Kerri
We started filming as Kerri’s owner, Nolan, lowered her into the couch, then I replaced the ceiling.
She looked around in awe. “I love what you’ve done with the place!”
“Thanks,” Electra said.
Kerri pointed towards the door. “I don’t think the stairs are Disability Act compliant, though.”
Electra paused for a second. She’d been planning on completely ignoring the amputations.
“I’m kidding!” Kerri said, reaching over to pat Electra’s knee. “The Act doesn’t give a fuck about sylphs.”
“I, uh, sorry,” Electra said. She had gone very still when her knee was touched.
Kerri noticed. “You don’t like my scars, do you?”
“No!” Electra wailed, covering her face with her hands. “I’m sorry! I’m sorry! I just… I can’t imagine!”
“Oh, sweetheart, that’s okay!” Kerri grabbed one wrist and dragged herself across the sofa. She took Electra into a hug. “I’m the same way with blindness! It’s okay!” She pat my pet on the back.
“Nolan told me you’re a gymnast, right?” Electra nodded. “Athletes always want to throw up when they see me. Or they pity me.”
“I shouldn’t!” Electra said. “It’s the same thing when people I knew before see me now as a sylph. They pity me or babble nonsense about ‘how horrible that must be for you,’ as if they can imagine.”
“It’s the human condition,” Kerri said. “They can’t really imagine what our life is like, but they CAN see that they would not be able to live life the way they’re used to. And that cuts right into our souls.”
Electra was starting to calm down, finding equal footing (No pun!) with her guest. She nodded. “Like, maybe, when two people that were at Woodstock meet? One’s still following the Grateful Dead, one’s a CPA in Poughkeepsie?”
“Exactly!” Kerri said. “Both of them say I could never imagine living under those conditions!” They laughed. They went on.
“Or imagine two Brits meeting after the American Revolution,” Kerri said. “Both on either side of the war. One says, we’ve got proportional representation instead of monarchy.”
“How horrible that must be for you, says the Loyalist!” Electra laughed. “Or maybe not even humans! Imagine a wolf meeting a domesticated wolf.”
“I’d throw up if I had to live like that!”
They laughed and laughed. Electra finally gave her usual welcoming hug to her guest. Then they settled into the interview.
“So, Carrie’s owner in the strip doesn’t have a name. He’s just Owner.”
“Exactly,” Kerri said. “That’s the most significant part of their relationship. He’s in charge, his word is law, he makes all her choices based on his desires.”
“Is your owner that bad?”
“I don’t know that it’s ‘bad,’ exactly,” Kerri mused. “I mean, it’s a fact. The people in Living Within Reach are honest, if nothing else.”
“What do you call your owner?” Electra asked.
“Nolan,” Kerri said. “Which doesn’t change the relationship, he’s just not big on being called ‘master’ or ‘boss’ or ‘sir,’ like a lot of owners are.”
“And he didn’t change your name?”
“Nope,” she replied with a smile. Then she looked embarrassed. “But, um, you…”
“I’m okay with it,” Electra said. “I get along with the guy who named me Electra a WHOLE lot better than with the people who named me Jennifer.”
“Really?”
“Yes,” Electra said with a contented smile. I felt like I was ten feet tall right then. “So, is Carrie the character’s original name?”
“I never thought of that,” Kerri said. “I suppose that would be another element to examine. The loss of control in even your own identity.”
“Well, we never had that control, right? Our parents pick our names, or our owners.”
“But when you get out of the home, you can introduce yourself any damned way you please,” Kerri said. “You can let people call you by your nickname, or insist on your full name.”
Not always, I thought, thinking of Gonad.
“Not always,” Electra said. “Depends on if the nickname was a shortening of your name or a mockery.”
“Oh. Yeah, that’s right,” Kerri agreed. “I wonder if it’s too late to change Carrie’s name in the strip.”
“Owner gets a new girlfriend who suggests something more appropriate?” Electra suggested.
“Like Shorty?” Kerri asked with a mischievous grin.
“We’re all short,” Electra said. “But maybe that’s why he breaks up with his current girlfriend? She thinks of something like Stumpy?”
“Ooooh,” Kerri said, intrigued. She looked at the camera. “Nolan! Write this sylph a Contributor check!”
“How much do you want?” he asked me.
“How much is a Living Within Reach compilation?” I shot back.
“I’ve got promotional copies of all of them, and the unpublished one, in my car,” he said.
“Deal,” I said.
-----
Index
46. Crippling Phobia
48. Logistics