Kerri B
The sylphs talked for an hour about the books, about the book signing Kerri was in town for, about how Kerri needed to go to St. Augustine next time she was in the area… They stopped when the attendant announced that the flight almost ready to board.
Only then did Annie think to ask for seat assignments. Nolan and Kerri turned out to be seated about twelve rows away from the Fosters.
“Well, go talk to the gatekeeper!” Annie commanded. “Switch seats! We need to sit together!”
“Annie,” Ray said, “They just announced that this is a full flight and they’re trying to get volunteers to take a later flight.”
“We can’t do that!” Pet cried. “We have a schedule and we told Deliah when we’d be there and when to pick us up. So we can’t volunteer for that.”
“No one’s going to do that, Pet,” Denise assured her.
“Oooh, I know!” Annie shouted. “Lurch, you change seats with Nolan, and let Denise carry the carrier and the sylphs can all be under the same seat!”
“That’ll be fun!” Pet said cheerfully.
“Um…” Kerri protested. Nolan picked her up.
“What is it?” he asked.
“I, uh… I have this idea. I want… I want to think about it,” she told her owner.
“Oh,” Annie cooled. Pet looked crestfallen.
“No!” Kerri said, waving to be lowered back to the other two. “No, no, no! I’m not ducking you guys because I don’t want to visit any more. I have this idea. For the strip! I want to think of some story lines to add you guys to Living Within Reach!”
“Oh!” Annie enthused. Pet’s smile was wide and bright. “Yeah, well, if you’ve got the idea, you need to chase it down right away.”
“And,” Kerri added, “I want to see you guys at the end of the flight. To bounce the final ideas off of you. See if you-“
“We’re okay with it!” Pet said. Then all three looked up at the three humans.
“If it’s okay,” Annie said, “with the people who actually own the rights to our likenesses.”
“Yeah, that’ll be great!” Ray said. “Maybe we can get an autographed copy out of this.”
“Oh, that’s easy,” Nolan said. “How much time do you have in DC? Do you have a tight connection?”
“DC is our destination,” Denise said.
“Cool! Us, too. Maybe we can share a cab part of the way to…?” Nolan left it hanging.
“We’re going to the Sylph Center!” Pet squealed. Nolan stared at her.
“Yeah, it’s a little costly,” Ray said, “but we’ve got an invitation to Portion Control and-“
“We’re going to be on Electra’s premiere broadcast,” Kerri said slowly. “And she’s broadcasting from-“
“From the Sylph Center,” Pet and Annie said slowly.
“This is one of those fate things, isn’t it?” Kerri said.
“God, I hope not,” Annie spat. “Last time Fate paid any attention to me, I ended up in a shoe box.”
“For only a few weeks,” Ray protested.
“A MONTH!” Annie snarled. “And then I got upgraded to a Hamster Cage!” She stomped to the edge of the seat and shouted imprecations upon her owner. She kept returning to the fact that he hadn’t known Kerri was doing a signing at their favorite bookstore.
Ray claimed to have been busy making plans for the trip to Washington, and he wasn’t the only person in the house who spent time with the paper.
Pet turned to a shocked-looking artist. “Don’t let it bother you, the way Annie and Ray treat each other. I used to be scared that they were going to kill each other, and frankly, I’d have put my money on Annie, but Annie and Ray parents both say, and after a while you figure out it’s the truth, but this is how they tell each other I Love You.”
“I, uh, I’m not bothered,” the other sylph said. “It’s just… I almost RECOGNIZE it.”
“We tease,” Nolan said quietly above them, his eyes on the brunette stamping her foot on the Naugahyde. “But I don’t think we ever really threaten bodily harm… And certainly not that graphically.”
“Yes,” Denise sighed happily. “It’s amore.”
Kerri pulled Pet’s sleeve to get her to kneel down close. “And, um, how do YOU tell your owner you love her?”
“I say, I love you Denny, of course,” Pet said. “Um, Denny is Denise, and Denise says I love you Pet and we never ever ever fight even though Annie says it’d be good for us but even if it would, it’s not something I want to do and I don’t think we’d ever be as good at it as Annie and Ray are.”
“Really,” Kerri said, staring at the way Ray neither flinched from the yelling nor commanded his pet to be quiet. “Really….”
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Index
102. Kerri A
104. Annie B