Moving On


Part way into my story, Master suddenly sat up. The penny, as they say, had dropped.

“Wait. Wait a minute.” He carefully cupped a hand around my shoulders and looked in my eyes. “Delli… Are you telling me… Those sylphs I turned in… Those guys were the human fuckwits in your story?”

“Um, yeah?” I said. “Did… Did I not mention that?”

“You said sylphs you didn’t trust or like,” he said, biting off each word. “I thought… I thought the four of you were escaping from traffickers!”

“What would you have done if you’d known, Conrad?” Magic asked.

Master’s free hand rose, clenching into a fist. “If I’d known these guys sold PEOPLE to SNAKE OWNERS? I’d…. I’d…” He was starting to spread spittle, he was so angry.

“You’d have regretted it,” Electra said. “Immediately afterwards or when you woke up in the morning.”

“I’m… Not so sure,” he snarled.

“I am,” Electra said.

“Better listen to her,” Cher said. “You know she knows what she’s talking about.”

“So it’s just as well Delli didn’t tell you,” Magic said. “You’d have avenged someone who pretty well took care of it.”

“Yeah,” Cher said, tugging on my arm. “I want to hear more about how you turned them INTO sylphs.”

“Yeah!” Magic and Electra said.

Conrad didn’t say anything. But his anger slowly faded as I went on with the story.

-----

We were up….late. Very late. Outrageously late for people who weren’t in college or prowling for drugs.

We took my whole day apart, from the first sight of Hunter to giving away my fur coat.

And we asked each other a lot of questions, most without answers.

Early on, Conrad called a few key people at the studio, made vague references to ‘the current unrest’ and gave everyone the coming week off.

The funny part was how often he had to say ‘Yes, I cleared it with Electra!’

About the fortieth time someone wondered if I was an undine, now, Cher said it was time for bed.

“We’re getting dumber, not smarter,” he said. “Let’s sleep on it and watch the news tomorrow?”

“Seconded!” Electra voted.

Conrad glanced at the Love Nest. It would be a little tight to sleep there. I could rearrange stuff, but…

“You want the spare bed tonight, Delli? Plenty of room, plus a door you guys can close for greater privacy?”

“Privacy!” Magic said. “I’ll sleep in Electra’s tank.” We stared at her. “So I won’t hear anything over demonic snoring.”

“It DOES have a use!” Master laughed, pumping a fist in the air.

Then he carried us all upstairs. We were placed gently on the spare bed, with the blankets folded down, then he carried the other two out.

When the door shut, I turned to Cher. “So, uh… What, uh, what do you want?”

“You,” he said simply.

Turned out there wasn’t that much to discuss after all. I lay down on the edge of a pillow, holding him like a big Teddy-Viking. He purred and melted into my arms.

-----

By the time we got to Conrad and Electra’s home town, Springwater, things around the world had… Well, things weren’t back to normal. But a lot of the panic had subsided.

Samantha Anthony had issued a statement. Among other things, it was becoming clear that the people being shrunk were all people who’d abused sylphs.

So, the Center thought it was a good idea for people to be nicer to sylphs. And, being the Center, they included the newly-shrunk assholes as sylphs deserving protection, politeness, all that.

And the Anthonys were going with ‘gnome,’ as the designation for the new size of sylphs.

I thought it was stupid. The energy I’d shot out had looked like fire, not dirt. But the newscasters were already latching onto the term, so I didn’t bother to fight it.

When we reached the Springwater exit, the news replayed Samantha’s and Amelia’s appeal to the principles the Sylph Center stood for, asking people not to visit further retribution upon the newly sylphed.

Conrad pulled off the freeway, then stopped at the first parking lot he reached.

“Okay,” he said. “You guys were right about the guilt I’d be feeling, now, if I’d stomped those fuckers flat.” He pet my hair for a second. “And you were right not to tell me in the first place.”

“I wasn’t actually thinking things through,” I had to admit.

“Then you just naturally did the right thing,” he shrugged. Then we continued to his parents’ house.

All our parents’, sort of.

He announced at the door, “Delli became a gnome.”

The five of them ran or rode into the kitchen to stare at me. Wade tried to be appreciative. “Nice sun dress, Delli.”

Mac and Mary Ann tried to be humorous. “Man, when SHE steals the covers…” “I know, right?”

Mary just squeaked.

Julie had been paying attention to the news stories. And thought it through. And swooped down to kneel by me, picking me up for a hug.

“Oh, you pour DEAR! You must have been TERRIFIED!”

I had been insisting it was anger more than anything else. But Moms, you know? She was right. I put my head on her shoulder and cried.

She carried me into the living room. I got a glimpse of a fur rug on the floor. She sat there, coiled me up in her arms, and rocked me.

In the distance, I heard Conrad and his father talking.

“Emotions,” Wade said.

“Yep. Cake?” Master asked.

“We’re out,” Dad apologized.

“Bakery’s open?” Master ascertained.

“You fly, I’ll buy,” Dad offered.

Conrad rattled his car keys, the deal struck. Mary Ann and Cher cheered. The kitchen door opened and shut.

Dad came into the room, holding a pen and paper. “So, who still needs to be notified?”

“The Center!” Electra shouted.

“Kerri,” Cher suggested.

“Ace and Brandy,” Magic said. Mom added, “And Raven, Xander, Chrissy, Chip,” in a wry tone. Well, hell, Magic had met them all, but only really talked to the sylphs.

“The remote guy?” Mary asked.

“Foster,” I supplied.

“Did you guys tell ANYONE?” Wade asked when he finally stopped scribbling.

“Family first,” Cher shrugged.

“That’s sweet!” Mary Ann gushed.

“No,” Julie said. “It’s the ration of shit we gave their master for not telling us he adopted Ghirardelli and Cher. He’ll do a lot to avoid that again.” She gave me a totally gratuitous squeeze.

“Conrad CAN be taught,” Electra said. “But he has to fear you…”

“Thanks!” Wade said cheerfully.

-----

After I cried myself out, Mom set me on her lap and started talking to, well, anyone but me.

The whole house didn’t exactly ignore me, but they didn’t make a big deal out of me, my situation…

My size.

I mean, they asked if I wanted a glass of milk, but only when someone was pouring anyway.

And they’d offer cake, when the cake arrived, and everyone was getting cake.

Kind of a program of indulgent neglect, really.

I was alone in my own headspace for a bit. And if what I found there scared me, I just whimpered a bit and Mom hugged me some more.

After two hours, the first thing I said out loud was, “I gave away my chinchilla…”

“Conrad,” Mom asked, “who makes gnome-sized fur coats?”

“I already texted the Anthonys,” he replied. “They said they were a little busy keeping the world from going up in flames, so they had to set that as a low priority.”

“And then _I_ texted the Anthonys,” Electra said. “And told them Delli was a gnome.”

“What did they say?” Mac asked.

“They said they’ll have a phone number and price estimates by the weekend,” she said.

“Oh, my Lord!” I complained. “I wasn’t saying that! I wasn’t demanding fur, Conrad!”

“I know,” Master said. He came over to kneel on the carpet in front of us, hand on my leg. “It’s just, it’s the only thing I’ve ever seen that made you THAT happy, other than dancing with you on the mirror.”

“Mirror?” Wade asked. “There’s a story.” Mom silenced him.

“I don’t pretend to think that a fur will make everything right,” he said.

Electra climbed out of his pocket to take one of my hands in both of hers. She smiled up at me as Conrad went on.

“But I can show you I’m here, WE are here. And we still want to do what makes Delli happy, because a happy Delli is what makes us happy.”

“Pretty much,” Magic said from Master’s pocket. “And the Anthonys responded the way they did because THEY also want to be here for you.”

Cher just nodded, too sappy to speak at the moment.

“Silly,” I told him. I told all of them. I squeezed Electra’s hand and reached out to Conrad and his pocket. “I knew that before we got HOME that night.”

-----

So, anyway, it’s been a month, now. The whole world is on board with us being ‘gnomes.’ Still stupid.

Conrad has about a million ideas for a new set, one that accommodates Electra holding an interview with an individual of any size. A variable height seating platform for her, various chairs for them.

And it’ll have a makeup chair which Cher can use for any sized sylph-or-former-sylph. Or a series of swappable chairs, they haven’t decided.

And a tailoring shop with a variable stand, so I don’t have to bend way down to dress up tiny little sylphs like our Electra or her guests.

And the travel case… I swear, I just want something I can sit in comfortably for a few hours of flight. Conrad came into our room the other day, all apologetic. And gathered his pets together.

Oh, yeah, we’re still pets. Everyone’s afraid of pissing off sylphs and getting sylphed by what’s being called the gnome-fire (See? STUPID!), but they still insist people who are 18 inches tall are just a more exotic form of exotic pets.

At least the smart ones say ‘you’re still a pet, please-don’t-shrink-me!’

Anyway, he got us all together and apologized, but he just could NOT figure a way to design a travel toilet for the travel case that would fit everyone.

I honestly don’t know why Master was worried. Did he think we bond over the toilet?

I mean, it IS Conrad. Love the Master to DEATH, I swear, but it’s possible he thinks women go to the bathroom together to share porcelain in a ritual of sisterhood.

We were, well, stunned. Not that we would have to have two buckets (or whatever) in the future, but that he’d clearly spent some time trying to solve a problem that didn’t exist.

Poor Master.

I thought about how hard it would be to convincingly argue with him about how this wasn’t a problem. Or… I could smile.

So, I said, “So what you’re telling me is that after 17 years, I finally get a private toilet!”

The others started to chuckle. I pumped a fist. “Yes! And don’t you people go borrowing toilet paper sheets from MY private stock, either!”

“If she gets a toilet,” Cher said, “I get a urinal!”

“You got the chinchilla!” Magic snapped.

“Which you cannot wear, I should point out,” Electra pointed out.

“Therefore,” Magic said, “if anyone should get a urinal, it should be me!”

“You can’t use a urinal!” I said.

“What does that have to do with it?” Electra cried. “It’ll be HERS and hers alone!”

“Damn straight!” Magic chirped.

Master’s expression was changing. He’d lost apology, gone through confusion and guilt, and was now edging into suspicion.

I have No Idea what he might be suspicious OF, of course…

He tapped his fingers on the table we were standing on as we continued to discuss the bathroom needs of the four of us.

Finally, he thrust himself to his feet. “I can’t work under these conditions. I’ll be in my trailer.”

“Oh!” I called. “Don’t go away angry, Master!”

Everything stopped as everyone turned to stare at me. Whoops! Used the word out loud… A big no-no.

“I mean, Conrad, don’t go away.”

He reached over to rub my hair. “I won’t, Ghirardelli. I won’t.”

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand, he didn’t.



-----
Index

24. Hanging On

26. Blank