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Cruise Control, Part 3


For a week after they got home, Cruiser was exploring the apartment and Tammy was a nervous wreck.

Her small size and retiring nature had always kept her from fearing she'd hurt anyone. Now she saw the empty and open cage and knew her great big gunboat feet were going to crush Cruiser. Somehow, some way, he'd be in the wrong place at the wrong time and she'd find out just too late.

But she never went back on her word. He was always careful to announce his presence before running out to tell her something new he'd discovered, climbed over or dragged out from under the sofa.

She'd had a brief tour of all the things she could think of that could be lethal. Power cords and sockets, stacked books, bookends, chemicals under the sink, the burners, the knives...

Tammy surfed a baby-proofing site and listed every possible threat. Cruiser sat quietly in her hand and absorbed it all.

When she was done, she looked at him carefully and asked if there were any questions.

"Um... That bit about not taking bites out of possibly poisonous plants?"

"Yes?"

"Tammy, do you HAVE any plants in this apartment?" She stared.

"Shut up and go play," she'd finally said, lowering him to the floor. "Your owner is CAREFUL, not CRAZY, okay?"

"Okay!" He'd giggled and ran off. She went and looked at the controls to her over burners. They were about three inches over where his head would be and about as wide as his leg.

She considered that she might not need the baby-proof covers for the stove... Part of her said it was better to be safe that sorry.

Another part of her pointed out that she trusted Cruiser, that she wanted Cruiser to feel trusted, and that smothering him from all harm wasn't in keeping with the 'let him be free and grow' decision.

And yet another part wondered if arguing with yourself was worse than sitting on the sideline during an internal debate.

"Argh!" she snarled, then stalked carefully back to her computer. She had a hobby to take up.

She still hadn't found anything that really spoke to her a week later.

Now she stood by the cage, wondering what she could possibly look into. What was left?

All the crafts looked like they'd fill the apartment with crap, unless she gave it all away.

But that reminded her of Mr. Standing. A neighbor when they grew up, he grew zucchini each summer. He always brought his produce over for Mildred.

She used some for dinner, make some zucchini bread she shared with Mr. Standing... And threw about 75% of it out.

Things that weren't going to crowd the apartment either took too much time away from Cruiser, or looked so tedious she'd slit her wrists before long.

"Tammy!" She turned to see Cruiser on the window sill. "What are those?" He pointed out the window.

She saw their parking lot. Some more apartments. A corner of the park. A few kites. "Kites?" she asked.

They had an impromptu picnic, sitting at the table and watching the kites. And the frisbees. And the boomerang. A couple of kids playing catch.

Cruiser was just amazed to discover people watching. Even being sniffed at by a Labrador playing fetch hardly interrupted his smiles. He just backed up from the carrier window while the dog sniffed, barked, then ran off.

She watched him watching, then tried to imagine the activity from his point of view. People running and laughing, playing with strange toys and just reveling in the sunshine.

Maybe the sylph sessions had something more active? A volleyball league? And if they didn't.... Maybe she could start one? Maybe that's what she was looking for?

But would organizing something for him and doing it with him be even more cloying than hovering over him? Or could he have so much fun that 'mom' couldn't spoil it?

Well, what could he say but no thank you?

"Cruiser?" she started to ask.

"What's over there?" he asked, pointing.

"Oh, nature walks," she said. "Would you like to see?"

"Yes, please," he said. "Oh. What did you want?"

"It can wait," she said. She picked up the carrier and the picnic basket. The basket went into the car and she walked through the trees.

She picked the paths with fewer people, more leaves, less trash. The fewer giants the happier Cruiser tended to be.

They took it slow, watching for birds and squirrels. A very few walkers came by the other direction, no one caught them up from behind.

Tammy was surprised to find a little wooden bridge over a stream. She stepped off the path to look over the little ravine the water coursed through.

She even opened the carrier and let Cruiser sit on her shoulder. They listened to the chirping birds, the chuckling water and the whispering winds.

"This is really nice and all," Cruiser said. "But isn't it about lunch time?"

Tammy laughed and put him in the carrier. As she started to stand, though, she lost her footing. The rock under her shoe twisted free and rolled down the slope.

There was nothing to grab onto and she went with it. There was a scream and a thud, then quiet.

Cruiser had a better time of the fall. His space was small and familiar and his reflexes were a lot faster. Tammy fell while her sylph just jumped around on various surfaces.

The carrier was on its side when everything finally stopped moving. One window was on the ground, another faced the sky. The one he could open was looking away from where Tammy was. There was just a bit of one elbow visible through the skylight. Her hand was submerged in the stream.

He called out to her frantically, beating on the bars of the window, watching that arm. She didn’t move or call back.

Cruiser wanted to get to her, to wake her up, or find the phone and call Mildred. To get help. He was as terrified as he'd ever been. Or maybe not, he thought. He wasn't running blindly or bouncing off the walls. He had a plan. Priorities. He wasn't in just a crazed, terror-driven reaction.

"Are you okay, now?"

He turned. There was a woman standing outside his window, just visible through the tall grass. A woman his size. She looked at him curiously.

"I'm fine," he said.

"Well, you were screaming and then you stopped." She took a step closer. "Does that mean you're better or worse?"

He recognized her clothes. It was a one-size-fits-most-sylphs jump-suit from the cheap rack at WalMart. Tammy had said Annie and Ray steered her clear of those. Only mean owners and cheap rat bastards bought them.

Hers were torn and frayed, poorly patched with thick thread here and there. And dirty. Cruiser hadn't seen so much dirt on a person since his first bath.

"I'm better," he said. "Can you let me out?" He pointed towards the latch for the door. "If you push the-"

"I know what to do," she said. She took a step closer. He saw more of her. Some of the holes in her jump suit were not patched. He glimpsed bare, dirty skin. A part of him wondered if he could see more of it.

More parts shouted Tammy's name, over and over.

She paused. "I had one of these," she explained. "My owner kept leaving it where I could climb on it. I bent the little metal piece here." She pointed but Cruiser couldn't see. He didn't really care, but he didn't want to interrupt.

Surely this was moving the conversation towards a 'there, you're free' moment?

"Then one day, he turned his back, I opened it with a stick and I was gone."

"That's clever," he said sincerely. He'd never imagined tampering with the latch. He was terrified of being away from Tammy. But he admired her foresight and bravery. "Could you open it for me?"

"I don't know," she said. "What will you do if I do?"

"I'm going to try to wake Tammy up. If that doesn't work, I'll try to call someone on her phone. Get her some help." She just stared at him.

"Uh, then I guess I'll go with her to the hospital?"

"Oh, no," she shook her head. "I did that. My first owner got sick and they took me to the hospital to visit her. A nurse put me in her pocket and sold me to a guy in a bar. Then he sold me to my second owner.

"Sylphs should never go to a hospital. They always say it's not their fault if you run away, even if you never plan to run away."

"Then," Cruiser said, speaking slowly and thinking furiously. "I suppose. I could. Call for help for her, then run and hide? Maybe with you?"

She smiled but still didn't move. "I, uh, have a spare jump suit you could have. If you want it."

"Oooh," she said, smiling enough to show actual teeth. Then she pushed at the latch.

Cruiser grabbed his spare suit and the blanket off his bed while the stranger worked at the latch. With the carrier on its side, he'd ended up having to lift the door by the window bars to ease the weight on the latch.

She popped it open and stood back while he lowered it like a ramp. "Here," he said, handing her the garment and the blanket. "Thanks for your help."

Then the turned and ran to Tammy's side.

She was on her back, her head on a pile of leaves. There was a bruise on her forehead but he didn't see any other wounds.

He climbed her shirt to stand on her chest. Her breasts rose and fell and her breath flowed over him. Knowing she was alive made him happier than he'd been in a long time.

"Okay," he told her. "I'm going to find your phone. And I'm going to call 911. And they'll come and get you and make you better. And I'll call Mildred to make them make you better. And I'll hide here with... With..."

"Emerson," the girl said. The sylph was standing behind him on Tammy's belly.

"Emerson," he repeated. He turned back to Tammy. "I'll hide with Emerson until you get better and come back for me. Okay?"

"Can she hear you?" Emerson asked.

"I doubt it," he admitted. "But I need the list." Then he tried to remember which pocket Tammy carried her phone in. He thought it was the left, usually... He turned and went to investigate.

Emerson followed, watching curiously. He lowered himself to the top of her pocket and hung there. The solid weight of his owner's phone told him he was at the right pocket.

He slid inside and pushed the case up to the top. He was trying to balance it and tip it to the opening when Emerson grabbed the antenna. She guided it as he pushed and they got it down onto the ground, then both put a foot on one half and lifted the top.

It opened easily and turned on. Another knot in his stomach relaxed. He reached for a button.

"Do you know where you are?" Emerson asked. "I think they need to know where you are."

"I remember how we got here..." he said. "Oh! I'll call Mildred first!"

His first call for help for real went through easily. When Mildred answered he gave her a careful list of events and asked what he should tell the nine one one people so they could come and make Tammy better.

"You're two blocks from your house? That's Figueroa Park. Tell them you're on the nature trail in Figueroa Park, by one of the bridges. Can you see the bridge, Cruiser?"

"Cruiser?" Emerson asked.

"Who the hell is that?" Mildred asked.

"Emerson," Emerson said. "Who the hell are you?"

"Another sylph," Cruiser said. "And Tammy's mom."

"Well, this is the Red Bridge," Emerson said. "I've heard hikers call it that."

"Okay," Cruiser said. "I'll tell the emergency people Tammy's at Figueroa Park, on the Nature Trail, laying on the ground by the Red Bridge."

"Yes, Cruiser," Mildred said. "That's right. But you-"

"Kay, Bye!" he shouted and ended the call.

The emergency call itself was practically anticlimactic. The worker didn't care that he was a sylph, and wasn't angry that he didn't know if it was Red Bridge number 1 or number 2.

"We'll check them both," she assured him. "Now you wait right there-"

"Oh, we can't!" Emerson wailed.

"No, can't be sold by the stealing nurse," Cruiser said. "I'll call back later if no one shows up. Bye."

He ended the call and turned off the phone to save the batteries. Emerson grabbed up her blanket and clothes, nodded her head and started to run upstream towards the bridge.

Cruiser paused long enough to pat Tammy on her land-side wrist, then followed.

A little bit past the bridge was a tree that had been burned some time in the past. The bark had grown over the wound on its side, making a sort of tunnel up the trunk.

At the top of the channel, Emerson had hacked out a small chamber. It was dark, the only light coming from a very small hole in one side.

She sat down next to it and pointed. Cruiser looked out and saw the bridge. Just beyond it he saw Tammy's feet. She still wasn't moving.

"She'll be okay," Emerson promised. "They'll be here at any moment."

"If not, I'll call back." She nodded.

Time seemed to pass differently for him than for his hostess. She moved away from the peephole long enough to change into his jump suit.

He was nearly ready to run back down and call again when two cops showed up. They said some things in their radio and people came and took Tammy away.

And in the manner of people in crisis since the dawn of time, he thought much better once it was past.

"I should have hidden the phone," he muttered.

"Probably," Emerson said. He moved away from the window and turned. She turned on some sort of battery powered light and filled the room.

She looked really silly in his clothing. Very, very silly. She probably needed a size or two larger. Her hips were pressing tight against the fabric there and her breasts looked like they were going to burst out.

"Uh..." he said.

"Thanks," she said with a smile.


Cruise Control, Part 1
Cruise Control, Part 2
Cruise Control, Part 4

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