Keilani's Long Vacation, Part 8 (But Not Really)

[todd_cheese]

Waaaay back in 2004, I wrote a little story called "Keilani's Long Vacation" about a college-aged Hawaiian girl who (due to her small size) ends up getting mistaken for a child. Originally I'd intended the first chapter as a one-off, ending with Keilani taken to a religious girls' school/orphanage, but the story ended up being kind of popular and the more I thought about it the more I realized most age regression stories ended with the girl beginning her "new life" as a much younger person, or didn't really have an ending at all. I decided I'd do mine differently.

And we all know how *that* turned out. Over the next eight years I'd release a new chapter sporadically, with increasingly longer wait times in between, until after Part 7 I just sort of stopped altogether. A lot has changed for me over that time. I've switched jobs, twice. I went through some periods in my life where I was not enjoying it much at all. Then a couple of years ago I became very involved in my local kink/BDSM community. Things are a lot better now, but I find I no longer have the time or inspirational spark to finish the Keilani story, and I've admitted to myself that I probably never will.

But occasionally people will still write me about it, letting me know how much they've enjoyed it. I love getting those messages but it also makes me regret never finishing it. So I've decided I'm doing the next-best thing. Following the example of Mark Laidlaw at Valve releasing the "Half-Life 2: Episode 3" storyline, I'm doing the same here with Chapter 8 of "Keilani's Long Vacation." Just so everyone can know how I envisioned it.

For the first four chapters, I was making things up as I went along. Around Chapter 5, I finally sketched out the remainder of the series so I've known for a while how it was going to end. What follows is cobbled together from the notes I made that I was still able to find. Nothing really exists in any finished form.

Chapter 8 opens with Keilani reflecting, "She wrote a song. And me? I just threw another tantrum." But she doesn't elaborate yet on what this means.

Suzanne Calloway is having a party at the orphanage, celebrating her 14th birthday. (Keilani, meanwhile, is still "12".) Suzanne has been acting giddier than usual lately, and Keilani soon finds out why: Her parents -- Burt and Alexis Louise aka "Lexi-Lou" Calloway -- have finally come to take her home. When Keilani sees Suzanne's father, she flashes back to that night where she first lost her job (and her uniform). He is the asshole tourist who got her fired! There's a flashback to that night, sort of bringing the series full-circle. Also it turns out Suzanne has been scheming to get her family to adopt Keilani as her younger sister. The Sisters go along with it because "I think we need to accept the fact that your parents aren't coming back," and also Keilani has been causing so much trouble for them that they really just want her gone.

Of course this is Keilani's worst nightmare, so she flees into Sister Bernadette's office where she calls the only number she still knows - Akela and Naia. Naia answers and Keilani begs her to do something, anything, to save her from the fate of becoming part of Suzanne's family, but Akela cuts in and doesn't believe her, and she's still pissed about her car being crashed in Chapter 7 so she hangs up on Keilani's pleading. Sister Bernadette gets the door unlocked, and Keilani is dragged kicking and screaming from the office. Naturally she gets one last spanking before leaving with the Calloways. Makala, Suzanne's taciturn disciple, looks devastated that Suzanne chose Keilani over her.

As she loses her island, the last piece of her old identity, Keilani compares her situation to the deposition of Queen Liliuokalani, the last reigning ruler of Hawaii before the United States annexed it in the 1950s. How, while she was imprisoned, the Queen composed the famous "Aloha Oe" song. "She wrote a song, and I threw a tantrum."

At this point my notes are just a series of various scenes that I hadn't stitched together in any particular order yet:

Keilani's miserable cruise ride "home."

Seeing Suzanne's place and learning they aren't rich, her father is just a bullshitter and scam artist who conned his way into a better Hawaii trip than they could ever honestly afford. Suzanne's mother never really wanted Suzanne to begin with and wants Keilani around even less. Insight into why Suzanne acts the way she does.

Suzanne dressing Keilani in boys' clothes (recall her forcibly cut hair at the end of Chapter 5) before introducing her to her circle of friends, convincing them that "Kay-Lawny" is a boy's name and that Keilani is her adopted brother. Another angle on the "altered identity" theme of the series. Suzanne and friends going to their "swimmin' hole" which Keilani finds cold and slimy and disgusting compared to her beloved ocean. All of them stripping to underwear to go swimming in it, but Keilani is too embarrassed because now on top of everything else she has to pretend to be a boy or look like a fool in front of all of Suzanne's friends. Under Suzanne's relentless teasing Keilani mocks her, "At least I can swim!" (Suzanne's inability to swim is revealed in Chapter 4.) Suzanne responds by stripping Keilani in front of her all friends and playing "keep-away with Kay-Lawny's clothes!" They all laugh at Keilani and congratulate Suzanne for "gittin' us good" with her trick.

Suzanne deliberately urinating in Keilani's bed to make her parents think she (Keilani) is a bed-wetter. Keilani shouts about how vile Suzanne is, and Suzanne shoots back a retort but ends it with, "Ain't that raht, Maka--..." She cuts herself off mid-sentence, suddenly realizing her silent partner in crime is no longer around, and for the briefest instant looks crestfallen at realizing she could have Makala here with her instead of Keilani. But quickly recovers, telling Keilani she'll write to Makala and, "tell 'er ever'thang's bin goin' on with us. She kin read real good, y'know, even though she don't talk none."

LOTS of punishments for Keilani. Getting caned at the woodpile for "pertendin' ta be a boy," for "wettin' th' bed," and finally having her mouth washed out with soap for shouting swears at the Calloways. Chapter 8 ends with Keilani suffering a punishment and realizing this is her life from now on.

But there's an epilogue.

At some point Keilani's parents do finally get home. In fact it's not long after she herself left the island. It takes them a while to sort out everything that's happened, but once they do things move quickly. Keilani is found and brought back home. There are news reports about it. The failures in the system that refused to acknowledge her as an adult are brought to light. Under pressure, Saint Sebastian's closes, but all the girls get adopted. Makala goes to live with Suzanne. Oliana is adopted as Keilani's sister. All of this is told to us secondhand by Keilani. Her parents shield her from most of it. She's been changed, even damaged, from this experience and no one knows exactly what to do with her. She can't just resume her old life as if nothing happened. In the end, it's decided to let her continue to live out the next few years as a child until she feels ready to become an adult again.

Keilani's last message to us reveals that, in order to escape all the media attention, it was arranged to have her and her family relocated to Ni'ihau, the only private Hawaiian island not open to visitors. This is a callback to the very end of Chapter 7, when Keilani writes, "I'm not typing this on Sister Bernadette's computer anymore. Or Gail's." It turns out that Keilani wrote Chapter 7 and 8 *after* all of this came to a close, from her new home on Ni'ihau. She reflects on the beauty of her new but still familiar home, and on her second chance at life, then says her mom is calling her and she has to come in for the night. Akela and Naia will be there soon. They're babysitting.

THE END

I hope it lived up to your best fan theories. I hope this gives some closure. I'm sorry that I probably won't be writing the actual closing chapter.

I probably should have done this years ago.

Special thanks:

• To Mark Whitten and Alec Leamus for endlessly professing their love of the story and always encouraging me to finish it.
  
• To Mary Kawena Pukui and Samuel Elbert, for "The New Pocket Hawaiian Dictionary."
  
• To Devin at Shmeng for allowing me to incorporate his notes on kapu, pono, etc. They added a LOT.
  
• To Disney, for "Lilo & Stitch", which initially inspired me to write this. (I totally swiped the scene of Nani losing her job for Chapter 1.)
  
• To the real-life Lexi-Lou, whose personalized "LEXILU" license plate gave me a name for Suzanne Calloway's mother. (I saw it at Walmart. Interpret that as you will.)
  
• To Mom, for the Catholic upbringing. Even though I no longer practice it, it was nice to have the background for the scenes at Saint Sebastian's.
  
• To Yahoo for never deleting content from my site until they closed GeoCities, and to Tripod for hosting me after that.
  
• To One Click Chicks, for the lifetime membership.
  
• To all my readers and all enthusiasts of ENF and age regression, everywhere.

Aloha au ia 'oe. A hui hou kakou.

--ToddCheese, 3/14/2020

[jimmythehand1]

I've been a long time fan and while I'd have loved to see a full concluding chapter, I think you've done a good job of outlining the ending to Keilani's story - and it's an ending I like.

Thanks for this and all your other stories; enjoy the literary retirement (though you'll certainly be welcome back as an author anytime)!

[Amy93]

Originally Posted by todd_cheese

Waaaay back in 2004, I wrote a little story called "Keilani's Long Vacation" about a college-aged Hawaiian girl who (due to her small size) ends up getting mistaken for a child. .......

I enjoyed the hot story..I too sometimes have been mistaken for a child at times..lol

[SPLOTCH11]

While I'm a little sad this story never had a fully written ending, I'm glad to see this and get a finale for Kelani. Quite the epic!

[SPLOTCH11]

I know this is ancient news, but Kelly Hu came up in another thread, and it reminded me she was totally my fan cast as Keilani! I think she'd be perfect.