Review Responses
To Ri2 and A. Nonymous: The two of you seem to have a gift for stating the obvious. Nonetheless, it does build the tension! Keep 'em coming.
To nukerjsr: Well, Jess pretty much blew my comment off. If possible, I would like some support on your end. Even though I know it won't help, it would comfort me for Jess to know that I'm not the only one who feels that way.
From below the shade of a few palm trees, a familiar bright window into a world of swirling color slowly opened up. It seemed not quite so bright in mid-day, but the sight was still undeniable. The familiar figure in the distance could be seen shooting forward. One only had a slip second to register what it was as it got close enough to make out before the white, red-striped surf board with its engine strapped to the back crashed into the ground, burying its nose over a foot into the dirt, and throwing Lilo and Stitch from the sight of the impact.
They tumbled on the ground, over and over again before they both finally came to a stop, laying on their stomachs.
Lilo pushed herself up with her palms. After standing up, she looked up almost toward the sun, squinting and shielding her eyes with her hand. It was back, back to the sunny cloudless noon of Kauai in full spring bloom. Everywhere was a rainbow of color, beat down upon by bright sunlight which also sparkled in the few still pools of water. It was a welcome relief from the black storm and the cold rocky cliff.
So glad to be out of that storm, Lilo quickly as possible threw her hat onto the ground and took off her rain-slicker. The rain-slicker didn't seem much help though, as her red mumu was still soaked, not from the rain, but from her own sweat.
Lilo raised and shook her arms to trying to flick off the excess sweat. It was a useless gesture, as out of nowhere her entire body was sprayed with a fine mist of water.
After that was over, Lilo turned to scowl at Stitch who had just shaken himself mostly dry. Stitch was just finishing scratching the inside of his ear when he turned to look at Lilo, now soaked even more than she was previously. He drooped his ears and grinned at her.
"Soka." Stitch muttered, twiddling his index fingers together.
"Let's just go home and dry off." Lilo responded. And then, returning to her normal joyous self, seeming to forget about what Stitch had just done, continued. "After that, we can spend the rest of the day, no, the rest of our lives as one big, happy, unbroken ohana. Just you, me, Nani, Pleakly, Jumba, and mom and dad."
"Ih."
"You'll really like them Stitch. They were some of the most laid back people I know. I don't think I ever remember them yelling, well… at least not because they were angry."
Lilo stared off into space for about a minute more, apparently lost in thought. Stitch finally walked up to her and put his hand on her shoulder.
"Huh?" Lilo turned around slightly startled.
"Go home?" Stitch reminded her.
"Oh yeah!"
As they began to walk forward, side by side, Stitch stopped and then turned around. After noticing he was no longer walking with her, Lilo to, stopped and turned her head to look back at Stitch.
"What is it?" Lilo asked.
"Time board."
They both looked at the surfboard imbedded in the ground for a few seconds. Lilo then turned back toward Stitch.
"Bright it with us." Lilo said. "We'll leave at the entrance to the driveway for Jumba to pick up."
"Ih!"
Stitch ran back to the time board, yanked it out of the ground, and ran back to Lilo, carrying it above his head, and they slowly walked toward their house.
At the dirt path leading up to Lilo's house, Stitch leaned the time board up against a palm tree. Lilo and Stitch both took a minute to observe the scenery together. The same trees and bushes were in the same places they remembered them. The dirt path leading up to the house was no different. The surrounding houses also looked the same. In fact, everything looked the same from where they were standing, except one tiny detail.
"Why does everyone have their blinds closed?" Lilo whispered to herself.
Indeed, all the houses had their blind down and closed. Normally this was not the case, as everyone in Kokaua was care-free enough to always leave their blinds, and sometimes even their windows, open for the whole world to take a peak at what was inside. This didn't make sense.
"Naga nota." Stitch whispered to himself.
After looking at the blocked windows of the other houses for a few more seconds, Lilo shrugged her shoulders. So what if the neighbors had become a little shy? As long as she had her parents back, that was all that mattered.
Lilo and Stitch walked up the dirt path toward their home but stopped and looked at it in confusion just before they reached the first steps. They had suddenly noticed the second change from the world they once knew.
"Our house!" Lilo shouted. "Our house doesn't have Jumba's dome anymore!"
"Ih! Naga dome." Stitch slowly said to himself.
"I wonder if that means… if that means our house never blew up."
As Lilo continued to look at her house, Stitch looked off to the side, toward the driveway beneath the living room where the red buggy and green jeep were always parked. But there was no red buggy. There was no green jeep. Instead, there was a small, dull gray sedan.
Lilo snapped out of her trance as Stitch tugged on her shoulder.
"What is it?" She asked.
Stitch didn't answer, but instead pulled her by the arm to the parking space and pointed to the gray sedan.
Lilo looked at the car in confusion for a few seconds, but then smiled back at Stitch.
"Mom and dad must've gotten a new car since you first showed up."
Lilo then turned back toward the Sedan, and noticed the logo just on the center of the trunk. The logo was a black silhouette of an anvil with a sword stuck inside, clearly a reference to the sword in the stone.
Lilo looked to the right side of the trunk.
"Imperial?" Lilo asked herself. "I don't remember that brand."
Lilo and Stitch looked at each other, and then looked back at the car.
"Well." Lilo said, her hands on her hips. "There's no use worrying about tiny little details, lets just go see mom and Dad."
"Ih!" Stitch said, trying his best to sound enthusiastic. But he wasn't. There were too many strange differences between this world and the one he left behind. Stitch knew there was something seriously wrong, but Lilo didn't pick it up from him, and as he didn't want' to worry her, he neglected to mention anything, and followed Lilo up the stairs to her front door.
"So our house didn't blow up after all!" Lilo exclaimed joyously to no one as she saw the front door.
"Gaba?" Stitch asked Lilo.
Lilo turned to him smiling, her eyes closed and holding up on finger. "This house has the doorbell on the left, just like our old house. But our new house had the doorbell on the right. That means our house never blew up!"
Lilo turned right back around and rang the doorbell on the left. Stitch was not so enthusiastic. Lilo's house was supposed to have blown up. If it didn't something must've gone wrong, seriously wrong.
After a few moments the doorknob slowly turned, and the door opened. Lilo's whole body clenched with excitement at the prospect of seeing her mother or father greeting her at her door. She was finally going to have what every other kid in the neighborhood had, but she didn't. She was finally going to have parents.
But look of sheer joy and exhilaration shattered as she was greeted by a stranger. The woman at the door was clearly Hawaiian, but clearly no one Lilo knew. She was middle aged, with short spiky hair, only slightly fat, and dressed in plain black slacks and a gray button up shirt.
"Whata' you want?" The woman asked in a tone that made it clear she didn't trust the little girl in front of her, or anyone else for that matter.
"Uhh... I'm Lilo Pelekai." Lilo responded. "Is Eric or Keala at home?"
"Never heard of 'em." The woman quickly retorted and began to shut the door.
Lilo, upon seeing this, pushed back until the woman let go and let the door open again.
"This is my home!" Lilo shouted at the woman.
"No its not!" The woman began to shut the door again when she heard a new voice.
"Ih! Lilo's home! Let in!" Stitch yelled at the woman.
The woman froze in position. Her eyes went wide and she pursed her lips together. Slowly and methodically, she looked down toward Lilo, and then off to the side to see Stitch sitting down on the opposite side of the doorbell.
Lilo cocked her head at the woman in confusion, and then looked at Stitch, his head also cocked in confusion.
In a flash the woman dropped to her knees and bent over with her hands and face to the floor. She was crying uncontrollably, barely able to get out her words through her gasps and stutters.
"I didn't!.. I, I, I didn't do anything wr, wrong! Please! Please! Don't hurt… You can have me! I'll go with you! I'll go with you willingly! Just don't, don't hurt, don't hurt my, m, mm, my, don't do anything to my children!"
The woman tried to say more, but couldn't get anything out of her bawling face and stuttered breathing.
Lilo and Stitch backed away from the woman in shock, and then ran down the stairs, past dirt hill that led to their former house and down to the entrance ofo the driveway.
Gasping for breath, Lilo managed to utter the words. "That was not supposed to happen."
"Ih!" Stitch responded, though clearly not tired from the dash.
That was when Stitch looked off to the palm tree where he placed Jumba's time board earlier.
Stitch gasped at what he saw.
"Lilo! Lilo!" Stitch said over and over again as he tugged at the shoulder of Lilo's mumu.
Lilo turned around to face Stitch.
"What is it?" Lilo asked.
"Naga time board! Is gone!"
Lilo looked at the palm tree where Stitch had put Jumba's time board. It indeed was gone, and in its place was a large yellow envelope.
Lilo walked over to the envelope, tore it open, and pulled out a fine letter made from hemp.
Stitch looked over Lilo's shoulder as she read the letter out loud.
"Dear citizen."In accordance with clause two of article five of chapter five of the constitution of the pacific islands, any personal belongings left unattended in public may be confiscated as…"
Lilo looked up from the letter in shock as she spoke the last line. "As property of the emperor?"