Star Wars Ficlet - Wordspring
I recently discovered that, after being separated from his mother at age 8, James Earl Jones stopped talking for a few years. Lover of quality angst that I am, I was inspired. I have no idea where this is going, but I thought I’d share. Feel free to comment and tell me what you think I should do with it.
Anakin’s words dry up in the middle of his fourth month at the Temple. Their disappearance is neither sudden nor dramatic. His words are not vaporized by a blow to the head or some singular traumatic event. They simply evaporate, slowly but inexorably, like a puddle under the twin glares of Tatooine’s suns. Anakin does not even realize it was happening until the morning he wakes up with nothing left to say.
Wizard is the first to go. It disappears on Anakin’s second day of Temple classes as he watches the other kids pass a ball back and forth with the Force. They all wear little frowns of concentration as the ball gently drifts from person to person, touching no one. “Whoa,” he gasps with delight. Qui-Gon Jinn had talked about the Force letting him know things before they happened, but he hadn’t said anything about moving stuff with his mind. “That’s so wizard!”
“Wizard,” one of the boys repeats with a nasty laugh. “Who talks like that?”
Not Jedi apparently, with their crisp, Core world accents. Only dumb, Outer Rim slaves talked like that. The other children giggle and Anakin’s cheeks burn. Nothing about this is wizard any more. The word is gone. Just like magic.