In a matrimonial way

We finally said goodbye to the Trandoshan.

Where: Dee’ja Peak, Naboo.

Feeling: I’ve lost all feeling in my extremities.

Listening to: Jardena.

Continued from here.

Turning to me she said, “I think we’re good to go. Stand back -- I’ll give this a push and we’ll see what happens.”

She leaned forward to give the speeder a push and, ignoring her request to stand back, I added my weight to her effort. The speeder and the Trandoshan in it weighed a lot, repulsors or no. I braced myself, gave it a better shove and I was rewarded with the sight of the speeder floating off, heading inexorably toward the gorge. That was worth the raw, wobbly feeling in the knee any day.

I couldn’t resist peeking over the edge to watch the speeder’s descent. The vehicle was in free fall for a brief time, then the repulsors activated, causing it to rappel off of the sides of the gorge. Jardena activated the detonators and BOOM! The speeder and its dead occupant blew up. The vehicle burned brightly. It looked like it would take some time before it was totally consumed.

“Do you want to watch it burn completely, or would you like to head back? There is virtually no chance of the fire spreading. It’s all rock and snow down there,” Jardena said.

I scratched my chin. I was freezing, my joints were stiffening up and I wanted to go back to Jardena’s cabin, but I wanted to be sure, otherwise it would always bother me.

“How long will it take to burn?” I asked. Maybe it wouldn’t take too long.

She glanced down at the burning speeder. “I would guess anywhere from 20 - 40 minutes. I’ll be in the speeder, I want to get out of the wind.” Without waiting for a reply from me, she turned, headed back to her family’s speeder, and got inside.

I, however, needed to make sure the deed was done. Forty-five minutes later, it was over. I limped back to Jardena’s speeder and sat inside blowing on my hands for a few minutes. The heater was on, but it wasn’t doing much.

“Let’s get out of here,” I said hoarsely.

“No need to ask twice,” she said as she eased the speeder back towards the cabin.

I still hadn’t made up my mind if I was going to stay here or not. Not here as in stay in Dee’ja Peak for another day, but here as in stay on Naboo another few weeks or not.

“Aww, hell,” I muttered aloud to myself as I realized something. I’d conveniently neglected to factor in one thing – my father would be around if I stayed in Kaadara to convalesce. Stuck in the same house as him while doing physical therapy? Joy.

--

When we pulled up to her family’s cabin, she said, “If we’re taking off today, I just need to clean up some before we go. I can call Patrin and let him know that we were here and that the speeder will be in town.”

I nodded. Her brother would be cool about it and keep our confidence. No one else would know we’d been here.

She must’ve noticed that I was limping more as I made my way into the cabin, because she said, “Just sit and hang out, I need to wash some stuff, put things back in place and pack our gear, I should be done in less than an hour.”

Being stubborn, I packed my own bag and put away my own equipment. It was slow going. I thought about helping her do the rest of the cleanup, but the bending and lifting was beyond me. I mean, yes, I could’ve gotten it done, but it would’ve slowed down the whole process, which made little sense. Reluctantly, I found a place to sit and silently watched Jardena doing all the work. Again.

When she was putting the finishing touches on everything, I ventured something by way of conversation. “So, how’s your brother doing?”

“He’s doing well, he likes being his job and his wife just started teaching again. And the kids are doing great, they keep my mom content on the grandbaby front, though she does give Brishen and his wife a hard time about not having had several kids by now.” Jardena smiled and rolled her eyes.

I nodded knowingly. “I guess by the time mothers reach ‘grandmother’ age they’ve forgotten the challenging parts of being around small children,” I said. “I suppose all mothers do that to their adult children, although I must say, my mother seems to have given up on the grandmother idea. She’s very disappointed with me in that respect.”

"I doubt that your mother has ever been disappointed in her baby boy," she said teasingly.

"It's called 'unconditional love,'" I said with an easy smile. "I have to get it from someone," I teased back.

“Speaking of being maternal and such, how is your cousin Kory doing?" Jardena said. "Isn’t he in a matrimonial way?” There was a teasing sound to her voice. She took a seat next me to catch her breath, having finished cleaning the house.

“Yes, he’s supposed to get married in about two months,” I said. “I got a message from him a few weeks ago. He was very stressed. He was asking for my advice. Me, with my bad track record? I told him, let the girl’s mother make all the decisions about the wedding, and leave it at that.”

I smiled, thinking. “I suppose I’ll have to be the one who does his bachelor party. That oughta be interesting.”

To be continued...

See Jardena’s blog for her point of view.

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