Electra L
“Oh, my GOD!” I said. I took a deep breath. “Am I going to spend this whole time saying, ‘I can’t imagine,’?”
“Maybe,” Annie smiled. “Ever kill a rat?”
“Ew,” I said in a tiny voice. “Okay, back up a bit, what, exactly, do you mean by a peep show?”
“There are places where women dance in various states of dress, or undress, for the entertainment of the customers. Some are on stages, some do lap dances, some perform behind glass as directed by the customer.
“There are also places where sylphs are placed in aquariums and they do whatever the customer directs them to do.” She shrugged. “You CAN imagine what they ask us to do in there.”
“Ew, again,” I said. “How did you escape?”
“My owner’s dad tracked me down, slipped through their security, set off some carefully placed explosives, led a high-speed chase back up I-95, had a shootout-“
“NO!” Pet protested. “Dad pretended to be a cop and said they’d received stolen merchandise and said they could give you back or pay a really hefty fine.”
“Oh,” Annie shrugged. “Yeah, that was it.”
“And happy ending,” I said.
“Except for the sylphs we had to leave behind,” Annie said, suddenly somber. We were all quiet for a minute. I turned to Pet.
“So, you had a different upbringing?”
“Mommy sylphed when she was 8 months pregnant,” Pet told me. “And Denny’s family took me in. And they believe that God sends sylphs as a test, and they took good care of me and my mom so that God would know they have good hearts.”
“Well,” Annie said. “They took care of you BECAUSE they have good hearts, and if God gives them credit, that’s just icing on the cake.”
“Oh, yeah, I guess.”
“Trust me,” Annie said. Pet lowered her head to Annie’s shoulder.
“Okay, Pet, clearly you DO trust Annie?”
“Annie takes care of me. I mean, Ray and Denise and Chuck and Carolyn and Victor and Gwen and Carla take care of me, but Annie treats me like her sister.”
“And what do you do for Annie?” I asked. Pet looked shocked like she never thought of what she provided. Annie looked on, waiting to see what she came up with.
“Um… I dunno,”
“I do,” I said before Annie could. I stood up. “Come out to the living room.”
“The covered thing?” Annie asked.
Out in the living room, Cher and Ghirardelli had uncovered the frame and opened it. They still had a blanket over the two sides.
I realized that this was the first time either of THEM had been on the TV, either. “You guys know my hairdresser and my costumer. Folks, this is Cher, who picked his name for the actress and her wonderful hair.
“And this is my costumer, Ghirardelli, who picked HER name because…” I realized Conrad had never explained her logic. I paused.
“Because I’m dark and I have good taste,” she said.
“I’ll buy that,” Annie said. Delli blew her a kiss.
“ANYWAY, if you would, Cher?”
He pulled back half of the blanket. Kerri had drawn the two sylphs based on an incident we’d only heard about. It was kind of cartoony, but the faces were instantly recognizable.
Pet stood there, looking a little vulnerable, while a rather sketchy looking male sylph grabbed her arm and leered at her.
Behind him, Annie swung a baseball bat with nails driven through it, aiming for his knee, her tongue stuck out in concentration.
“OH! That’s PERFECT!” Pet squealed.
“I didn’t have a bat,” Annie said.
“Kerri said it’s kind of impressionist,” Cher said. “You struck as if you’d held a weapon of joint destruction.”
“Yes, yes, yes,” Pet was saying. “Annie takes care of me!”
“Uh huh,” I said. I nodded to Delli. She pulled the blanket clear. “And you…”
The picture in the other half of the frame was a softer sketch, more details and shading, a portrait rather than a cartoon.
Annie knelt on a form. The writing was illegible but you could see it was a form of some kind. Her shoulders slumped and she was sad. One tear was on her cheek.
Her head was tilted to the side, resting on the hand that Pet had placed on Annie’s shoulder. Annie had grabbed Pet’s wrist and held it tight. Pet was clearly offering support, a lifeline, to her friend, who clearly needed it.
“I…” Annie said. Then stopped.
“I remember that,” Pet said. “Annie was sad about what happens to sylphs in the world. Like Lisa and Tom and Lucifer and Midnight and that guy Tom hit who had no feet but had a mouth on him… Um. Yeah. She was sad. And I told her it was okay to be sad.”
“I…” Annie repeated.
“So, Pet, what do you think you do for Annie?” I stepped between them, an arm around each waist.”
“I dunno…”
“You love me, Pet,” Annie said quietly.
“Oh. Well, duh…” She stepped forward and the two of them hugged between my arms.
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Index
130. Electra K
132. Kerri I