Aliens
Chapter 7: A House on Flanshaw Street
"12 Flanshaw Street."
Lilo looked up from her 1982 copy of Housing and Yard that she had found in a dusty old box in the attic. (Nani kept some really weird stuff up there; among which was a bottlecap collection, twelve left tube socks, and Great-Uncle Vern's false teeth.)
She looked at the house sideways. Then she turned the magazine upside-down, to see if it would look any more like the sight in front of her. It didn't.
The house, which looked as if no-one had tended to it in quite a few years, was coloured a bluish-beige. The paint was noticeably weathered, was beginning to peel, and a few dark-red roof-tiles had fallen off. Of cause, that didn't really matter, as you could hardly actually see the house in the first place, being completely enclosed by deep-green grass that reached high above Lilo's head.
"Stitch, are you sure this is the house in the picture?" she asked.
The furry blue experiment grabbed the periodical and snuffled the photograph. Then he sniffed the air, looking for the right scent in the sea of smells.
"Ih", he concluded, handing the magazine back to Lilo.
"Well, OK," Lilo replied, a little unsure of his reply, but confident none-the-less. If Stitch couldn't figure it out, who could?
And so, with much trepidation, the two approached the old-fashioned metal letterbox, which was surrounded… no, nearly obscured by the head-high grass. It was a rather curious letterbox, the front of which flipped down in its entirety, and was labelled "U.S. MAIL". The two noticed its red flag was up; hopefully meaning that the land-owner had not yet obtained his mail.
But to their dismay, the box was empty.
At that moment, a shout emanated from the premises; at first, Lilo thought it was aimed at them, but it soon became obvious to whom it was referred.
"You forgot to put the flag down again!"
"Well, we can't all be perfect, can we, honey?"
"No, of cause we can't, Jess, because, like all men, you've got to be so stubborn about it!"
"Fine…"
Just in time, Lilo pulled Stitch backwards into the grass; for at that moment the door opened.
And out came a man with a five-o'clock shave and his pyjamas still upon him; groaning and muttering, he flipped the flag to its downward position, and returned to the houses' interior, only to be confronted by what presumably was his wife about his non-commitment to helping around the house and the fact that his late-night television-watching habits were considerably contributing to the power bills.
"We can sneak it while she's distracting him," whispered Lilo, and Stitch nodded his agreement; the two started to tiptoe through the grass, making sure to keep eye-contact of the house.
For a time in the living room of the blue-coloured house, nothing could be heard but the pitter-patter of little feet.
Then came the creak.
"Stitch, shhh!" Lilo whispered from just behind the living room couch.
"Moka, shhh!" Stitch, in turn, whispered to his foot. Lilo giggled, and motioned Stitch to follow her.
"Now, can you see the newspaper?"
Stitch scanned his surroundings, straining for a sighting of the sacred scroll.
"Ih!" he replied in the affirmative, pointing to the tabletop of the dining room. Hanging from its edge was the rolled-up newspaper; upon it was the barely-distinguishable name of "Penny Proud", written in miniature below the letters "TTE".
"Awesome!" said Lilo excitedly, prompting a hushing from Stitch. "Oh, sorry, forgot. Well, now all we gotta do is…"
"Shh…!" whispered Stitch, as he stuck up his long rabbit-like ears, curving them ever so slightly.
"…hat do you suggest, Oh Mighty Queen of Narnia?"
"Firstly… Don't. Ring. The. Bell. Secondly, you can start by helping me pack away the groceries."
"Fine... but why are they in brown paper bags? I thought stores switched to plastic bags back in the seventies!"
"I like to be environmentally friendly, okay? Now, that stuff goes in the fridge, those are the sandwich spreads, and that bag goes in the bread cabinet."
"Yes, dear…"
Relaxing his ears, Stitch told Lilo what he had heard, filling in words he didn't know with those from his own tongue. Though Lilo didn't know many Tantalogian words, she got the gist of the idea, and so decided that, while evading the two homeowners would be difficult, it was not impossible. With this in mind, she beckoned Stitch forward slowly.
But they had not walked ten steps before the incessant mutterings that marked the being named Jess were to be heard edging towards the two; Stitch, having a much faster-working brain than was natural, reacted almost instantly, grabbing Lilo and bounding to the couch, the piano, and a strangely-placed pillow sitting upon a hutch dresser, before jumping and grabbing a sprinkler, hoisting himself and Lilo out of sight.
"…don't know why she takes this out on me," he rambled under his breath, all whilst trying to balance no less than three brown paper bags. "I mean, I have stuff to do." He tipped one of the bags into an old cabinet; the contents, five loafs of bread, spilled into the cavity. "I have to get paid, after all, and…"
Here, he sighed, and with a look that made him look noticeably older, longingly stared at an unfinished manuscript, that hitherto had been sitting unnoticed upon the grand piano that filled a rather large percentage of the room.
"But we wouldn't take this… no company would publish this!" he said mockingly, perhaps repeating statements made by a executive who had turned his work down; in any case, he obviously felt much resentment towards this company, whether real or not.
Sighing again, he proceeded to empty the rest of the bags, which all contained loafs of bread, into the cabinet. he soon left, and, in the wake of his lack of presence in the room, Stitch let go of the ceiling.
By virtue of his increased density and decreased surface area, he landed upon the floor first, allowing him to gracefully catch his companion before the ground did serious damage to her body. Brushing off, Lilo thanked Stitch, and then began to sneak towards the kitchen, with the fluffy blue experiment right behind her.
