SCENE 3.
On the planet Jakku.
Enter REY. Enter UNKAR PLUTT aside, in an outpost stall.
Pull’d by a longing deep within my soul,
Each day I struggle merely to endure:
Repeating mine endeavors day by day,
Content to wait for those I know shall come.
Here on Jakku, I make my simple way:
Among the junkyards I go scavenging,
Not to discover aught of treasure, nay—
Collecting merely remnants, bits and scraps,
Enow to earn the food that keeps me whole.
I climb within the mighty fallen crafts,
A’scrambing o’er a starship’s inward parts.
My body able, fit for such a task,
Strong both in sinew and in mind am I—
Of more than just a scrounger’s heart possess’d.
Methinks it is a solitary life,
E’er looking to the skies or to the stars
And hoping for my dear ones who did leave—
Now long ago—to make their homecoming.
Continually do I yearn for them,
E’en as I spend my hours in toil and want.
Still, there is plenty here to fill my time:
The careful ravage of the Ravager—
One of the many ships through which I seek—
Revisiting the wreckage ev’ry day,
Observing some new salvageable piece.
Requiring patience, care, and bravery,
Collecting junk from starships is my lot.
Hours pass, until ’tis time to leave the ruins;
I make descent with newfound parts, and then
Load them upon my trusted sliding sand board.
Departing quick atop my speeder swift,
O’er all the dunes, past rank steelpecker birds,
Fly I across the barren wilderness.
Hie then to Niima Outpost with my wares,
I drag my sand board ’cross the golden silt.
My things I polish with the utmost care—
There seated near the older scroungers, who
Have spent their lives entire in drudgery—
E’en there I scrub the junk with wearied hopes.
Fate hath, it seems, no other thread for me.
At last, I go to junk boss Unkar Plutt,
Baseborn and rude, a scoundrel full of greed.
Looks he upon the scraps I have discover’d,
E’er cheating me a little more each day,
Decides he, then, what paltry sum he’ll proffer.
Jakku is not a planet for the weak,
Especially for those who shrink in fear.
Determination is the only virtue
I’ve found to be a safeguard in this place.
One who hath vigor, wit, and fortitude,
Belike shall be the one who doth prevail.
In past times, I believ’d I’d not survive.
With age comes strength, with strength comes perseverance,
And thus I persevere. Pray, know my name:
Nearby, the sun shines bright; I am its Rey.
[Rey approaches Unkar Plutt and hands him her junk scraps.
What thou hast brought me here today is worth
One quarter portion.
—Thus it swiftly goes:
They’ll hate who shall, while I must shake it off.
[Exit Unkar.
Back to my humble shelter I return,
Inside a walker of Imperial times.
The portion giv’n to me by Unkar Plutt
Becometh that on which I dine by sunset.
Veg-meat and polystarch have little taste,
Yet shall maintain my health as I have need.
I shall be seated on the sandy ground,
And take my meal whilst donning this gray helmet,
Which once a warrior did proudly wear,
Who now is but a hidden skull and bones.
Another dusk hath fallen on Jakku—
I’ll mark the time with scratch upon the wall
As I have done for many thousand days:
The record of mine isolation here,
Each line a blemish on my youthful soul.
Enter BB-8 aside, in a net pulled by TEEDO riding astride a LUGGABEAST.
Blav blicflir bleeflib zzwa flit blisblox blee,
Flliblik roohzoon zooz zzwaflew blav zoom blee!
[to Teedo:] Talama parqua!
—Da—bee da padoo!
Nadan ta parqua!
[Rey begins to cut BB-8 free from the net.
—Nee, dee yan, duh rookah.
Huh nomah!
—Reeya boonja bonganoo.
[Exit Teedo.
Blik flli blayblis roohzilf roil bloozzwa blee?
’Twas no more than one Teedo, he most vile,
Who wants to take thee for thine inward parts.
He hath respect for naught and no one, nay.
Come, let me look on thee, for I can see
Thou hast a bent antenna. Come, I prithee.
[Rey fixes BB-8’s antenna.
Whence hast thou ventur’d to Jakku, my friend?
Flewzzwa zoodrooh, bluuflit blav flliblox blis
Zoomblic bluuroil zooz zzwa flewblis blay blis
Flig flliflig zilfflir flliflit blee blavzood.
’Tis classified, indeed? Ah, me as well.
A most profound and well-kept secret, I:
Mysterious unto the last—ha! Nay,
A secret is but secret if there is
Another soul within the galaxy
Who’d care to know it. I am too alone
To be wrapp’d up in secrets, verily.
But there’s an end with talk of secrets: if
Thou roll’st thyself most spherical in that
Direction, Niima Outpost thou shalt find.
Yet, be forewarn’d: go not near Kelvin Ridge,
And stay far from the northern sinking fields,
Lest thou mayst drown within a sandy tomb.
Blox flliblik zood zoozflig rooqbloo zoonflew
Blip flliblox flit bluu roohblis flitzilf rooh
Blav bleeflir blee.
—Nay, follow not with me.
Thou must go thither if thou’d reach the town.
Zoom blisblik flit rooqzzwa blooblay rooq flew
Reej flliblav flitflig roohzoom zoomzoon blee,
Zooz flli flitblip rooqflir zoonzzwa flew blay.
O, follow, then.
—Zoomreej bluubloo flewblay!
Yet in the morning thou must go away,
For ample struggle have I in this place
To keep myself alive, much less a droid—
E’en such an amiable droid as thou.
Bloozoom blavblay bloxflit rooq roohblip zzwa
Reejzoon zilfblok bleeblis.
—Thou welcome art.
[Aside:] This droidly friend I had not hop’d to find,
Yet presently our two fates are entwin’d.
[Exeunt, traveling to Rey’s shelter.