Princess
Fred placed the carrier down on the kitchen counter and looked for some snack food for the two of them.
Princess stepped out and acknowledge that the house was rather chilly. So much for seducing my owner right away, she thought. Hard to lounge when you’re covered with goose pimples.
He offered her a small slice of cake and started unwrapping her clothes. They went into a little compartment on the top of her carrier.
“Can… Can I get something?” she asked.
“I was going to keep you naked, here in the house,” he said.
“Oh?”
“Yeah, it’s so-“ He turned suddenly as the garage door motor started to sound. “Let me do all the talking!” he told her.
“Sure, Master,” Princess said. She took a bite of cake. That tasted far better than she’d expected, so she took another and another, finally grabbing up handfuls and shoving them in.
The door opened and a young giant woman came in, already talking at a rapid clip. Her voice was probably what Princess used to think of as ‘high’ before everything changed.
She was talking about seeing an electric sylph at the high school and being allowed to pet the woman and how she wanted to have a pet sylph of her own but Mommy said they were too expensive and…
“But YOU have a sylph!” she accused Fred.
“Yes, Tyler, but I caught her, I didn’t buy her.”
“That’s not fair!” She turned back to the garage. “Mommy! Fred has a sylph! I want a sylph!”
“Oh, he does not,” a woman’s voice came from out of sight. “Don’t let him tease you.” The garage door motor sounded again, closing it.
A woman stepped in. She was almost familiar, Princess thought. But in a town as small as Springwater, almost everyone was either a relative or an acquaintance.
She froze as she stared down at the tiny woman in the fur coat, kneeling on a plate full of cake crumbs and icing. Princess waved.
“Where did you get her?” the Mom asked.
“As a matter of fact,” Fred said, “she used to hire the Electra sylph Peanut saw today.”
“I’m not Peanut!” the girl complained. “Mommy, if he gets a sylph I should get one.”
“Just a moment, Tyler,” Mom said. “You caught her, Fred? Where?”
“In the school parking lot. I recognized her car and walked over and she was on the front seat, this big. And I picked her up and took her to the Registry.” He motioned for a spin. Princess stood and lowered the coat to show the tattoo on her shoulder.
“Well, Tyler,” Mom said, “if he caught a sylph, you’ll have to catch your own, too.”
“I don’t know where to catch sylphs, though!” Tyler complained. “But I want one.”
“Yes, but I’m sure that until you get one, Fred will let you play with his sylph.”
Princess found that thought entirely depressing. She knew the games Fred wanted to play, and knew how to win them. She couldn’t vamp in a dollhouse.
“Yeah,” Fred said, “If you want to take that risk.”
“What risk?” Mom asked. She sat down at the table. Fred stepped quickly to cut two more pieces of cake. Tyler stood at the edge of the table, staring at Princess.
“The risk that Tyler will sylph,” Fred explained.
“Oh, she won’t sylph,” Mom said.
“I dunno. Electra’s owner never sylphed, but Mrs. Branch, here, sylphed after hiring them as babysitters.”
“It’s a coincidence,” Mom said.
“What’s a coincidence?” Tyler asked.
“It means that there’s no danger,” Mom explained.
“But if you read the stories…” Fred sat down, letting that hang in the air.
“What stories?” his little sister asked.
“Oh, you know. No one who owns a sylph ever shrinks, but their friends do.”
“Rarely,” Mom said, but she didn’t sound sure.
“Well, there’s that guy in Seattle,” Fred said, “at the Boeing plant? His secretary became a sylph. And his new secretary had the job for one day, which included taking care of his sylph, and SHE sylphed. And his third secretary had HER job for a month and SHE sylphed.”
Mom hummed at the story.
“And,” Fred went on, “every single time Tim Burton does a movie with a sylph character, someone in the cast sylphs on the night of the premiere.”
“I heard that,” Mom said. “But it’s just publicity.”
“And the DAY that sylph in the Courtney Cox movie got nominated for an Oscar, Courtney Cox sylphed!”
“I don’t want to sylph,” Tyler said.
“But you’d get to play in your dollhouse!” Fred said cheerfully.
“Yeah…..” Tyler said slowly.
“You’d just never get to carry Bun-Bun around. But you could sit on his lap and-“
“NO!” Tyler protested.
“That’s enough,” Mom said. “Tyler, leave Fred’s sylph alone. If you catch one, you can keep it, but don’t play with…”
“Princess,” Fred said.
“Princess, right.” She stood up and took Tyler deeper into the house. Fred winked at his pet. She smiled. It felt like she’d really dodged a bullet there.
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Index
79. Shopping
81. Bedroom (N)