Anakin doesn't seem to be there, as far as Rey's hand is concerned.

What if she focuses really really hard like she did when Anakin healed her?

Maybe?

(Anakin would also really like to be able to touch someone.)

Rey focuses even more - Anakin says the Force can help, so she focuses on asking very nicely.

Anakin's definitely there. She's exceptionally present, in a way a fire might be present - Rey can tell that she's lonely and sad and hopeful.

Rey can't touch her with her hands - Anakin's too far away, in a sense - but she kind of has an idea of how she could brush her own present-ness against Anakin's.

She forms the thoughts and the will and her everything and pushes it at Anakin.

It's loneliness and fear and deep longing, but also life and the harsh warmth of the sun and the sand under her feet, the sharp relief of that first sip of water and the joy of finding lost or hidden treasures, fixing them and exchanging them for a real sense of having earned her continued existance. Sleeping under the stars, watching ships land and take off, learning something new, climbing as high as she can and seeing the whole world below her. As well as the hurt in the back of her throat when she thinks of her mama and whether she'll really ever come back.

It's Rey. Her everything.

Anakin responds.

She's old for a human, with a long history - a lot of love and loss and hate, all burning intensely in her, and a long, bleak period of nothing like a gaping wound in her history. She's not always been a good person. She's not always been a bad person. She's a hero under one name, a villain under another. She delights in things easily - using the Force, letting it guide her, jumping far, flying, fighting, art, other people.

She knew, when she was a kid, that the worst path was possible. She hated the mere idea of it. She walked it anyways.

She's sad, now, and often frustrated, but... Her kids are doing okay. She's proud of them. She loves them.

"You feel very intensely," she says, softly.

"I wanna hug you even more now." She pauses and thinks about what she just felt. "You really did all that? You were really powerful."

"I was, in a way."

"Do you think... that you could teach me?"

"...I've never had a student."

"But - yes. I think I can."

"Maybe you can teach me and I can be powerful and then I can bring you back and you can have so many hugs and see your family again."

"You're a really good kid. Maybe you can."

"You helped me. Nobody has ever helped me before. You're important and I wanna help you."

"Then I'll make sure you can."

Rey smiles at her and then stands. They're still up very high, Rey was actually quite lucky that she landed there. Otherwise, she would have fallen thousands of feet and definitely wouldn't have survived enough for healing.

"I still haveta get some stuff for the Blobfish before I can leave. I think engineering is over there," she points up and to the right, there is a half-open door several dozen feet up. "There is 'sposed to be tons of stuff hidden away."

"The blobfish?"

"Unkar Plutt. He's a Crolute and the junk boss. I think 'blobfish' is kinda mean, but that's what everyone calls him and people look at me weird when I don't."

"Why do you have to get stuff for him?"

"He's the boss and if I don't get him stuff I don't get food or water and sometimes he gets mad."

"Sounds like he's your master, then."

Rey shrugs. "I haveta wait with him till my mama comes back."

"Where did she go?"

"She left on an XTC light freighter but she didn't say where. I think she's in trouble because she should be back by now, she promised she'd be back."

"...Do you feel she'll be back, or do you want her back?"