'Watto?'
'Yes, that was his name, right? Your former master?'
'If Watto has hurt my mother in any way, I will pluck his wings from his back,' he promised, meaning every word. He wasn't sure how he would feel about seeing the slaver, even if Watto had nothing to do with bringing any harm to Shmi. Watto had treated him better than most in Mos Espa treated their slaves, and hadn't beaten him too often, but still, it hung in Anakin's thoughts that Watto had not let Shmi go with him when Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon had bought out his slave debt. Anakin understood that he was probably just deflecting some of his own guilt about leaving his mother with Watto, who was a businessman, after all.
'Here, Espasa,' Anakin said to the droid, and the rickshaw glided to a stop in front of a shop all too familiar to Anakin Sky-walker. There, sitting on a stool near the door, fiddling with an electronic driver on a broken piece of equipment that looked like a droid component, was a rounded, winged Toydarian with a long snout. A black round hat adorned his head, and a small vest was pulled as far as it would go about his girth. Anakin recognized him immediately.
He paused for so long in just staring at Watto that Padme got out before him and held her hand to help him. 'Wait here,' she instructed the droid.
'Please.' 'No chuba da wanga, da wanga!' Watto yelled at the broken component, and at a trio of pit droids who were scrambling all about, trying to help.
'Huttese,' Anakin explained to Padme. 'No, not that one-that one!' she replied, and at Anakin's expression of surprise that she knew the strange language, she added, 'You think it's easy being the Queen?'
Anakin shook his head and looked back to Watto, then glanced at Padme once or twice as they neared. 'Chut chut, Watto,' he greeted.
'Ke booda?' came the surprised response. 'Di nova, chut chut,' Anakin reiterated, his words barely audible above the clamoring pit droids.
'Go ana bopa!' Watto yelled at the trio, and on his command, they immediately shut down and snapped back into their storage position.
'Ding mi chasa hopa,' Anakin offered, taking the piece of the broken droid from Watto, and manipulating it expertly. Watto watched him for a moment, his buglike eyes growing even larger in surprise.
'Ke booda?' he asked. 'Yo baan pee hota. No wega mi condorta. Kin chasa du Jedi. No bata tu tu.'
'He doesn't know you,' Padme whispered to Anakin, trying to hold back her laughter at Watto's last statement, which translated to 'Whatever it is, I didn't do it.'
'Mi boska di Shmi Skywalker,' Anakin bluntly stated.
Watto's eyes narrowed suspiciously. Who would be looking for his old slave? The Toydarian's gaze went from Anakin to Padme, then back to Anakin.
'Annie?' he asked in Basic. 'Little Annie? Naaah!'
Anakin's answer came with a deft twist of his hands, and the sound of the little piece of equipment whirring to life. Smiling widely, he handed it back to Watto.
There weren't many around who could work such magic on broken droid parts.
'You are Annie!' the Toydarian cried. 'It is you!' His wings started beating furiously, lifting him from the stool to hover in the air. 'Ya sure sprouted!'
'Hello, Watto.'
'Weehoo!' the Toydarian cried. 'A Jedi! Waddya know? Hey, maybe you couldda help wit some deadbeats who owe me a lot of money-'
'My mother-' Anakin prompted.
'Oh yeah, Shmi. She's not mine no more. I sold her.'
'Sold her?' Anakin felt Padme squeeze his forearm.
'Years ago,' Watto explained. 'Sorry, Annie, but you know, business is business. Sold her to a moisture farmer named Lars. Least I think it was Lars. Believe it or not, I heard he freed her and married her. Can ya beat that?'
Anakin just shook his head, trying hard to digest it all. 'Do you know where they are?'
'Long way from here. Someplace over on the other side of Mos Eisley, I think.'
'Could you narrow it down?'
Watto thought about it for a moment, then just shrugged. 'I'd like to know,' Anakin said, his tone and expression grim and determined, even threatening. The way Watto's features seemed to tighten showed that he got the hint that Anakin wasn't fooling around.
'Yeah, sure,' he said. 'Absolutely. Let's go look at my records.' The three went into the shop, and seeing the place brought memories swirling back to Anakin. How many hours, years, he had toiled in here, fixing everything Watto threw his way. And out back, where he had put all the spare parts he could find, so that he could build a Podracer. Not all of the memories were bad, he had to admit, but the good ones did not overcome the reality that he had been a slave. Watto's slave.
Fortunately for Watto, his records gave a location for the moisture farm of one Cliegg Lars.
'Stay a while, Annie,' the Toydarian offered after sharing the information on Shmi's new owner-or was it her husband?
Without a word, Anakin turned about and walked away. This was the last time he would look at Watto and the shop, he decided. Unless of course, he found out that Watto was lying to him about Shmi's fate, or that Watto had somehow hurt his mother.
'Back to the lot, Espasa,' he said to the droid as he and Padme rushed back to the rickshaw. 'Fast.'
