Disclaimer: I do not own "Lilo & Stitch" or any of the characters therein.
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT:
OUR LITTLE ONE-EYED ONE
"Oh, little girl, vhere is six-two-six?" Jumba called down the hall to Lilo as she came in from the backyard, covered in mud.
"Out digging another hole," she replied, passing him by on her way to the bathroom. Standing in the doorway to his room, Jumba asked, "And vhat is he putting into this hole? Not another one of my specimen jars, I am hoping. Last one contained pterochoydollophus bacteria sample. Attracted many unpleasant Earth vermin before I could dig it up."
From the bathroom, Lilo shouted over the rush of running water, "I don't think so!" A minute later she came out looking slightly cleaner. "Stitch didn't have anything with him when he started digging, so maybe he's not going to bury anything, or maybe… he's going to bury himself! I better get some flowers and a tombstone ready, 'cuz I have a feeling he won't be coming back up to the house anytime soon."
Jumba waved a large hand dismissively. "I vouldn't vorry too much about six-two-six. He is keeping himself occupied, and that is good because it is keeping him out of my hair, or lack thereof."
She followed him out to the living room and sat down on the couch next to him.
"So, are you gonna read or what?" she demanded.
"Read vhat?"
"The diary! You said you'd read me some more of it today!"
"Yes, but there is hardly anything left vorth reading. Pleakley did not seem to live very exciting life after incident vith the Kaizaxx."
Lilo pouted. "So? I don't care if it's so boring it puts me in a coma! I wanna hear more! Come on, Uncle Jumba! Please?!!" She leaned her face toward his, batting her eyelashes. Jumba found this too hard to refuse, and he sighed.
"Alright, alright. I vill go get diary. But I must varn you now: there is not much left that is appropriate for me to read to you."
"That's okay, as long as it's still Pleakley we're reading about. You can even reread some of the old stuff. I wouldn't mind."
As Jumba got up from the couch, he turned and looked at her curiously. "Tell me, little girl - Lilo - vhy is it so important to you to be hearing this diary reading? Ve already know everything ve vanted to know that Cobra vould not tell us. Vhy read any further?"
At this, Lilo appeared to be thinking. After a long moment she looked down at the floor, her face blank of expression and her eyes unseeing as she replied in a quiet monotone, "Because when you read it to me, it's like he's still here with us. When you stop reading, he goes away again. I don't want him to go away. That's why I listen to Elvis. Because Mom and Dad did. They're still here, whenever he sings. And Pleakley's still here, when you read his diary."
"Oh, Lilo -" Jumba sighed heavily, laying a gentle hand on her shoulder. "That is not his diary that is making him to be here. That is your heart. Your love for him. Ve all are missing our little one-eyed one, and that is the one thing that vill continue to bind him to us, no matter how great the distance grows between us." And without another word he padded off toward his room to retrieve the diary. A few minutes later, Stitch came in, filthy as can be. He rolled into the kitchen, making a dark, muddy trail along the way. Lilo watched him with mild interest.
"You know Nani's just gonna scream her head off at you and make you clean all that up, right?"
"Naga," Stitch replied, walking back into the living room with a can of soda. He opened it with his teeth and proceeded to drink it in one gulp.
"That better be the diet soda," Lilo muttered, half to herself. As much as she tried to hide the sugary, caffeinated sodas, Stitch almost always had a sure way of finding them. From down the hall, Jumba's booming voice called out, "I am not finding diary! I know I put it on desk this morning! Whomever is hiding it from me vill be made to go septic tank diving without vetsuit!"
Stitch flinched slightly at this statement, but Lilo noticed and asked him if he knew where the diary was.
"N-naga," he replied, dropping his ears and flashing her his puppy dog eyes. Jumba waddled back into the living room just then. When he noticed Stitch, he frowned.
"I think six-two-six is knowing vhere diary is. Othervise, he vould not have to try so hard to look like picture of innocence. And just so you know, my little creation, I vas serious vhat I said about septic tank."
Five minutes later the diary was retrieved from its hole in the backyard and taken to Jumba's room for cleaning. Although Lilo was disappointed at not being able to hear more about Pleakley that afternoon, she soon found a new way to amuse herself: putting on a fake funeral for Stitch in the backyard, with Scrump and several other stuffed toys as mourners. Afterward, she brought them all back into the house for the wake. When evening came and she did not come back to dig him up, Stitch began to wonder if she were really mad at him after all.
* * * *
The call came in at about 8:20 pm. Nani, having just returned from work, rose from the couch to answer it.
"Hello?"
"Hello, Nani? This is Cobra Bubbles. How are you this evening?" came the deep, intimidating voice in an attempt at pleasantry.
"Tired," came her frank reply. "I just got off work."
"Well, be thankful you actually get some time off. Some of us are on call twenty-four/seven." He sounded a little irritable, but for Cobra, this was normal, so she let it pass.
"Oh… well, how's Pleakley doing?" she asked slowly, not wanting to sound too eager, even though it was the one thought foremost in her mind.
"That's what I'm calling you about," he told her, and for a moment her heart leaped into her throat.
"Oh, God… he's okay, isn't he?"
"Health-wise, yes. He's fine. I swore I would not let any harm come to him, and so far, I am a man of my word. Emotionally, however, I think he could be doing a lot better, even in light of our most recent situation."
Nani was silent for a moment, afraid to ask, but she knew she would find out anyway. "Which is…?"
"The Federation has received communication from the Kaizaxx. It would seem that they have discovered Pleakley's whereabouts, and are already on their way to Earth to claim him."
The silence that followed seemed to extend into infinity. Nani just stood there, her ear frozen to the phone, numb from shock.
"I cannot tell you anymore over the phone," Cobra was saying. "Any further information might cause a breach in security, and it would almost certainly jeopardize Mr. Pleakley's safety…" he continued, explaining the whole 'classified' thing over again, but Nani did not hear him. All she could hear just then was the tortured screaming of a little one-eyed alien, trapped somewhere in the back of her mind.
"Who is on the telephone?" said a deep voice, startling her. Nani blinked, and saw Jumba standing in front of her. She had been so lost in her own thoughts, she hadn't even seen him approach.
"Judging by look of horror on your face, I vould say it is David asking you out again."
"No, no. Actually, it's… Cobra." She tried to cover the phone up as she said this, but on the other end, Cobra heard anyway, and asked her who was there with her. When she told him, he seemed to relax a little, and told her it was okay to tell him the news. She did, and the look of shock on Jumba's face, though not unexpected, seemed to reflect a greater fear than the threat of a Kaizaxx invasion.
"This is even more serious now than I thought," Jumba mumbled. "Here, give me the telephone. I must speak vith Cobra."
Reluctantly, Nani handed it over.
"Hello, Mr. Bubbles. Eh, listen - I have something you may be vanting to know regarding our little one-eyed one. It seems he is in greater danger than you might think."
A short silence, then: "Clarify."
"Vell, it all started vhen ve found his diary…"
"What diary?"
"Pleakley's diary. It seems he left it for us to find. Little Post-It note on front said, 'This vill explain everything.' And it did. Everything from matter collapser and molecular remapping to his mother's business transactions vith Le'Kruune."
"Oh, really?" Cobra asked, in a feigned tone of interest.
"Yes, indeed!" Jumba replied happily. "Vas very long diary, and a pretty good read, if you are into Soap Opera-type suspense-and-romance story. I vasn't, until I vas about halfway into part about -"
"We're getting off-subject, here," Cobra growled impatiently. "What is it that you wanted to tell me?"
"Ah, yes! That. Yes. Ehhh, it seems Pleakley left second Post-It note in diary. Right at the very end, after last entry." Jumba pulled a small pink piece of paper out of his pocket and held it up to the light. It was dated nearly two weeks earlier, the day Pleakley had left. It read:
Dearest ohana,
- Now you know the truth.
I love you all, and I am sorry for any pain
Or inconvenience this has cost you.
Words cannot express my appreciation for
Being accepted into your family.
I will never forget any of you, no matter what
The outcome of this nightmare.
But if the Kaizaxx should come for me,
I will not linger here for them to
Take me away again and
Destroy all of Earth in the process.
I would rather die by my own hands
Than by theirs.
At least that way, they can never win.
Love to you all, my only ohana,
Wendy Pleakley