Introductions
I opened the slot and brought out a little package. “Now you don’t have to wear this, but Chip and Chrissy thought that someday you’d need a ‘dress up’ dress. Because now you’re in the TV business.” I placed it on the counter.
She knelt beside it and felt along the seam of tissue paper. Then she ripped it open. It was a simple blue dress. A dark blue, not turquoise, I should point out.
It was wrapped tightly around a cardboard woman-shape to keep it from wrinkling.
I held it up for her to get a good look. “Would you be willing to be seen in public in this?”
“Oh, Conrad…” She started to tear up.
“Then we’ll have to tell Chris and Chippy when to see your broadcast debut.” I folded the cardboard and slipped the dress off. She went inside the carrier to change.
She came out and twirled. I oohed and aahed in appreciation. She really did look beautiful in that dress. She beamed at my praise.
“Okay, so are you through being silly, little sylph, and ready to interview Amelia Anthony?”
“Yes,” she said happily. Then she froze. “Conrad?”
“Yes?”
“Am I Electra? Or Electra Louden?”
“Oh, that’s right! You fell asleep. You slept through the whole visit to the Registry.”
“Yes, sylphs often pass out when they shrink,” she nodded. “So what’s my official name?”
“I’m not sure I want to tell you,” I said.
“What? Why not?”
“Whatever I answer, you’re going to want to see the official registration.”
“And what’s wrong with my official registration?”
“You have a middle name,” I said quietly.
She stepped closer to where my hand rested on the counter. “Is it… Jennifer?”
“What? No, if I wanted to call you Jennifer, you’d still be Jennifer. And I DID see your driver’s license when I handed in your personal property, so I know about… Wilma.”
“My grandmother,” she said with a wave of her hand, tossing the fact away as unimportant. “What’s my middle name, Conrad?”
“Let’s talk about this tonight after we get home.”
“Let’s talk about it now!”
“No,” I said. I picked her up very carefully and slid her into the carrier. I shut the door, setting the outside latch for the first time ever. She railed at me. I went out to see if they needed any help with the cameras.
The Anthony’s security detachment arrived and swept through the place. The Anthonys themselves were taken to a conference room where everyone who could justify it was there to meet them.
Interns sat in their assigned studios or booths or cubicles and waited to be useful.
Mark called to tell us that they were interested in the sylph-on-sylph interview idea. We just had to wait until they’re recorded the radio interviews.
Only Samantha came in with their sylph. Thomas introduced me to Samantha, then Mark distinguished himself by introducing Amelia Anthony to Electra Conrad.
Samantha put her pet down on the table where the interview would take place.
Electra beamed and held out her hand. Amelia smiled and stepped around the hand to take my sylph into a close, intimate hug.
I looked up at Samantha. “She doesn’t get a lot of bodily contact in the Residence,” she explained. “And almost never with other sylphs.”
They separated, holding hands, and talking a mile a minute like best friends.
I showed Samantha to a chair where she could watch from outside the camera view, and got her some headphones to follow the conversation.
Mark put me on VIP duty because he was using real cameramen to film.
Samantha put her headphones on, then took them back off again for a moment. “Don’t you have a pair?”
“Oh, I’ll get a tape of this later,” I said. She nodded. The lighting changed and the ‘silence’ bell rang.
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Index
23. The Anthonys
25. I SAW!