Electra C


The Anthonys met us at the car port. Electra and staff got hugs from Amelia and her staff. I’d actually been promoted up to a hug from Samantha some time back.

We set up the set and my laptop in a handy conference room because Electra could not wait to show off the set, and Amelia couldn’t wait to see it.

Samantha and I both pretended to be indulging our sylphs’ curiosity and pride, respectively, none of our own. I don’t think we fooled anyone.

We had to watch the computer screen, through selected camera angles, because the house did not come apart easily. I did not want a dollhouse, where I could just pop up the walls at any time.

It made the place just a little bit more real for Electra. And it was cool, watching her play hostess. She showed off the working features just like a new home owner.

And she described how she wanted to use each room, how certain guests would be featured, what she wanted to show on the TV or out the windows.

And when they got to the garage, she just waited happily in the door while Cher and Ghirardelli showed off THEIR domains, without her needing to hog any attention.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen her happier, Conrad,” Samantha said.

“Well, there was this one time Mom made a cake. It was decorated like a swimming pool, and there was a real diving board, with a ladder that went all the way down to the table top…”

On the screen, all the sylphs were coming down the stairs from the loft. They all stopped and looked in my direction (directly, not at the camera). Electra, Cher and Ghirardelli all licked their lips at the memory.

Amelia and Butters rubbed their stomachs. Pipkin cupped her hands to shout, “Is Deliah back to work, yet? “Cause I have this idea…”

“His mother probably got it from that article Amelia wrote in Sylph Fancier’s,” Samantha said. “With pictures supplied by Deliah.”

“Oh, yeah,” Butters said.

It was about that time we found out that this conference room wasn’t merely ‘handy’ for the demonstration. There were boxes in one corner with the forms from all the sylphs who wanted to be on Electra’s show.

“We weren’t sure what you wanted,” Sam said as she hefted a box up onto the table. “But for a start, we’ve split them into sylphs with and sylphs without human owners.”

“How… many sylphs don’t have owners?” I asked slowly, thinking of the legal ramifications of broadcasting that status on television. There’d be tourists with butterfly nets all over the place.

“Technically, any sylph that was, for lack of a better word, feral when they arrived, is now the official property of the Center,” Sam said.

“Nice,” I said. I grabbed another box and heft it. “Well, we figured there was going to be room for ten sylphs on the premiere, and some of those have to be the celebrities.

“But we can set aside time to film a hundred or so, and we’ll use those on the program later.”

“Where’s the list?” Amelia asked.

“Oh!” Taped to the top of one box was a list of the more famous sylphs that were going to be available on the night of our live broadcast.

Sam handed it to me. I placed it on the table and Electra came out to stand on it. I saw Kerri Soote, Amelia (of course)…

“Who’s Froggie Freeman?” Electra asked.

“Nicky Knox,” I said, “she’s that Playmate that sylphed. Her owner named her because of that joke.”

Everyone stared at me. “Trust you to know the Playmate on the list,” Ghirardelli snorted.

“Trust him to know the joke,” Cher said. “What’s the joke, Conrad?”

“Never mind that,” Electra said. She tapped her foot on a name on the list.

Carrie Fisher.

My little princess Leia was going to interview the For Real Princess Leia. I felt faint.

“I didn’t know her owner let her out of his penthouse,” I said.

“Oh, Lucas finally got him to sell,” Samantha told me. “It was an unpublished but presumably ungodly sum of money. And then George sold Carrie to her daughter for nineteen dollars and seventy-seven cents.”

“Why that much?” Pipkin asked.

Kids today. “That’s the year Star Wars came out,” I said.



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Index

107. Annie C

109. Kerri D