It had been over a standard year since Ani had first appeared to Rey, at least according to the marks she had made on the tile wall as he had instructed her. In the last year, Rey had grown out of her dress she had arrived in and now wore a pair of unbleached leggings that reached down to her ankles, brown leather sandals whose lacings kept breaking, and a V-neck tunic that was slightly too large for her with long, wide sleeves.
During the last few months, Rey's responsibilities had also changed from household slave to salvage cleaner behind Unkar's merchant booth. Each day she followed Unkar Plutt to his booth, her little legs having to run to keep up with his gigantic strides. Once there, he would attach a leg binder, chaining her to a table under a makeshift awning behind his booth.
Her job was to clean each part brought to Unkar. Some parts came in mostly clean, but many were encrusted with sand, grease, and grime. Unkar wanted them to look like new so he would get a higher price when he sold to his pirate dealers.
Each day it was the same. Scrub, scrub, scrub. Polish, polish, polish. Broil, broil, broil. One break a day for her midday meal and refresher usage. Then back again until sunset.
Today, the weather seemed strange. There was electricity in the air—it set her teeth on edge as she scrubbed away at a piece of solar panel. She grabbed her smaller brush and worked the fine sand crystals out of the grooves. Then the wind kicked up, sending sand grains onto the panel, making a fine mud as they stuck to the water she had just used to rinse it.
Rey sighed. She would have to do it all over again, and this time it would be harder. Unkar would be mad if she did not finish all the pieces today—and she had learned that every time she failed at his expectations, he would take it out on the other slaves. She worked harder, moving her hand fast, blowing on the dry sand, hoping to finish quickly.
The wind continued blowing, freeing strands of Rey's hair from her three pony tails, getting in her eyes along with the sand. She closed her eyes, trying to blink away the sand and pull her hair back again.
Then she heard screams from behind her. She opened her eyes to see all of the people from the Niima bazaar fleeing past her. She stood up, dragging her table with her by her leg chain to peer around Unkar's booth. A 500-meter wall of sand approached!
Rey screamed, but no one would stop to help her. She tried to run, dragging her table with her, her binder cutting into her flesh. The nearest shelter from a sandstorm was a thousand meters away. No one stopped—not Unkar, not his guards, no one.
As the sandstorm approached, Rey sat down on the hot sand and cried, "Granddad! Granddad!"
Ani appeared, but it was so hard to see him in the bright light of the Jakku sun. "Rey, get up."
"I can't. This stupid table."
Ani looked at her chain and shackle, moving his hand, unlocking the binder. "Come on, run now."
Rey took a few steps and then fell as the large cloud hit the bazaar. It was now only a few meters away.
"Get up. You have to run for it, Rey!"
"I can't. My leg!" Rey cried.
Ani noticed the blood running down and the damage the binder had done to her leg. "Animals!" he growled. He scooped her up in his arms and ran toward Unkar Plutt's dwelling.
When they arrived, the seldom-closed blastdoors were sealed shut. The sandstorm enveloped them.
Rey pounded on the door, screaming, "Let me in! Let me in!"
Ani opened the doors with the Force and barged right in, carrying the little girl. The guards at the door took a step back as they saw Rey floating into the foyer. Ani quickly closed the blastdoors as sand piled up rapidly in the foyer.
One of the guards yelled, "That ghost is here."
Ani carried Rey down into the cellar and set her on the little bed she had made out of a large shipping crate and some clothing she had found in one of the other crates. "Stay here. I'll be back."
Rey obeyed, crying in pain. The sand was everywhere, now, even coming down to the cellar. It was seeping through the vents on the roof of the house and making its way in. The wind whipped at the house so much that even the foundations down here shook. Rey was petrified.
Ani returned a few minutes later through the cellar door. He closed it first before carrying over some items to Rey. The sand was swirling everywhere now, even in the cellar.
Ani took the straining cloth he had used to carry the supplies in and tied it around Rey's face, covering her eyes, nose, mouth, and ears. Her ponytails at the back provided tension knobs for the knots. "That's to keep the sand out."
"I can't see, Granddad."
"You don't need to. Close your eyes. Keep that sand out." He knelt beside her and pulled her legging up. "Now, I'm going to bandage your leg. I'm going to clean it first, and it's going to sting. Can you be a big girl and not scream when it does?"
"I don't know, Granddad," Rey whimpered.
"I want you to empty yourself of all of your feelings right now, Rey—the fear, the pain, everything. Now, do you see the Force?"
"Yes, it's so powerful now."
"Focus on that and that alone right now. Block out everything else."
Rey did as he instructed as he started to clean the wound. She whimpered a little as he wiped some of the sand out with some gauze.
"Focus on the Force, Rey."
Rey took a deep breath and started again.
After Ani had bandaged her leg, he said, "All done."
Rey changed her focus from the Force, and then cried, "It hurts."
"It's going to. There are no pain meds in this medkit, Rey, so you're just going to have to use the Force if it hurts too much." Ani grimaced. "But pain is part of life, Rey. If you can, I want you to try to deal with it on your own. Can't avoid pain in this life."
"It hurts so much, it feels like it's burning. Did you ever hurt like this, Granddad?"
"Yes, Darling, I did." Ani remembered the constant pain his ill-fitted prostethics and burns had caused him for half of his life.
"Tell me what happened?"
"You don't want to know, Rey."
"Please, please tell me."
"No. I don't want to give you nightmares, Sweetheart." He pulled some of the items to her that were in the make-shift bag. "I brought you some food and some water. Drink up and eat something. This storm looks like it's going to last for days."
Rey undid the bottom knot on her mask before taking the bottle of water and the wrapped food. "Tell me a story, Granddad. Tell me about when you were a little boy."