Jedi Knight: Child Warrior Armed With A Green, Knuckle-Busting, Lightsaber
Childhood is a time for self-centered, unapologetic adventures. Mine was no exception. Armed with a splattering of freckles that looked like someone broke a pen too close to my face, close-cropped, razor sharp bangs, and matching shorts and tee-shirts, I was your typical homeschool kid. This meant I was classically-conditioned to be an introvert, therefore, friends didn’t come easy for me. I had two younger siblings who would play with me but apart from running at each other as fast as we could holding pillows to see how far we could bounce back, we weren’t the most imaginative. We’d recycle stories we heard on Focus on the Family’s: Adventure’s in Odyssey or books mom had read to us.
By the time I was nine, my mother had taken things into her own hands and made friends with neighborhood moms, in an attempt to get my siblings and I friends. She’d probably argue that point, but regardless, that was what happened. That led to us, one day, getting shunted out the door and sent up the street. There was a small group of kids standing in a circle, holding what looked like colorful sticks while two in the center struck at one another.
Violence. Great way to begin.
The kids stopped and turned to look at us. The youngest was holding a green lightsaber longer than his arm and looked about 4; while the oldest was a willowy blonde who looked 17. I was surprised to see a teenager playing with a bunch of kids but curious to see what they were all up to. The leader, a boy a little taller than me with an afro bigger than my future, stepped forward and asked if we wanted to play.
“Play what?” We asked.
“Lightsaber dueling.” Another boy said it like it was obvious. I was surprised to see his mousy brown hair had a patch of white in it right above his eyebrow. But no one else was staring, so I dropped my eyes.
“Lightsabers, like Star Wars?” My brother asked.
“Duh.” The boy with the white patch in his hair said.
“Do you have more wightsabors?” My sister asked.
The first boy, pointed towards the garage and we scampered over, elbowing one another to get to the tub. We stood over it, poking one another as we started rooting through it. Shoving basketballs, jump ropes and footballs out of the way, we pawed through to the bottom. The left behind sabers were poor pickings. And the lightsabers were really just PVC piping covered in not enough foam, wrapped in colored duct tape.
There was a blue one with an extended handle that I grabbed. Glenn found a red saber and poked me with it immediately. Hannah tried to pick the rainbow one but Glenn and I bullied her into leaving it. She then went for the lightsaber nun-chucks.
“How are you gonna hold those?”
“Like this!” Hannah grabbed on of the colored pieces and swung the other end at me.
I dodged out of her way and rolled my eyes.
“You’d burn through your hand. You’re holding it by the blade, stupid.”
Hannah looked at the nun-chuck and tried to hold it by the chain. She huffed in frustration.
“It’s broken.”
“No your brain just is.” Glenn snickered, pulling out the dual-bladed saber. “Whoa!”
He tried to spin it in the garage but it was too tall and hit the top of the garage.
“You idiots, just take the normal lightsabers.” I grabbed a small green one and stuffed it into Hannah’s pudgy hands. She sadly put the nun-chucks away.
Glenn dropped the dual-bladed saber in the tub and grabbed a red blade. “Ready.”
We ran back to the kids and watched as the older girl dueled her youngest brother. He wildly swung at her while she gracefully deflected the different blows. His face was scrunched up and red as he swung harder, furious that she was able to block his every attack. I watched as the blonde, smiled at him as she poked him in the stomach. He fell dramatically to the ground, moaning in pain.
“Winner!” The boy with the afro called. “Next!”
Glenn, Hannah and I stepped up, uncertain what order we would go in. The boy with the funny hair looked at me and stepped forward.
“My turn. I want to fight her.” He pointed at me.
I felt my face heat up as he stared at me. His blue eyes were really blue. I thought he looked kinda cute. Then my brother shoved me forward into the ring. I was too busy wondering how old the boy was and if he was friends with pretty girls in school and noting that we were almost the same height, to hear the boy with the afro say “Begin”.
The boy spun his blue lightsaber in circles around his body. My eyes grew wide as I watched him step closer. The lightsaber was an extension from his hand. Mine was dead weight.
I barely was able to lift my saber in time to block his first strike. The smack to mine shook my whole body. I gripped the overlarge handle in both hands as boy swung again, and I batted it away. Dust rose beneath our sneakers as we slid back and forth.
The hilt of my saber slid in my damp palms. The boy’s eyes were narrowed as he swung for the third time. I blocked it again and he spun in a circle, as our blades connected. I was unsure of if this was a battle of skill or if I was supposed to have memorized choreography from the prequels. I glanced at the oldest girl and watched her roll her eyes.
I shouldn’t have looked away. A lightsaber smacked the top of my hands and I dropped it instantly.
“Ow!”
Brush-burns stung my knuckles as I massaged them, looking at the boy with a mix of hurt and surprise.
He was busy looking around at the audience, smiling away, his chin aimed towards the sky.
“Winner!” The leader boy called.
From then on, we continued to play with these kids. We got to know their names too. The leader boy, Van, had a playset in the back of his yard that served as our ship until we discovered that the kids across the street had a shed. Why we had to fly around in a shed in boiling heat, nobody knew, but that was how it went. We captured bounty hunters, survived laser wounds and defended the galaxy.
But every now and again, we’d put the stories aside and duel one another. There were plenty of bruised knuckles and egos to go around. But we were friends. We were Jedi Knights. And we ruled our world.
