| I name this child… By Jemmiah The clerk peered short-sightedly over her wire-framed ocular lenses at the two officials seated before her and attempted to strike a dignified, serious pose. And well she might: it wasn't every day that you handed a child over to any passing stranger! Disposing of children was a very solemn matter indeed! And where there was solemnity there was paperwork to go with it - which was where she fitted in to the equation. Perhaps it might be prudent to frown? It leant the occasion a certain gravitas - and also drew away from the fact that she could hardly see the flimsy sheet before her. Short sightedness didn't really come into it any more. The ocular frames were there because they gave her an air of authority, and because she'd once been told they suited her otherwise boring, plain featured face. In truth she could see little without them - but virtually nothing with them! The two blurry, fuzzy shaped individuals waited silently, not so much as stirring a muscle whilst waiting for the clerk to tie up the legalities. To her left sat a thin, mousy assistant: a woman with so tiny a voice that ears were forced to strain so as to catch the almost inaudible words. Large, headlamp eyes stared fixedly back at the would-be adoptees: she'd never been so close to real life jedi before. The fact that one of them was a towering Togorian with large, gleaming teeth only fuelled her natural nervousness… "Now…" The clerk stared at the piece of flimsy before her, bringing her head closer to the document so that she might see it better. "I, er…think that just about everything is in order. I need to record a few things first of all before it becomes legit, if you know what I mean. Er…" She cast about, looking about the desk surface in search of her missing stylus. "What things would these be?" The deep, resonant voice of the god-like Master Agrikka enquired politely, his blue eyes regarding her with a projected calmness he did not really feel. "Well, er…you know." The clerk let her spectacles drop towards the end of her nose so that she might see better. "Details. Circumstances. Information that your temple might want as regards your little bundle of joy." She furrowed her brow in the direction of the infant sleeping obliviously in Master Agrikka's arms, totally unaware of the decisions that were being made as to his future. "Margee…are you sucking the end of that stylus? How many times do I have to tell you? You wanna suck a stylus - go suck your own!" The Togorian's ears twitched in displeasure at the lazy, drawling Corellian accent, his long white whiskers flattening back against the sides of his cheeks. It had been a long mission, and a tedious one. Corellian's always seemed to cause unnecessary fuss! Never had Samir encountered such an infuriating people in his galaxy-wide travels! Always there were complications…always rules and regulations - some of them made up on the spur of the moment just to cause problems, so he thought. And if there were no complications then they were invented just so as to give the Corellians something to moan about! Because it seemed to Samir that Corellians were very good at inventing rules for others to follow but invariably useless at following them themselves… The feather-thin Margee returned the stylus, looking suitably chastised, dropping neatly in front of her colleague, making sure to wipe the end with her hand before she did so. "I'll bet it's got your teeth marls in it." The older woman peered fruitlessly at the stylus, holding it within her chubby hand. "I dunno…right, where were we?" "You tell me." Master Agrikka muttered under his breath. "Pardon?" The clerk cupped her hand to her ear. "Don't prolong the agony, Atur." Samir begged his fellow jedi with a shake of his head. "Let's just sign the form, grab the child and go!" Atur nodded his agreement. "Details, madam. You said you had to record details…" "Ah, shoozer that's right! Margee, what was the reason for the child's adoption outwith Corellia? Just so as I can record it for posterity, you understand." The clerk flashed a rather wizened smile in the direction of Master Agrikka. "Funny blood, wasn't it?" Margee whispered something in the clerk's ear, then pointed at the computer terminal at the side of the desk. Agrikka watched in horrified fascination as the woman peered at the screen, her nose barely an inch away, before she decided the effort was too much. "Nawww, no good - can't make out the writing." She pronounced roundly, playing with the nib of the stylus. "You'll have to read it out for me." Samir rolled his eyes - not an easy task for a feline - as Margee repeated the whole whispering routine once again for the benefit for the rotund clerk. By the time they had sorted out this fiasco, the child would be celebrating his knighthood! What was so complicated about it??? One near-blind clerk and one as good as dumb assistant…would they ever get through this? "Mini-whats?" The clerk cupped her hand to her ear once again. "Mini chlorians? Isn't that what they fill swimming pools with? How d'ya spell that, anyway?" "T-H-A-T." Samir grimaced. "Sorry?" "Look, if we might proceed we should be very grateful." Master Agrikka began to wonder if the child in his arms needed changing, accelerating his desire to get out of the place as quickly as possible. "We have a freighter to catch back to Coruscant and the captain will not be pleased if he has to wait. And as the aforementioned captain is Corellian I wouldn't put it past him to raise our fares by five percent…" "Sex." "Pardon?" Agrikka sat back on his chair in surprise. "Sex." The clerk repeated. "You know…sex. Gender of child." "Ah," Agrikka smiled in relief at the fact he was not being propositioned. "Oh…male." "Where found?" This time Margee leaned forwards, supplying the answer with her customary incomprehensible whispering and the clerk pulled a face as if to suggest she didn't entirely believe her. "In a where???" She queried, putting down the stylus once more - as far away from Margee as she could. "You're having me on!" Margee vehemently shook her head, so much so that Samir felt certain it would go flying off her shoulders and straight through the plexi glass window behind her. "Well, if that's what it says on the screen…" The clerk had one final attempt to verify what Margee was insisting was correct, and again abandoned it as a lost cause. "Okay…think I've got that. Right. What's next…er, does that say age?" Atur Agrikka felt his spirit sink to his boots. Thankfully the gormless Margee nodded once more to stop further misery and tedium from setting in just when it looked inevitable. "Age…speak up Margee!" The clerk said in a pompous voice. "And keep your eyes off my stylus! Three? Is that what you said? Isn't he a little small for three? Oh…three months short of a year. That explains it! Just as well gentlemen, else I'd have said you're adopting a stunted Jawa." The clerk's round shoulders shook with an exaggerated up-and-down motion, like that of a flightless bird trying to escape a predator. "Okay…name. Does he have a name? No? I don't suppose he does, poor mite!" The female cooed sympathetically. "I'll leave that bit blank." Samir found himself digging his claws into the table surface and mentally counting to ten. "That appears to be it, gentlemen. Except for your signatures down at the bottom…" Agrikka grabbed the stylus, wrestling it away from Samir in his desperation to escape the infernal office, and scratching his signature into the flimsy before Margee had time to so much as blink. "There - thank you - that's it - have a nice day madam - goodbye." Atur stood up, holding the infant in the crook of one arm. Samir had likewise bounced to his feet in one seemingly fluent move. "Don't you want to check the information?" The clerk asked, calling the last part of her sentence out as the threesome began to head out through the doorway, cutting a rapid retreat. "Maybe you'll find there's been some kind of mistake that you…" Too late. Both jedi had disappeared from sight. "Strange galaxy we live in." The clerk blew out a deep breath, taking off her glasses and wiping them on the edge of her sleeve in the vain hope of improving her vision. Some things however never escaped her attention, and with narrowed eyes the older woman turned to the downtrodden Margee, roasting her with rays of distrust. "Have you seen my stylus?" She demanded. *********** As the two jedi walked, matching each other stride for stride in an effort to get as far away from the ghastly clerk and her assistant as possible, Samir decided it was probably safe at that point to peruse the documentation that officially declared to the galaxy and anyone else who wanted to know, that the child carried reverently in Atur Agrikka's arms was now the official property of the jedi temple. Fortunately for the boy he would be too young to remember the near death by boredom suffered by two jedi masters on his behalf. All he would want to know was when his next feed was going to arrive. "Have you see this document? I mean, have you?" The Togorian jabbed a clawed finger at the flimsy. "It's nonsensical! All the words - what I can make out - are in the wrong columns! On top of which that useless Corellian female has put me down as the child's father!" Atur snickered, flicking back his golden main of hair. "I don't know why you're so happy." Samir yowled unhappily through his felineoid vocal chords. "She's put you down as his mother!" "What?!?!" "And then there's all the rest of it…" "What do you mean?" Agrikka began to look alarmed. "What rest?" "Well," Samir growled as he cast his eyes once more at the flimsy sheet, "according to this he's a mole, three moths short of a year, he was found in a box near the docks and his name is Building Site." Atur Agrikka groaned, but did not for a moment consider turning around and walking back to the office to get the child's papers corrected. All he wanted to do was get out of the place and shake the Corellian dust from his heels. The child would not need his ridiculous name on Coruscant. "Docks Buildingsite." Atur almost laughed at the ludicrousness of the situation. "What a mouthful!" "You mean mothful, don't you?" Samir rejoined. "I don't think the crèche masters are going to be too impressed when they see this." Agrikka stopped. "Hold him." "Pardon?" "Hold the child." He repeated, handing the disgusted looking Samir the squirming pink infant and pulling out from his pocket the chewed stylus he had stolen from off the clerks desk. He took his time to deliberately cross out the childishly large writing on the sheet, replacing it with his own neat hand in the space directly above. "There." He replied after a moment. "Dex Berlingside." He held the child aloft in his arms, watching the infant's face crack into a monstrously goofy smile. "Welcome to your new life." |
 |
| If you have enjoyed this story please consider leaving feedback, no matter how short or long. Many thanks! Add Comment |