The Rise And Fall Of Darth Vader Read Online Free PDF Page B

correctly, Anakin didn’t like being called a slave, and he felt stung by her question. “I’m a person” he said, glaring at her, “and my name is Anakin!”
    “I’m sorry. I don’t fully understand,” the girl replied, and Anakin sensed she meant it. Unable to hold his gaze, she glanced around the shop’s interior, as if seeking answers from the assorted scrap that lined the walls. “This is a strange place to me.”
    Anakin remembered his own arrival to Tatooine, and had to admit that he’d found it strange too. He tried to ignore the clumsy, mottled-skinned alien while he continued talking with the girl for a few more minutes, until the tall man and the astromech returned with Watto. The man announced that his group was leaving, and Anakin felt heartsick as the girl walked out the door.
    After Watto gave Anakin permission to leave the shop, the boy caught up with the three outlanders and the astromech. When they learned a sandstorm was approaching, Anakin persuaded them to take temporary refuge in his home, where he introduced them to his mother and C-3PO. He discovered that the man was a Jedi Knight named Qui-Gon Jinn, the girl was fourteen-year-old Padmé Naberrie, the clumsy alien was a Gungan named Jar Jar Binks, and the astromech was R2-D2. When R2-D2 observed that the protocol droid, devoid of exterior plating, appeared to be naked, C-3PO became quite embarrassed.
    Anakin had suspected that Qui-Gon Jinn was a Jedi even before the man admitted it in so many words. He had spotted Qui-Gon’s lightsaber dangling from his belt on their way to Anakin’s home, and he couldn’t help wondering if Qui-Gon had come to Tatooine to free the slaves. Although Qui-Gon revealed few details about himself, Anakin could tell that he was a good and honorable man, the kind that had always been in short supply in Anakin’s upbringing. Anakin admired the way Qui-Gon held himself with quiet confidence. When Jar Jar Binks made the mistake of using his own long tongue to snatch up a piece of food from the dining table, Anakin was both amused and amazed to see Qui-Gon’s hand flash out with lightning speed to seize the Gungan’s darting tongue with his thumb and forefinger.
    “Don’t do that again,” Qui-Gon said with some severity before he released his grip and Jar Jar’s tongue snapped back into his mouth.
    Anakin thought, Wizard! Suddenly, he found himself wishing that Qui-Gon would teach him how to be a Jedi. But because Anakin had experienced enough disappointments in his life, it was difficult for him to imagine this could ever happen.
    While Anakin and his mother sat with their new friends around the dining table, he told them of his dreams of becoming a Jedi. He learned that Padmé was a handmaiden to Queen Amidala of the planet Naboo, and that Qui-Gon had been escorting the queen and her entourage on an important mission to the planet Coruscant when their starship had been damaged, and they were forced to land on Tatooine without funds for the necessary repairs. Hoping to help, Anakin explained that a big Podrace, the Boonta Eve Classic, was scheduled for the following day. He volunteered to enter the race, which offered prize money that would more than pay for the parts they needed.
    “Anakin!” Shmi protested. “Watto won’t let you.” 
    “Watto doesn’t know I’ve built it.” Turning to Qui-Ton he said, “You could make him think it was yours, and get him to let me pilot it for you.
    Although Padmé liked this idea about as much as Shmi did, Anakin was confident his plan - as well as his secret Podracer - would work.

    * * *

    The Boonta Eve Classic was the most dangerous race Anakin had ever flown in. It was a vicious, free-for-all competition, and more than one racer became victim to the high-speed turns, rocky obstacles, and dirty tricks of their dastardly adversaries.
    The race’s start had been difficult for Anakin. When he’d gunned his Podracer’s engines at the starting signal, his