Power

Part 2

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Y’ALL.

QUANNAH CHASINGHORSE

UNDERSTOOD THE ASSIGNMENT.

BTS:

the parents from coruscant to the farthest reaches of the galaxy, who have just become new parents, or perhaps are welcoming their third or fourth

it’s subtle at first, so subtle it’s easy to miss

their baby is different

maybe they’re worried. ‘what’s wrong with my baby? will they be ok? are they sick? they don’t cry like my others, doctor.’

maybe they’re amazed. ‘he has such a way with animals. she always seems to know when it will rain. what amazing reflexes! i’ve never seen a child with such a green thumb!’

it only becomes more apparent as time passes. seasons change, children grow, people talk, and the reality that their beloved child has been gifted with something beyond their comprehension becomes a reality that can no longer be ignored

and then, one day, the jedi arrives

they arrive on the doorsteps of homes both humble and opulent, armed with a soothing demeanor, a benign smile, and an explanation that simultaneously relieves and terrifies

sometimes i think about the horrid realization that, despite a willingness to lay down their own life for their child, despite their attempts to provide to the best of their ability, it is not enough. it never will be

sometimes i think of the tearful goodbyes - goodbyes that are not made any less painful with the knowledge that their decision is in the best interest of their baby

‘will they remember me?’ a parent wonders as they gaze with blurry eyes at the retreating form of the jedi, who carries away their entire world, swaddled in fabric that still smells of home. ‘will they remember my lullabies? my voice? will they remember how loved they were?’

years pass. the absence is a gaping wound that never truly heals. they follow the news, daily, scouring titles and clips for information- hoping to catch a glimpse or the smallest assurance that their child is well, growing, prospering

and then, one day, the news stops. everything changes, and nothing could ever prepare them for what follows

governments fall, an empire rises, and parents across the galaxy are rendered immobile, breathless, and shattered at the uttering of one simple sentence:

the jedi are no more

The siblings who were old enough to remember their baby brother or sister being accepted into the Order and meet a survivor who wasn’t their sibling but may have known them and could tell them who their sibling was, what they were like, that they were loved by their brothers & sisters in the Order.

Some people join full of grief.

Everyone has a cause. Sometimes they’re looking at the bigger picture, the real rallying call, but more often they start out for reasons that are intensely personal, and highly emotional.

You join the Rebellion quiet.

“Why are you here?” cries a General on your first day, and there are answering cries from all around you as your fellows erupt, shouting out their reasons in triumph and fear and regret. They’re full of passion.

You are silent.

“Why are you here?” asks one of your bunkmates after a long day followed by probably more drinking than was advisable, but fortunately they all fall asleep before they remember to press you for an answer.

“Why are you here?” Leia Organa asks you one day on Hoth, and you’re cold down to your bones, and deeper still, and even inside your breath mists on the air.

You look at her and something compels you. Trust. Experience. The honest question in her eyes, calculating but kind.

“The Empire had a lot to say about the Jedi,” you tell her. “Propaganda. And then they’ve tried to erase them. You don’t erase guilty people from history, you punish them. …My sister was one.”

“A Jedi?” Leia asks you, startled.

You nod.

There is a long silence.

“My father knew Jedi,” she confides after a long while. “Many of them. Some of them very closely. Your sister wasn’t a traitor, I swear to it.”

I gotchu, bro: