‹ Prequel: Reaching Through Darkness
A Last Good Bye
Little Talk
Ch2
Tem
Why do moms have to hug? She did it in front of the other boys! And then I had to be laughed at! So after Mom let me go I went over to the other boys and laughed with them. I don’t think they believed me. Then the teacher, Master Nuk, told us to get ready for class. So I went back to my desk with my name on it, “Tem Nightingstar”. Master Nuk looked at all of us and class started.
I have been going to class for a while. Mom says three months. I like class. I like what we are learning and being with other kids. I like most of the boys in there, but not the girls. Girls are yucky. Guys are cool because they like to play around and get dirty. Girls just want to talk and play with dolls and show off their hair styles. When I try to get a girl to play with me, she just screams, yells, and makes fun of me. I don’t get girls. Mom says I will. I think I agree.
My class teaches me a lot of stuff. We learn about the Force, like what it is and how it feels. We draw a lot of our ideas and some kids can write about what they are drawing. We are learning how to be still and how to make our minds quiet. I already know how to do this because Mom taught me. Our teacher says it’s called meditation and that it will help us learn the Force.
We are learning how to hold a wooden stick that is just like a lightsaber. We’re not allowed to have real lightsabers. Mom says they are very dangerous. Mom also says that I’m too small to hold a real one. I think she is wrong, because I can hold her lightsaber when it’s off and when she isn’t looking. It’s heavy, but I can still do it.
Master Nuk says in a year or two we’ll start learning what it means to be a Jedi, but first we have to learn the basics. I’m so excited to become a Jedi. Mom and Mirmo are Jedi and so is everyone else. I think being a Jedi is so cool and neat! Mom isn’t so sure, and wants me to know what it is like to be “normal”. She says being normal is living without using or feeling the Force. At the temple no one is “normal”, but everyone is cool. So is normal bad? Mom says she wants to put me in a “normal” school when I get older. I don’t want to go, and Mirmo doesn’t want me to go either, but Mom really wants it. When Mom really wants something, she gets it.
Mirmo is really cool too, and is my uncle. Only he’s not really an uncle, he just wants me to call him that. Mirmo is more like my dad, but I don’t have a dad. I don’t know why. Mom won’t talk about it and Mirmo just changes what we are talking about. Grown ups can be really weird like that.
Mirmo watches me a lot in the evenings when Mom is busy with her students. My mom teaches at the Jedi Temple and sometimes takes on personal students and teaches them in the evening, and comes back to put me to bed. Mirmo spends the time playing with me. Well, he mostly plays with me. He makes me clean my room and the living room after we played, then he makes me take a bath. Yuck! Baths are for girls and grown ups. The good thing about Mirmo is he makes the bath fun if I don’t complain too much, so I try not to. He’ll put bubbles in the water and let them get really high. He uses the Force to surround me with bubbles. Then when I can’t see through the bubbles, he’ll grab me and soap me up from head to toe before I can complain. He then splashes me with water everywhere and doesn’t stop until I’m clean. Then he helps me dry off and gives me my nightclothes on put on. I tell him that I can take my own baths, but he says that he likes doing it. I think he doesn’t trust me to get clean.
I only go to class for half the day and then Mom teaches me for two hours after lunch. She’s teaching me how to write. I know my alphabet and now I’m learning how to spell. Spelling is hard. Mom makes me write down the word, say it, and repeat after her how to spell it, then she makes me do all of that again. Then she makes me write the word down without looking at it. I know how to spell forty words and we just started two months ago. Mom is also teaching me how to add and subtract and count all the numbers to one hundred. I can almost count to seventy!
Mom gets one day off from teaching and she likes to spend it with me. We don’t do any lessons. She likes to take me outside into the jungle and have lunch there. A lot of times we take Mirmo with us. Sometimes Mom lets me take one of the boys with me if we promise to behave and stay near her. Mom is really good at finding animals and tells me the names of the plants around us. After lunch, we walk to a pond where Mom is teaching me how to swim. I like the swimming and I can float on my back. Mom can’t and she is always jealous. If I take one of the guys with me, I can’t go very deep in the water because my friends can’t swim and mom says it’s not fair to my friend. If Mirmo is with me, he’ll let me go into the deep area of the pond with him. I like to hang on to his back and look down in the water.
I really like living at the temple. I like my family and my friends. I like school and I like being a Jedi, even though I’m not one really. But of all the people, I really like my Mom, even if she does hug me in front of the other kids.
Tem
Why do moms have to hug? She did it in front of the other boys! And then I had to be laughed at! So after Mom let me go I went over to the other boys and laughed with them. I don’t think they believed me. Then the teacher, Master Nuk, told us to get ready for class. So I went back to my desk with my name on it, “Tem Nightingstar”. Master Nuk looked at all of us and class started.
I have been going to class for a while. Mom says three months. I like class. I like what we are learning and being with other kids. I like most of the boys in there, but not the girls. Girls are yucky. Guys are cool because they like to play around and get dirty. Girls just want to talk and play with dolls and show off their hair styles. When I try to get a girl to play with me, she just screams, yells, and makes fun of me. I don’t get girls. Mom says I will. I think I agree.
My class teaches me a lot of stuff. We learn about the Force, like what it is and how it feels. We draw a lot of our ideas and some kids can write about what they are drawing. We are learning how to be still and how to make our minds quiet. I already know how to do this because Mom taught me. Our teacher says it’s called meditation and that it will help us learn the Force.
We are learning how to hold a wooden stick that is just like a lightsaber. We’re not allowed to have real lightsabers. Mom says they are very dangerous. Mom also says that I’m too small to hold a real one. I think she is wrong, because I can hold her lightsaber when it’s off and when she isn’t looking. It’s heavy, but I can still do it.
Master Nuk says in a year or two we’ll start learning what it means to be a Jedi, but first we have to learn the basics. I’m so excited to become a Jedi. Mom and Mirmo are Jedi and so is everyone else. I think being a Jedi is so cool and neat! Mom isn’t so sure, and wants me to know what it is like to be “normal”. She says being normal is living without using or feeling the Force. At the temple no one is “normal”, but everyone is cool. So is normal bad? Mom says she wants to put me in a “normal” school when I get older. I don’t want to go, and Mirmo doesn’t want me to go either, but Mom really wants it. When Mom really wants something, she gets it.
Mirmo is really cool too, and is my uncle. Only he’s not really an uncle, he just wants me to call him that. Mirmo is more like my dad, but I don’t have a dad. I don’t know why. Mom won’t talk about it and Mirmo just changes what we are talking about. Grown ups can be really weird like that.
Mirmo watches me a lot in the evenings when Mom is busy with her students. My mom teaches at the Jedi Temple and sometimes takes on personal students and teaches them in the evening, and comes back to put me to bed. Mirmo spends the time playing with me. Well, he mostly plays with me. He makes me clean my room and the living room after we played, then he makes me take a bath. Yuck! Baths are for girls and grown ups. The good thing about Mirmo is he makes the bath fun if I don’t complain too much, so I try not to. He’ll put bubbles in the water and let them get really high. He uses the Force to surround me with bubbles. Then when I can’t see through the bubbles, he’ll grab me and soap me up from head to toe before I can complain. He then splashes me with water everywhere and doesn’t stop until I’m clean. Then he helps me dry off and gives me my nightclothes on put on. I tell him that I can take my own baths, but he says that he likes doing it. I think he doesn’t trust me to get clean.
I only go to class for half the day and then Mom teaches me for two hours after lunch. She’s teaching me how to write. I know my alphabet and now I’m learning how to spell. Spelling is hard. Mom makes me write down the word, say it, and repeat after her how to spell it, then she makes me do all of that again. Then she makes me write the word down without looking at it. I know how to spell forty words and we just started two months ago. Mom is also teaching me how to add and subtract and count all the numbers to one hundred. I can almost count to seventy!
Mom gets one day off from teaching and she likes to spend it with me. We don’t do any lessons. She likes to take me outside into the jungle and have lunch there. A lot of times we take Mirmo with us. Sometimes Mom lets me take one of the boys with me if we promise to behave and stay near her. Mom is really good at finding animals and tells me the names of the plants around us. After lunch, we walk to a pond where Mom is teaching me how to swim. I like the swimming and I can float on my back. Mom can’t and she is always jealous. If I take one of the guys with me, I can’t go very deep in the water because my friends can’t swim and mom says it’s not fair to my friend. If Mirmo is with me, he’ll let me go into the deep area of the pond with him. I like to hang on to his back and look down in the water.
I really like living at the temple. I like my family and my friends. I like school and I like being a Jedi, even though I’m not one really. But of all the people, I really like my Mom, even if she does hug me in front of the other kids.