The Phantom Menace Read online

  The parade wound through the central plaza to where the Queen and her guests viewed the procession. She stood with her handmaidens, Governor Sio Bibble, Supreme Chancellor Palpatine, Boss Nass of the Gungans, and the twelve members of the Jedi Council. R2-D2 occupied a space just below the handmaidens and next to Anakin and Obi-Wan, domed head swiveling from side to side, lights blinking as his sensors took everything in.

  R2 beeped at the boy, and Anakin touched the littledroid's shell gendy.

  Boss Nass stepped forward and held the Globe of Peace high over his head. "Dis grand party!" an exuberant Jar Jar shouted above the noise of cheering and clapping. "Gungans and Naboo, dey be friends forever, hey?"

  His enthusiasm made Anakin smile in spite of himself. The Gungan was dancing up and down, long ears flapping, gangly limbs twisting this way and that as he mounted the steps. Jar Jar would never let the bad things in life get him down, the boy thought. Maybe there was a lesson to be learned in that.

  "We bombad heroes, Annie!" Jar Jar laughed, lifting his arms over his head and showing all his teeth.

  The boy laughed. He guessed maybe they were.

  On the broad avenue below, in a long, colorful ribbon of life, the parade that had carried them to this place and time continued on.