "Course they would." "Who? Go on, name me some!" The red haired girl's voice became indignant. "I can't think of anyone!" "Well…Qui-Gon, Obi-Wan, myself…" "That's it?" Rela's eyes flared in the darkness. "Three people?" "There's only three people who would miss me, what gives you the right to think you're any more special than I am?" Jemmiah tried to scowl back. "My mother wouldn't miss me." Rela gritted her teeth audibly. "Least you've got one!" Jemmy retorted. "I didn't know this was a contest." Spider rubbed her hands. "Is it my turn?" "Shut up." Rela groused. "Both of you…just SHUT UP! You're driving me crazy!" "I'm not exactly thrilled about this myself!" Jemmy yelled back. "You're so selfish! You're not the only one stuck in here!" "I wish I was, that way I might get some peace!" "Oh, why don't you just close that overused mouth of yours…" Jemmy was cut off in mid sentence by a resounding THWACK to the jaw. "Rela!" Spider hissed. "She's got a concussion!" "She'll have another one by the time I'm finished!" Rela spat. "Isn't that supposed to be me hitting her?" Jemmiah sounded stunned. "You've got a mean punch on you, Rela Quinn! Almost as powerful as my own." "Thanks." Rela said gruffly. "How's the jaw?" "Probably shattered beyond repair. It's been one of those days." Jemmiah winced as she rubbed her newly acquired injury. "I'm sorry, it's just I can't stand this any longer!" Rela groaned. Jemmiah surprised her by clasping a supportive hand to her shoulder. "Look, it's like I say. We'll be fine soon. We just have to keep ourselves going for the moment. Take our mind off…" "Our impending doom." Spider swallowed. "I don't want to orphan my snakes!" "Let's concentrate, huh? I know what we'll do. We'll ask each other some questions. You were saying how you didn't know much about us. Now's the chance to find out a little more. What do you think?" Rela nodded slowly, still shivering. "Agreed. Who's going first?" "Me." Spider said. "Rela, how come you're so awful in enclosed spaces?" "I thought you were trying to take my mind off it!" Rela grimaced. "Think of it as therapy." Jemmy answered. "So what's the story? Give." "Where…where is everyone?" Obi-Wan frowned as he looked round the dingily lit interior of Scruffy Dirk's cantina. Simeon shrugged. "We must've got here first. I can't see anyone except…." His eyes momentarily seemed to jump out of their sockets in shock. "Your master!" "What?" Obi-Wan gasped. "But how? He was stone cold out of it when we last saw him!" "Well he's sitting there now…well, lying there now." Cates replied. "No sign of your girl though. What was the plan for this establishment?" Obi-Wan sighed. "Something to do with a race of some kind." "Oh, Sith!" Abran entered through the open doorway. "I'm not racing anywhere. My feet will hardly carry me from A to B, let alone bringing C into the argument!" Obi-Wan looked up at the sign on the wall. It read: SCALYBACK SHELL RACING. PLACE YOUR BETS! NO STAKE LIMIT! "That's what she's got planned." Kenobi nodded with his head. "What the heck is Scalyback racing?" Simeon wondered. "They're kind of fast snails, aren't they?" said Abran without great certainty. "Yes, that's it! They keep them in a special tank. Then they put them into little track lanes on the floor and then VOOOOOOM!" Obi-Wan agreed. "Could be fun." "You got any money?" Simeon asked. "Not much." Obi-Wan replied, "but I hardly think we're going to break the bank here on a snail race." "Snails." Abran shivered. "Urgh!" "And they probably say the exact same about you, Jay." Obi-Wan smiled. "Let's go pick a likely looking champion before the other get here." They walked over to the tank where all the giant snails were kept and pressed their noses against the glass as they studied them all. "Ugly!" Cates pointed at a particularly hideous looking specimen of snailhood. "Look. It's Hmiol's double. It's even got that dull, vacant look. You wouldn't be able to wake it up if you fried it in a pan with some butter and Sea onions!" "That one winked at you, Jay!" Obi-Wan chuckled. "I think we'll have that one. What's his name?" "They have names?" Cates was astounded. "Look at the number on their backs. Which is it?" "Er…three." Simeon looked at the painted figure on the snail's shell and then compared it to a chart on the wall. "Hang on, number three is called Goodtime Gertie!" "Obviously named by a Tug My Slug reader." Obi-Wan shook his head. "Well, Gertie's the girl for us! Let's put our name down quick before the others want to muscle in." "How much do we SHELL OUT for the privilege?" Simeon smirked. "Yes, Simeon. You can dispense with the shell jokes." Abran sighed. They walked over to the senseless Qui-Gon. "He doesn't look too good." Abran remarked. "Simeon. You're an assistant healer. You can have a go at doing something." "What?" "I don't know…can't you heal him?" "Why bother?" "I agree." Obi-Wan grinned. "It means Jemmy and I can have some fun!" "Ah-ha! He's come out of his shell at last!" Cates chuckled. "Simeon." Jay and Obi said together. "Shut up?" Cates guessed. "Correct." ***** "Actually it would be a lot longer story if I could remember most of it." Rela started. "It happened so long ago, and I’ve tried to block it out for so long." Rela closed her eyes and hugged herself as began to tell her friends her secret. "It was one of the first foster homes I was in. I’m sure it started out as a game, but you know how cruel kids can be when you’re new to place. Since I was the outsider, I guess that they wanted to teach me a lesson. I’m really not sure why they did it, but the next thing I knew they had thrown me in a closet and locked the door. I remember screaming for what seemed like hours, and clawing at the door so much that my fingers were bloody. They left me locked in for two days." "How old were you?" Spider asked quietly. "Four." Rela whispered so quietly that they almost didn’t hear her. "But you know what the worst part was? No one came looking for me. I mean a four year old goes missing for two days and no one seemed to care." Rela paused a moment as a few tears escaped. "TWO DAYS! TWO FREAKIN" DAYS!" she shouted. "The only reason they ever found me was because someone needed something out of the closet. The sad thing is I still remember what she said when she opened the door. ‘Rela Quinn, what are you doing? It’s time for dinner, everyone’s waiting on you.’ In the end, I showed them. I can pick any lock and find a way to escape in almost any situation. Except now." "Does any one else know?" Jemmiah wondered. "Obi-Wan does. The lucky guy was there to witness me freak out one time. I’m not sure if Qui-Gon knows. I haven’t told him." "You haven’t told him? Rela you have to, he deserves to know!" "Gods, you sound just like Kenobi. You two really do hang out too much. If I can get away with out telling him I will, and no snitching. It will be just end up being another entry on the ‘Stupid Things Rela has done’ list." Rela wiped away the tears and looked at her friends. "That’s one of my stories. Now who’s next? Spider! On a lighter note, what is it with you and creepy crawly things?" ***** "Hmm." Spider frowned amidst the darkness. "I'm not sure. I like unusual things. Things that stand out and are…well different. I like being different." "I'd never have guessed." Snickered Jemmiah. "I mean, I can understand why some people might not be keen on spiders. All those legs and eyes creeping across a person's naked flesh…" Rela shivered. "…and then of course they can move real fast. But why don't people like snakes? They don't have legs. They have two eyes…" "They look evil." Rela said, although not unkindly. "I suppose they do." Spider grinned. "But the first pet I ever had was a fluffy sand hamster. Lived for four years. Now you can't tell me that was remotely strange." "What's with the hair and nose rings and stuff?" Rela wondered. "That's what school did to me, I'm afraid." "I don't understand." Rela said. Spider's grin lit up the darkness. "I come from a reasonably well off family. Not that you'd know to look at me. The same could be said for all the kids who went to our school," she looked at Jemmiah, "who either had a good pedigree or were worth a bit of money in the long term. As Geraldine Pippage I was an ordinary person amongst a group of unordinary girls. I decided it just didn't suit me. So I decided to change a few things about myself." "Like the tattoos?" Rela asked. "Yeah, amongst other things. I decided to see how far I could push my luck before someone would say 'naughty Geraldine' and give me a slap on the wrist. But it never happened, probably because my daddy went to school with the principal. That school did funny things to you. It nearly turned me into little miss average dutiful daughter. Jemmy here helped relieve the tension by drooling over the teachers. And dull! It drove me witless!" "I can imagine." "I'm telling you, the day I was expelled has to rate as the happiest day of my life, for which I owe Jemmy here big time." "But if you're so well off, how come you've been working in hair salons and tattoo parlors?" Rela wondered. "Well," Spider considered, "I've not exactly been cast out into the wilderness but they've told me to go get it out of my system. See how badly I cope for a year or so on my own. They think I'll do so badly that I'll go crawling back the second something goes wrong. I think they're worried because I'm so wild. My Aunt Lula was the same." "What was wrong with her?" Jemmy asked. "Nothing, nothing at all. She ran off with a travelling circus and married a fire-eater. It put the spark back in her life!" "Very funny." Rela groaned. "She was a contortionist. You know, one of those people who can squeeze themselves into glass jars seemingly twice as small as them. My mother just shakes her head at my dad and says 'It's from his lot you get it. There's nothing like that on my side!' Poor old dad!" "So," Rela said cautiously, "how much are you worth?" Spider chuckled. "Not telling. Not as much as her, with her rich Aunt and Uncle." She winked at Jemmy. "Oh, don't start!" Jemmiah moaned. "Do you know what that Debutantes Ball was like?" "What?" Rela asked, genuinely interested. "It was 'How are you my dear? That's a pretty name! Corellian is it? What rich family are you from, and what sort of price tag do you come with? Really? That's interesting…I'll bear it in mind.' URGH, I hate that sort of thing! I'm telling you, it's left me cold about marriage." "Oh yeah? What if a few years down the line, Obi popped the question? What then?" Spider asked. "Give us a break! We've only been going out for four weeks!" Jemmy looked indignant. "But what if…" "What if nothing. Marriage and kids aren't for me. If it ever happens I will be most surprised." "You might change your mind." Rela smiled. "I can see you with a brood of little Jemmiahs and Obi-Wans round your feet." "You want to make me ill?" Jemmiah's eyes narrowed. "How big's a brood, Rela?" Spider was enjoying herself. "Oh, six…maybe seven." "No, how about eight." Spider grinned. "Better still, round it up to ten!" Rela's mind was temporarily lifted from their present situation. "Noooooooooooh." Moaned Jemmy again. "That would be hell itself. I'd make a terrible mother." Rela looked in her direction. "What happened to your mother?" She asked, meaning to be gentle and yet her voice sounded gruff and unsympathetic. "I don't really know. One day she was there and the next she wasn't." Jemmiah cast her mind back not altogether willingly. "I tried to ask some of the other women who I stayed with, but they just said not to ask, and eventually after about a week of pestering them for information one of them told me that she had died." "Was she sick?" Spider asked. "I don't remember. She'd had a cold, I think. But that's silly. Who dies from a cold?" "How old were you?" Rela enquired. "Seven, I guess. I don't really remember a lot about her now, except that she had long, dark hair and red lips. When I was little I used to be fascinated by her red lips. I s'pose that's why I wear scarlet lip-gloss." "I'll bet you were a horrible child!" Spider laughed. "I don't think so. Cheeky, perhaps. But that's just me. I was perfectly normal in most respects. I had a healthy dislike of tying my laces and a loathing of mathematics. I never did get the hang of that." Rela, whose own memory for figures was exceptional, had difficulty in understanding. "Why's that?" She tried to shift round into a more comfortable position. "They shot my teacher. I never did get to grips with it after that." Rela shivered again, becoming aware once more of their oppressive surroundings. "That's horrible." She grimaced. "So who were these people you lived with?" Jemmiah raised an eyebrow, although in the blackness the gesture was wasted. "Kept women. Prostitutes. Brothel workers…want any more descriptive terms?" She laughed at their discomfort. "I know what you're thinking. You're sitting there saying to yourself, 'she really has learned by example', aren't you?" Spider and Rela said nothing. "I thought so," Jemmy grinned, "and you're probably right. They were the most human people I've ever met. I don't consider it a sin to want to be like them in any shape or form. I'm not ashamed of them, or what I was forced to be…well, not now at any rate." "So what Kryztan said was true?" Rela asked. "If by that you mean I knew more than I pretended when I first came to Coruscant, you'd be right." Jemmy answered finally. "I used to be scared that Qui-Gon wouldn't want me in his apartment if he thought I was as clued up as I was." She laughed. "Mind you, it led to one funny incident. I managed to con him that I didn't know about all that stuff. He was so mortified at the idea of teaching an eleven-year-old about the birds and bees that he eventually just threw a book at me and fled the room! It was hilarious!" Rela laughed loudly for the first time since they had become trapped together. "I miss my friends, sometimes." Jemmiah said, hugging her knees. "I miss drinking sometimes, but I wouldn't want to go back in time." Rela added. Spider sighed. "I miss my fluffy Sand Hamster." She said. The other two looked at her. "My snake ate him." She explained. ***** Lilith took the wheel of the skip this time around, immediately running it up to its highest speed and heading back to where they had last seen the skip full of girls. Sure, a skip didn't handle quite like a swoop, but it also didn't go nearly as fast, so while the trip was marginally exciting, it wasn't anything that bothered either of the women in the least. Starting from where they had last seen the girls, the smuggler and knight began a systematic search of the immediate side streets and alleys. The bright yellow overturned skip wasn't too hard to spot. A booming kick the side of the skip alerted the girls that someone had arrived. "I can't leave you alone for a moment, can I Jemmiah?" Lilith asked. "You know me," came the muffled reply. "Look, we were just getting comfortable in here. Why don't you come back in half an hour?" "Oh, sure. Kre and I need to hurry back anyway. We sort of left Master Jinn propped up at the bar. See ya in a bit." "But as long as you're here," Jemmiah called again, rather quickly, "You might as well help us get out. After all, we wouldn't want to miss the next cantina." Lilith stood with her hands on her hips, surveying the upside-down skip. "What do you think, Kre?" "I think that, strong as you are, you aren't going to be able to lift it." "Duh! Think you can lift it with the Force?" "Seeing as how I'm sober, I don't see why not," Krelo agreed. "Though, I -was- looking forward to watching you Jewry-rig something. That's always entertaining. Alright girls, on the count of three I'm going to lift and I want you to get out of there as quick as you can. Ready?" A muffled chorus of "readys" came back to the women from the underside of the skip and Krelo stepped back a bit, focusing. The skip rose steadily, if a little off balance, up off the ground and the three girls scampered out from under it as soon as there was enough space for them to squeeze through. Krelo just let the skip bang back down on the ground. It wasn't like she was actually going to make anything worse. The girls had done a beaut of a job banging it up themselves. "Into the skip, ladies," Lilith waved them toward the vehicle hovering at the alley entrance. "No, Jemmiah, -I'm- driving," she called as the girls jostled each other for the front seats and a disappointed groan answered back. "Krelo, my friend, we seem to be spending entirely too much time in alleys tonight." ***** "Is it possible to fix a giant snail race?" Wondered Simeon as he looked across at Dex Berlingside holding up his chosen representative for closer examination. "Yup!" He smiled broadly. "This is the one for me. Frisky Frieda! I even like the name." "I don't want to know who it reminds him of." Simeon said out the corner of his mouth. Obi-Wan looked around in confusion. Jemmiah hadn't turned up and he was beginning to get worried. She seemed to be showing signs of fatigue at long last, but he knew that persuading her to call it a night would be a futile waste of breath. His one consolation was that Rela and Spider had gone missing as well, which meant that they were probably all together. Anyhow, Kryztan Harkley was safely under his watchful gaze and not out roving the streets looking for his girlfriend… Harkley was still finding himself ignored by the women, which was annoying in the extreme but nothing he couldn't cope with. His master had excepted his explanation that he had been defending a woman's honor, by way of accounting for his new facial injuries, with typical trust. He almost felt guilty for his deceitfulness. But there was not a hope in hell of him explaining the real reason. His blood boiled when he thought of Obi-Wan but he didn't dare try anything vengeful. He was in no doubts that Qui-Gon would make good his threats to have him thrown out of the temple. Probably literally. Still, he thought darkly, you never knew when an opportunity might come your way. Kryztan selected his snail. "Think I'll have this one." He managed to smile painfully. "Lady J." He fixed his eyes on Obi-Wan from across the room. "I'm sure she's up for a spin on the floor…" Obi-Wan was stopped from head butting Kryztan with the restraining hand of Simeon Cates. "Leave him, Obi. He's not worth it. He's just trying to provoke you. Don't let him get to you." Kenobi breathed out, trying to rid himself of the anger that had momentarily clouded his head. "You're right." He nodded. "But I'll be damned if his snail is going to beat mine!" |
| A Night to (almost) Remember |
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