Annie B


Deliah walked into her bosses’ office with a fruit tartlet tray. A dozen bite-sized cups of puff pastry held vanilla custard, each with minced bits of one, two or three different fruits in varying combinations.

Arranged around each of half of the tartlets were a dozen sylph-sized cups of empty pastry to be used as dipping cups for the tartlet filling.

“Okay,” she said, “obviously the ones with the cups are for sylphs-“

“Enough exposition,” Samantha said, tapping a clear spot on her desk. “Make with the tasty bribes.”

“Now, now,” Amelia told her owner as she scurried over to the clear spot from her desk under the lamp. “She MAY be offering tasty treats out of the goodness of her heart.”

“A non-zero possibility,” Sam agreed. “But then again…” She took a deep sniff and smiled. “Then again, she’s already halfway to getting whatever she wants.”

“It’s a small favor,” Deliah promised, setting the tray down. She waited until both women had taken a bite of the dessert offering. “I have some friends coming to stay here.”

“By Friends, you mean?” Amelia asked around a mouthful of crushed pineapple.

“The guy I used to date in college, his wife and their sylphs.”

“You’re friends with his wife?” Sam asked. Deliah sat in the chair opposite her.

“I never met the wife. Not yet. But I really like Ray’s sylph, Annie. In fact, you guys have met Annie.”

“Annie?” Sam asked, looking to her pet. “Was she the conniving little plotter that came to the cook-off with Deliah?”

Amelia nodded and swallowed. “Yeah, she was alright. A little shy.” The two looked over at the chef. “Are you okay?”

“Only you would consider Annie ‘shy,’ I have to say,” Deliah said.

“Okay, yeah, so, your friends are coming,” Sam said. “And you….”

“I kinda promised them they could be in the audience when Electra broadcasts.” She leaned forward, speaking quickly. “I mean, I promised them I would TRY to get them into the show. I didn’t make any promises in your names.”

“It’s fine,” Sam said. She rummaged in a drawer and brought out two tickets. “There are going to be a million sylphs in the auditorium, but not all that many humans. So if they’re willing to sit on their owners’ laps…”

“For this, I think they’ll put up with it.”

“We should probably drive a harder bargain,” Amelia said.

“It’s nothing we can’t afford,” Sam pointed out, popping another tartlet into her mouth.

“Yes, but if she becomes confident, we’ll never drive her to make really GOOD food!”

“Right,” Deliah smiled. “Because I just made this stuff out of a box of mix and a can of fruit cocktail…” She waved the tickets. “Thanks, guys!”

“Come again!” Amelia called.

“Anytime!” Sam said around the last tartlet from the human side. Her hand started inching towards the strawberry tartlet on Amelia’s side of the tray.

“Do it, and I’ll tell the world how you lost your virginity, what room of the White House it was in, and who with,” Amelia growled.

Deliah shook her head and shut the door behind her.

-----

At the airport, she waited in the terminal with a hand-lettered sign. Using letters the size of her hand, she’d written and underlined ANNIE! Below that, in half-as-big letters were PET and DENISE, with a big heart between them. And under that, in half-again smaller letters, Annie’s Owner.

She really hoped Ray had kept a sense of humor. Of course, if he still owned Annie, he must have.

She stood in the terminal, watching the crowds come out of the gate area. There was a constant stream of people moving through the area. When they were a thick clot of people exiting, as from a flight deplaning, she waved her sign.

A male passenger came up to her at almost the right time for Annie’s flight. The first thing she looked for was if she knew him. He seemed familiar but it wasn’t Ray.

The second was for a sylph carrier, a habit she’d picked up at her job. He had one slung on his shoulder, but it was empty. She knew because it tilted in his grip, and he had three sylphs in a shirt pocket: one male and two female.

They were naked, of course, they couldn’t dress until they were off the airport’s property entirely. None of them were Annie.

The man nodded at the sign she held. “You know the sylph’s name better than her owner’s?” He had a wide grin.

Deliah shrugged. “I broke up with the guy, but Annie never left me.”

He laughed and so did his pets. Then he asked, “Do I know you?”

“I was thinking you looked familiar,” she said, “but I can’t place you. Did you attend University of Georgia? Or Georgetown?”

He laughed. “No, Boise State.”

“And that was only barely,” one of his sylphs shouted. One of the females. Deliah stared at her. She was almost familiar, too.

“Can we,” the male asked, “not aggravate the man who has our clothes in his pocket?”

Everyone laughed at that and the man headed off towards Baggage Claim. Deliah scanned the crowd again.



-----
Index

103. Kerri B

105. Kerri C