Full Time Job

Chapter 19.1 – The Peach Boy

When Jango came home, he noticed that Tomoe was not only dressed up as carefully as the evening when she had served Oniro. She had set up a wide and comfortable looking bedding and a gorgeously dyed mosquito net in the second room already. Royal treatment? For him? Tomoe certainly knew that he preferred sleeping in the pilot’s seat of the TIV... unless... No, he wouldn’t dare to hope that. She wasn’t ready to kiss him yet and such hopes would only lead to disappointment.



She was quiet and there was a certain tension in her that had not been there before. Like a nervous feline, her toes dug a little deeper into the mats as she served up dinner, the trail of her robe swishing over the floor as when she turned a little too briskly. There was a plate with finely sliced raw fish, black salty sauce and spicy green and white radish, followed by the rest of goat meat in a stew. It had taken a while but Tomoe had finally learned that he wanted her to sit with them during dinner. He loved her cooking on the fireplace. It was the perfect excuse to watch her hungrily... it gave him an alibi just in case... the dessert consisted of small cooled and sliced pancake-rolls had been filled with a fruit paste, …yes, he did notice.



Sitting in the shadows right outside of the fire shine, his dark eyes followed her as she put Boba to bed upstairs - her sleeping place. ‘Let her be’, he thought. He could pick up his son later, while she called the limo. He hoped she would use the moment of privacy to talk to him. He could not force her. Oniro had been right. This bond had become his strongest argument in this mine field of social relationships.



He could hear her telling Boba a story in low voice; he had to listen closely to pick up the words... The story was a longish one and had to do with a giant peach, a boy, a bunch of animals and monsters and lots of fighting...



***



Once upon a time there was an old man and his old wife living in the hills not too far from here. The old man was a woodcutter. He and his wife were very sad and lonely because they had no children. One day the old man went into the mountains to cut firewood and the old woman went to the river to wash some clothes.



No sooner had the old woman begun her washing than she was very surprised to see a big peach come floating down the river. It was the biggest peach she'd ever seen in all her life. She pulled the peach out of the river with a bend stick and decided to take it home and give it to the old man for his supper that night.



Late in the afternoon the old man came home, and the old woman said to him: "Look what a wonderful peach I found for your supper." The old man said it was truly a beautiful peach. He was so hungry that he said: "Let's divide it and eat it right away."



So the old woman brought her biggest knife from the kitchen and got ready to slice the peach in halves. But just then there was the sound of a human voice from inside the peach. "Wait! Don't cut me!" said the voice. Once the old woman cut into the peach carefully, it split open, and a beautiful baby boy jumped out of the peach.



The old man and woman were astounded. But the baby said: "Have a nice meal and don't be afraid. The Gods of Heaven saw how lonely you were without any children, so they sent me to be your son."



The old man and woman were very happy, and they took the baby to be their son. Since he was born from a peach, they named him Momotaro, which means Peach Boy. The fruit had not only tasted like heaven, once they ate from it, they lost half of the years pressing down on them. They loved Momotaro very much and raised him to be a fine boy.



When Momotaro was about thirteen years old, he went to his father and said: "Father, you have always been very kind to me. Now I am a big boy and I must do something to help my clan. In a distant part of the sea there is an island named Ogre Island. Many wicked ogres live there, and they often come to our land and do bad things like carrying people away and stealing their things. So I'm going to go to Ogre Island and fight them and bring back the treasure which they have piled up there. Please let me do this."



The old man was surprised to hear this, but he was also very proud of Momotaro for wanting to help other people. So he and the old woman helped Momotaro get ready for his journey to Ogre Island. The old man gave him a long cutting blade and an armour made from thread and bamboo, and the old woman fixed him a good lunch of millet dumplings. Then Momotaro began his journey, promising his parents that he would come back soon.



Momotaro went walking toward the sea. It was a long way. As he went along he met a dog laying by the dirt track. The dog was a rugged animal, its ribs poking against the spotted fur since it hadn’t been feed for days. The lonely dog was moody. It had run too far to be kicked out from the shadow of the old thick tree by just anybody, so as the jolly boy disturbed his afternoon nap, it got angry.



The dog growled at Momotaro and was about to bite him, but Momotaro saw what a poor animal it was and gave him one of the dumplings. He then told the spotted dog that he was going to fight the ogres on Ogre Island. To Momotaro surprise, the dog agreed to come along too and help him, since he had no home to go back to after an ogre-raid he couldn’t have fend off alone.



Momotaro and the spotted dog kept on walking and soon they met a monkey. “Led on a leash by a kid? What happened to you ol’ dog?” the monkey mocked. – “Still enough fight left in me to bite your red bottom!” The dog barked back. But when the spotted dog and the monkey started to have a fight, Momotaro explained to the monkey that he and the spotted dog were going to fight the ogres on Ogre Island. ‘This must be the greatest adventure in my life,’ the monkey thought and asked if he couldn't go with them. So Momotaro gave the monkey a dumpling and let the curious monkey come with them.



Momotaro and the spotted dog and the monkey kept on walking. Suddenly they met a pheasant. The spotted dog and the monkey and the pheasant were about to start fighting, but when the pheasant heard that Momotaro was going to fight the ogres on Ogre Island, he asked if he could go too. While only his speed had saved him from the dog chasing him once or twice, his long-time adversary looked well-fed now and the kid by its side didn’t open the hunt. The ogres had burned down the wood he was usually hiding in. The pheasant was eager to get them back for that in their home. So Momotaro gave the pheasant a dumpling and told him to come along.



So, with Momotaro as their general, the spotted dog and the curious monkey and the speedy pheasant, who usually hated each other, all became good friends and followed Momotaro faithfully. They walked a long, long way, and finally reached the sea. At the edge of the sea Momotaro built a boat and they started across the sea toward Ogre Island.



When they came within sight of the island, they could see that the ogres had a very strong fort there. And there were many, many ogres. Some of them were red, some blue, and some black.



First the pheasant flew over the walls of the fort and began to peck at the ogres' heads. They all tried to hit the pheasant with their clubs, but he was very quick and dodged all their blows. And while the ogres weren't looking, the curious monkey slipped up and opened the gate of the fort. Then Momotaro and the spotted dog rushed into the fort and started fighting the ogres too.



It was a terrible battle! The pheasant pecked at the heads and eyes of the wicked ogres. And the monkey clawed at them. And the spotted dog bit them. And Momotaro cut them with his blade. At last the ogres were completely defeated. They all bowed down low before Momotaro and promised never to do wicked things again. Then they brought Momotaro all the treasure they had stored in the fort.



It was the most wonderful treasure you can imagine. There was much gold and silver and many precious jewels. There was an invisible coat and hat, a hammer that made a piece of gold every time you hit it on the ground, and many other wonderful things. Momotaro and his three friends carried all this in their boat back to the land. Then they made a cart and put all the treasure in the cart and pulled it back to Momotaro's house.



How happy the old man and woman were when they saw their son return safely from Ogre Island! They were very rich now with all the treasure that Momotaro had brought. The dog, the monkey and the pheasant never argued again and they all lived together very, very, happily...





When Tomoe finished her narration and pulled up the padded blanket, Boba knew all too well it was still early. Mom had told him a good, long story, yes, but he could close his eyes, breath evenly, fake sleep and listen. Adults always made the mistake to think kids in bed were sleeping like babies.



***



When Tomoe came back down, she cleared the plates, bowels and cups from around the fireplace and did the dishwashing. ‘Procastrating, are you?’ Jango thought and picked up another piece of electronics to repair it in the soft blue shine of his helmet lamp until the all-times-helpful Tomoe brought him a candle stand. At least it looked like he would get around the cup of bitter green glob tonight… whenever it was a cultural treasure or not.



Instead of feeding the fire once more, Tomoe let it burn down and sat outside on the veranda with her flute. It was darkening outside, but the air was still warm from a sunny day down at the sea side. She couldn’t sleep yet. She felt as if she had slept all day.



Fett was not pressing her. Maybe it was because of the missing pressure that she felt so well... It was like the captain had picked up his chair and left tonight. Yes, he had been insistent, stressed his interest mercilessly, but now he gave her the freedom to step forwards. Maybe he cared for her indeed... Maybe she would not have to part from Boba. Maybe she could mend her broken hopes. ...Jango...



But for that, she needed to tell him. No way to base a relationship on dishonesty, let alone one that was constantly tipping to violence. There was still the chance that the day would end in tears. Maybe somebody would get hurt. Maybe somebody would die. Better now than later. Once she allowed her hoped to bloom, she wanted them to be real. She deserved it. She put down the flute after the last tune and took a deep breath.



“Jango, we need to talk.” She said without turning around.



“Good.” Jango came outside a moment later. Of course he had kept his ears open all the time. “I prefer mysteries that are solved." He sat beside her, his socked feet resting on the polished steps of the veranda. He wasn’t used sitting on the floor all day.



“I won’t have one but two kids,” Tomoe started to explain in low voice once he was seated,



She certainly got to the point after all. - “Twins?” Jango tried a cautious smile. Gilamar had warned him that could happen... but he hadn’t acted against the doctor’s advice lately?! He would have done a lot to avoid that ...but then, women had twins all the time. It wasn’t easy, but together, they would manage.



“they are six days apart.” Tomoe informed him. “You are the father of one of them. It will be a girl child. The other...”



Jango frowned, did the maths and jumped to conclusions. “Vau?” That would explain old psycho’s interest, in fact.



“No. Walon Vau did as you commanded him.” Tomoe cut him off brusquely and continued at once, “the other one is not human.”



“How can that be?” His mind was racing. Damn slavers! While human-twilek ‘relationships’ weren’t uncommon with all the twilek girls enslaved or working in the entertainment branch, they could not procreate, ...let alone... he didn’t even want to think about that. The wookie?! It shouldn’t be possible... but then he had seen claw marks hugging her bottom... was there a beast growing inside her indeed - half human, half wookie? He should never have handed her over to Oniro’s clan. Or at least he should have picked her up on the way to the market. Or... There was such a thing as too much. As much as he hated the consequences, it was his duty to sort them out. He owed her. ‘Do your recce, begin at the beginning.’



Tomoe watched his train of bizarre thoughts rush over his features. He certainly deserved it, that realization. But soon the shock gave way to this determination that continued to amaze her. He was hard to others, but also - maybe even more so - to himself. She could respect that attitude.



“How do you know?”



“The first broken shards of disjointed of memories came up last night. They frightened me and made me sick, but then you helped me to settle down and complete the picture. I have to thank you for that.” She bowed and tried to reign in her breath while clinging to the formal form of her announcement. “In return I shall share the knowledge I carry inside of me - The other one is my brother’s mother returning to our realm.”



“Your... what?”



As many cases of trouble he had blown up in his life, Fett was not hearing impaired. Spiritual concepts where simply not his strength, so she tried to explain it another way. “The other twin is a Hi-inu, the first one who ever came to be. Her name is Moro.”



There was a long pause. Then he realized that she didn’t suggest it was his fault. It helped him to relax a little, but it was still their problem. Together they would sort it out.



“Biologically, that is not possible,” Jango stated coolly, yet expectantly. “The DNA and the body chemistry based on it is too different, even between most humanoid races.” He couldn’t tell her that Gilamar’s scan had not picked up anything unusual, but he could certainly discuss plausibility from a theoretical point of view. She was fine physically, and her mental problem had undergone an interesting metamorphosis. What mattered to him was that she didn’t look sad or frightened anymore, so he could probably live with that. Nevertheless he would try to convince her how baseless her psychosis was, try to heal her completely.



“Unlikely, but not impossible... like some things you did with your own genetic material. Years ago, Moro died while protecting me. Now I live to bring her back to life.”



“How?” He had used the help of the Kaminoans to have a son before even knowing his mother. What did she do? ...Presuming that she did anything at all and her theory wasn’t just part of that psychosis.



“I took in her spirit and she liked it a lot. Somehow my body was able to accept her and she stayed with me. She will shape her own body according to her will and picture, which is not human but the one of a hi-inu, like Shioko. I have not heard of such a thing, either, but then I had not heard of bacta before. So this is how things are.” If he dealt in absolutes, so could she. Whenever he took it serious or not, there was no way to change a thing about it, so it was ‘Take it or leave me’ for him.



She raised her chin, “In case you decide to try and kill us, be aware that we will defend ourselves.”



Jango felt that he was in no position to complain, but... “I don’t want to... shab... Tomoe, I’m not going to kill you.” He wasn’t a murderer and he didn’t want to be the lesser evil. He wanted to be everything for her. She sat there calmly as a statue, awake and ready to take him on, but not in the blade- and teeth-bared style in which she had answered his threats before. It spoke for her newfound self-confidence. Good. He decided to simply ignore her challenge and stay on the point, the only one that truly mattered in all the weirdness that was his life. “Are you okay… is there a risk for you and the kids?”



“I cannot deny that. There are no experiences on this. That’s why I think it would be a good idea to go back to the place of their conception. I can bring the knowledge of my homeworld with me, but it won’t work other way round. I always wanted to have my child. That there are two now doesn’t change a thing. I want them both. Let the priests fuss about the divine honour or hellish curse, I simply love them. Moro is a part of me, one I have been missing for too long.”



“Whatever, I won’t believe this until I see it. For me, you come first. I’m happy when you are happy. I won’t take you with me unless you want me to – and not because you are frightened or submissive or too broken to fight back, but because you know it is for your own wellbeing and for the good of our family. Because you want to come to me.”



While she still looked at him wordlessly, Jango stood, his long forgotten joints cracking.



“Boba will be delighted if you tell him. He always wanted a little sister,” he noted and excused himself, “it’s been a long day.” His movements were jerky with tension as he went back inside.



No more deals. He wanted her to come to him and for him. Once he passed through the main room, Jango spotted Boba peeking through the first floor railing and signalled him to be quiet. His boy understood. They would play mom’s game tonight.



He closed the slide door to the second room behind him smoothly.