Annie VI: Alaska

Annie VI: Alaska

(Chronological index: Ray as College Sophomore)

"It's just a jump to the left!" Annie shouted and performed. The cage rattled on the dresser.

"No more midnight showings," Ray muttered.

"And then a step to the rii-ii-ii-iight!"

"Midnight?" his roommate asked. "It's three in the morning!"

"Put your hands on your hips!"

"Annie, for the love of god," Ray pleaded.

"And bring your knees in ti-ii-ii-iight!"

Thomas stood and started walking towards the cage. Even the implicit threat didn't curb the performance. The high pitch she hit on 'pelvic thrust' threatened to pierce ear drums.

Ray popped to his feet, grabbed a pair of pants, swept up the cage and strode out of the room. Thomas groaned and threw himself back in his bed.

Annie had quieted by the time he set the cage down on the dorm lounge's table. She watched as he dressed and sat in the chair across from her.

"You requested an audience?" he asked.

"Hi, Ray, how have you been?" He stared down at his sylph. "I mean, I see you around, but you're always in the books. It's like there's a wall between us. You're… Are you seeing someone else?" she asked. "It's over, fine. I'll be adult. I won't make a scene. We'll get a divorce. I won't even question the prenup. I just want you to understand one thing."

She turned to the TV Guide cover that had been stuck through the bars of the cage. It was her poster of the Miami Vice stars.

"I'll split custody of Tubbs, but Crockett has to stay with me." She glanced over at her owner. He blinked twice but made no other move.

She turned to plant a kiss on Don Johnson's cheek then walked back over to the cage door. "Now, you can't wear the doll clothes so you'll have to give them to me. But we'll split the cars in the garage…"

"You're saying I'm not paying enough attention to you," he said in a deadpan voice.

"Well, yeah," she said.

"Annie, it's midterms. I can barely remember to wear my teeth or brush my clothes."

"So, I know where I fit in your priorities," she sneered. He opened the cage and lifted her out. She held her arms crossed and glared.

He leaned back on the chair and lay her across his heart. She tried to stay stiff but couldn't. She spread her arms and dissolved against his ribs. Heat, beat and backrub always made her melt.

"Break's coming up," he said. "We'll go home and I'll spend every day making it up to you."

"Really?" she said.

"Well, except when the guys want to go to the beach."

"I hate the beach," she muttered.

"Right. So I'll leave you in the new cage while I'm gone."

She raised her head and one eyebrow. "A new cage? I'm putting up with this shit, and my reward is shiny new confinement?"

"I was going to make the cage out of brownies," he said.

Annie thought about that for a second. Then she lowered her head. A slap on his finger rebooted the backrub.

"You'd better," she muttered.

----

Thomas' classes gave him a day's head start on the break. He was heaving a suitcase and laundry through the door when Ray came back to the room. "Hey, how'd you do in Calc?" he asked.

"Two plus two is still five, right?" Ray replied. Annie groaned in her pocket.

"Hey, someone brought you a message," Thomas said as they danced around each other in the doorway. "It's on your desk."

"Doctor Johnson wants to see you in his office," Ray read. The building and room number were included. He glanced at his watch. "That's Poultry Science. I don't think I've ever been in Poultry Science."

"Maybe that's why you're failing Hen Tickling," Annie suggested helpfully. "Better go see if there's a make-up."

Doctor Johnson's office was strangely uncluttered to Ray's view. Books were sparse and carefully placed. There was nothing on his desk except for an oversized atlas.

"You wanted to see me, sir?" he asked, sure there it was a mistake of identity.

"Raymond Foster?" the man asked. "Computer science? Sophomore? Sylph owner?"

"Um, yeah," he admitted, stepping into the office.

"Need your help young man," Dr. Johnson said, waving Ray to step up closer. The atlas was open to a two-page spread of Alaska.

"Sir, I'm from Jacksonville. I know nothing about-"

"Not what I need. It's about Professor Luttuck." Ray blinked. He glanced down at his pocket. Annie shrugged.

"Who?"

"Professor Luttuck! A genius in Poultry Waste Management! She's world famous!"

"Yes, sir," he replied, willing Annie not to chuckle. For once the telepathy worked and she remained silent.

"You must know her! She owns a sylph," Johnson said, gesturing towards Annie. NOW she giggled. The doctor looked at her with wide eyes, as if shocked that she'd make a noise in his presence.

"Doctor Johnson," Ray asked, "has anyone ever asked you if you know Kareem Abdul-Jabbar?"

"What?" he asked, eyes dragged up from the sylph. "Why would I know him?"

"Because you're both black?" Ray asked. He was pushing his luck, but he was feeling a little put out and a lot lost. Johnson stared at him. He started to regret using a line more suited to Annie's modus operandi.

Finally Johnson snorted through his nose. "It was Wilt Chamberlain. He visited and the Dean asked if I needed to be introduced. Point taken. Well, she knows you."

"She does?"

"Well, OF you, anyway. She needs your help." He gestured for Ray to take a seat. "There's a bit of a cock-up," he said. There was a pause after he said the line, as if waiting for Ray to laugh. That was an English expression, but this wasn't the English Department. He remembered what school it was right after Annie started to speak.

"Can we hen-dle it, you think?" Annie asked.

"I'm sure he's egging us on," Ray told her.

"Well, chick this out," Johnson said with a big smile. He tapped the atlas. "Okay, seriously, our Professor Luttuck has been invited to Russia to confer with some Soviet scholars on the subject of Poultry Waste Management. There's been a problem."

"The Russians don't let foreign sylphs into the Soviet Union," Annie said.

Johnson nodded. "Wouldn't even let him off the plane. But the chance to attend this conference…"

"She left him on the plane?" Ray asked.

"Shipped him back to the university." He leaned over the map. "But the plane had a technical problem. They had to land it…" He squinted and searched the city names. "Somewhere around…" He shrugged.

"We'll find it. Anyway, there's a broken 747 in the middle of nowhere. Most of the passengers have been carted out, but-"

"Sylphs coming into the US have a six-week quarantine," Ray said.

"Exactly! So he's trapped on the plane with the crew. The Feds won't even let him come off."

"That's stupid," Annie said. "He wasn't even IN Asia!"

"Noted," Johnson said. "But. There's state, federal and local authorities arguing this, among other issues like who has to pay to build a runway long enough that the plane can get in the air again. There're a few lawsuits. The State Department is trying to make some sort of point. The FAA is trying to tell the State Department to blow it out their-"

"Where do we come in, sir?" Ray asked.

"Oh. Luttuck wants you to go take care of Poul."

"Paul?" Annie asked.

"Poul. Short for Poultry. Poul was a professor in Poultry Production on The Day. He shrank in Luttuck's office."

"Take care of him?" Ray asked.

"He's in quarantine," Annie pointed out.

"Yeah, well, she figures you'll be more sympathetic to Poul than any of her students. Just head out there, wait until they clear this mess up, bring him back. School'll pay for your expenses. Ticket out and back. Living. Rental." He tapped the map.

"Regular carrier to Anchorage. Then a pontoon plane to… Here, somewhere. Then drive to the interior. It's all in the package."

"Package?"

"Oh! Yeah. Here. Everything you need. If you'll do it."

"Sir, this could take six weeks," Ray said slowly. "And break is only for-"

"I've cleared it with your advisor," the doctor assured him. "Check with her, she sees no difficulties. Ever been to Alaska?"

"No," Ray said slowly. "Never been west of the Mississippi."

"Then it's a wonderful opportunity." He slammed the atlas shut, deciding the matter was settled.

Ray stood, clutching the folder to his chest. Annie saw the corner of a plane ticket sticking out. "I'll, uh, talk to my advisor, sir. And… let you know."

"Excellent! Carry on."

In the hall, Ray tried to frame an apology to Annie. He'd done nothing wrong, but he had promised her…

"There had better be brownies in Alaska," she muttered darkly. He smiled and walked off.

--------------

Annie was miserable. The noise level in an airliner was horrible for a traveling sylph. Ray had bought her a BrainBucket© to wear. The helmet sound-proofed her entire head, protecting ears, mouth and eyes from pressure and noise.

It made it nearly impossible for her to carry on a conversation, eat, drink or watch the movie. And the vibrations in the frame just traveled up her feet and shook every bone in her body. Including the ones in her ears.

She spent hours trying to fully map out the experience. During Ray's run through O'Hare to the connecting flight, she tried to tell him.

"Climb into an oil drum, with a dozen bricks. Wrap your head in sponges with duct tape. Have a friend weld you in, kick you to the edge of a sharp hill and roll you down to the bottom."

"Uh huh," he muttered, scanning the gate signs for their next stage.

"Can't we take a break?" she whined.

"No time. They made a pretty tight trip for us to- There it is!"

They were over the Yukon when she finally stopped throwing up. She nearly missed opening the face plate for the last one. Ray cleaned his wrist and her face and pressed her back against his heart.

She moaned and, completely empty, finally fell asleep. To her amazement and his relief, she didn't wake until they were nearly through with planes.

Annie woke in Ray's shirt pocket, a familiar experience. The vibration was different, though. She stood and looked out the window.

The wings were above the window and they were props instead of jets. Looking down she saw a harbor beyond the large pontoon that hung down from the wing.

"That's a small harbor," she shouted.

"Yep, not at all farther," he agreed, not looking up from his crossword puzzle. She wriggled out and slid down his arm. He automatically braced it against the window so she had a place to stand.

The harbor was tiny. The plane circled. She climbed up to Ray's ear and opened her face plate. The wall of noise hit her like a force field. She grabbed the lobe of his ear and screamed.

"That's a tiny, tiny harbor we're going to land in."

"It's just your perspective," he said. "If it was too small, they wouldn't land there." She ran back to the window. The plane was settling down towards the water. She estimated the flight path to be similar to 'falling brick.'

"We're too steep!" she shouted, kicking at his wrist.

"How many times have you landed a plane?" he asked. Then the engines stopped. Ray looked out the window and up, towards the propellers.

Annie looked down at the water. She saw the waves part around the pontoon as the seaplane was completely submerged. Ray just saw a wall of water appear around the slowly spinning blades.

"HOLYFUCKINGSHIT!" he screamed. The muscles under her feet became rock hard and he may have swallowed half of his own brain. By then, the plane had already bounced back to the surface.

There was some laughter from the other passengers. The pilot's voice explained, breaking up the sound of the engines being restarted for the taxi to the pier.

"Well, as you can see, we have completed another safe trip. Sorry if we bothered anyone. See, the harbor's too small for a normal landing and the opening is too rocky for the plane. So to shed speed, we dive the plane.

"And, well, we don't warn the passengers because it's perfectly safe, and we don't want them to worry needlessly."

Annie smiled. She always smiled when it turned out that she was right.

-----

Alaskans were enjoying a fine, sunny spring day as Ray walked down the pier. Short sleeves were everywhere.

Everyone that had been in Georgia two days earlier was chilled by the late winter breeze. Annie's brief surge of victory had been beaten back down once they exited the plane.

She dug further down in Ray's jacked pocket, pushing another sock between her and the outside. Then there was nothing to do but sit in the dark and notice how tired, achy and ragged she felt.

"Found the car rental," his voice came, slightly muffled. "Sign says they're closed until two."

"What time is it?" she shouted back.

"Three." She felt him twist back and forth then start walking. The pounding headache started keeping time with his big ugly feet. She moaned and wondered if the Eskimos had a hundred words for mercy killing.

There was a woman's voice, soft and hard to hear. Ray made and order and she realized they were in a diner.

For once, though, even the thought of food was offensive. She curled towards his chest and tried to soak up his heat.

"Yes," Ray was saying, "I'd like a hamburger, fries, a coke, a glass of ice water, a bowl and a cup of water hot enough for tea."

The woman muttered something as Annie turned and started to wiggle to the top of the pocket.

"Well," he explained, "I need to make a tiny hot tub."

Annie ignored the ache in her muscles as she grabbed the zipper and yanked at it. Ray helped, then held his palm out for her to climb on.

She was still a bit shaky so she didn't try to stand. She just sat there and stripped of her clothes.

They were in a fairly standard diner. He'd chosen a spot on the counter as far from the door, and the drafts, as possible.

A couple of men were sitting together in a booth, two others at places along the counter. They were ignoring Ray.

An older woman place a soup bowl in front of him, then a small pot, a bowl of tea bags, ice water and silverware.

She didn't notice Annie until she was through placing items. The naked sylph gave her a bit of a start. "Whoa," she said. "That's a tiny one!"

"She sure is," Ray agreed. He pushed the tea away, poured water into the bowl, then started adding icewater. The waitress stared.

Annie gave a small clap as he tested it and nodded. He held her over the water and lowered her until she could dip a foot. When she flashed 'okay' he placed her down in the water.

She sighed and lay back against the rim and closed her eyes. The throbs and aches and pinches and abraded spots all faded to background noise then they were completely gone.

Annie sank as low as she could get without drowning and purred. "I take back everything I ever said about you," she said happily.

"You always do," he pointed out. "But the next time my date throws a blanket over your cage so we can make out, you make these outrageous statements about my heritage." He dipped one finger and brushed water over her brow and hair.

She ignored his voice and tried to will herself to become broth. A fluid wouldn't care about vibrations; he could just keep her in a thermos. Maybe that was why Jeannie traveled in a bottle? For the benefits of sloshing? In her dream-like state she made a mental note to look into djinn bottles at the earliest opportunity.

Air movements and scuffling sounds penetrated her bliss. She didn't have to open her eyes to know that giants were crowding Ray's end of the counter.

They'd had scant time to do any research on Alaska before catching their plane, but a tourist book said that there were few sylphs around the state.

Between the low population density and the wildlife, many people had just disappeared on The Day. Those that survived had generally done poorly in the winters.

There were difficulties in keeping the pets, which also made it difficult to sell them here. They tended to get shipped to brokers in Seattle.

Annie arched her back a bit. Her breasts rose to the surface and the nipples just poked out. The sudden touch of air cooler than the water made them pucker. She heard a gasp above her somewhere and smiled to herself.

Humans made a lot of noise about how sylphs weren't people any more. Annie thought it was fear that the same thing might happen to them. So they poo-pooed anyone that suggested the two species could share intimacy.

But they still stared at tiny naked former-people when they weren't used to them.

Ray's finger poked her gently on the sternum and submerged her breasts again. Spoilsport.

She started to protest. In mid squawk, Ray lifted another drop of hot water to her face and gently rubbed her brow. She purred and stayed quiet.

The conversation vibrated over her. The waitress, the cook, a few patrons all had sylph care questions for Ray.

At least being introduced this way, sprawled naked in clear water, no one was asking 'Can you make her dance?'

The story of their trip came out slowly. Someone turned out to know where the car rental guy was and went to make a phone call.

Another guy wanted to know how the little girly had handled the harbor landing.

"She was fine," Ray admitted. "I'm the one that squealed like a little girl."

"A great big ugly little girl," Annie said. They laughed.

When the car guy arrived he had the chance to see the sight of the sensuously soaking sylph. He sighed and suggested a sedan.

"Will that make it to…" Ray pulled out the map he'd been given and pointed to the red circle.

"Ah. Maybe you want the Jeep."

Ray paid the bill as Annie climbed out, dried off with a paper napkin and got dressed. The crowd was silent as they watched.

There was no dashboard to speak of in the Jeep so Annie's carrier was lashed to the passenger seat. She couldn't see outside but that wasn't much of a problem.

Annie had lost all Navigator privileges and responsibilities on a summer trip. She'd helped Ray negotiate the way from Boston to Salem by taking them through Rhode Island.

Now she just stayed between the cushions of her pillow fort and rode out the rough patches of road.

"Snow," Ray reported. "I wonder what kind?"

"That's a myth, actually," Annie told him. "The whole 'Eskimo have a hundred words for snow' thing isn't real."

"Really?" He shrugged. "I wonder how that got started, then."

"I figure it's probably not 'words for' as much as 'what Eskimo say when it snows.' You know."

"No, I don't," he replied.

"Well, say an Eskimo anthropologist visited-" She gasped at the feeling of free fall. Either the pothole was probably big enough to swallow the entire car or he'd missed a bridge. The bounce at the bottom of whatever he'd driven over pressed her down hard enough to bottom out her cushion.

"You okay?" he asked, eyes on the road as he swerved hard.

"I hit bottom so hard! I think I could use the impressions in my ass to count the stitches in my pants!"

"Sorry," he said and slowed down. "Anyway…?"

"Oh. An Eskimo scholar visits the University to understand your tribe. So, he speaks only a little American Teen Male but he hangs out at your dorm. Then he tries to get translations of anything he hears and doesn't understand.

"And later, he publishes an article about how Georgians have a hundred words for rain."

"But we don't!" he protested.

"Sure. But he only hears the hundred things you SAY when it rains." He shot a confused glance down at her. "Okay. Say you're in the lounge. The rain starts. One of you guys turns to the window and says, 'Oh, crap, not again.' The scholar turns to you and says, 'what did he say?' YOU say, 'he says, it's raining again.'

"Next day, you're driving somewhere and it opens up. The wall of water that even makes Canadians slow down on 95?"

"Got ya," he said.

"YOU say, 'Holy fuck it's coming down!' When he asks what that means, you say…"

"I say that I said it was raining," he said with a smile.

"So, he publishes an article about the 100 ways to say 'it's raining.' Which includes, 'Aw, Shit.'"

"There's the weekend shot to hell," he replied.

"Fuck," she said for her turn.

"Fuck me."

"That's just fucking lovely."

"I don't believe this shit."

"Can you believe this shit?"

"We never had this much shit when Ford was in charge."

They kept egging each other on, long after they'd identified one hundred typical remarks from his peers.

-----

"Wow," Ray said some time around sunset. He pulled over to the side of the road and got out. Annie stepped from the carrier and stretched.

"Come here, you gotta see this," he said and picked her up. She shrieked at the wind but he didn't put her back.

He wrapped both hands around her and pointed her to face a valley stretching out before them. It was a small flat spot in the range of hills around them. A town was just off from being directly in front of them.

Beside that was a small airport. A big white jet hulked at one end of the runway, looking out of place in the setting. "It looks like a Barbie toy in a Polly Pocket playset," Annie said.

"Yeah," Ray agreed. "How are they going to get that out of here?"

"Knock off the wings and drive it out?"

"Makes as much sense as anything else, I guess," he said and turned back to the Jeep. "Well, almost there."

Annie was unnaturally subdued on the final leg of the drive. While Ray was generally comfortable with silence, he hadn't been used to it since the 6th grade.

"What do you think Poul's like?" he asked, guessing at what was on his pet's mind.

"He's a specialist in Chicken Production," she said after a moment. "And he was a full professor on The Day. I'm kind of thinking Don Knotts?"

"Are you really?" he asked. There was a sign with the name of the town, Mikittok, and the population of 773.

"Yeah," she said. "Why?"

"Well, I was thinking you'd be hoping for a Don Johnson." He tried to find a road leading towards the plane. As the night got darker, some huge light assemblies came on around one wing.

"Riiiiiiiiiiiight, she said without a trace of sarcasm," Annie replied. "I want to hope that Don Yummy Johnson is here. In quarantine. Where I can't reach him. Six weeks of look, don't touch."

"Drool, don't touch," Ray corrected her.

"Bite me."

"Later," he promised. There was some work going on around one engine. Generators were running for the lights and some power tools. There was a trailer nearby. Ray aimed for that.

After he parked, he wrestled his heavy coat out of the back. The inner pocket had a mitten sticking up out of it. He lifted Annie and slid her into it like an insulated sleeping bag.

Then he stepped outside. "Ah, weird," he said. "I can see my breath."

"See your death?" Annie asked. "Then let's get out of here!"

A number of guys in short sleeved shirts glanced at him as he walked to the trailer. He expected at least smiles at his weakness before the cold but they pretty much ignored him.

Inside, he found about fifteen to twenty guys and thirty to forty conversations.

Men were arguing or agreeing with each other, and at the top of their voices either way. They were simultaneously arguing or agreeing with people on the phone. And with people on someone else's phone. And one guy kept opening the windows to shout something to someone outside.

Trying to find out who was in charge, Ray worked his way through representatives from the Federal Aviation Administration (both the Regional Office and the Technical Center), the Air Force, the Army Corps of Engineers, the Alaskan Governor's Office, the Alaskan Air National Guard, a host of political staffers and a few men that just snarled at him.

Those three were using the biggest phones in the trailer. Ray guessed they were upset that he didn't recognize their inherent superiority as he tried to find out who he had to check in with.

The only person that offered him any help in finding who was in charge was Jonathan Ford, the guy from Pan Am Airlines. He was at the desk farthest from the door, sipping coffee and watching the furor.

"Nothing to do with me," he explained. "I got the passengers and crew out, I'm waiting to either organize a fly out or sell it for salvage."

A burst of profanity from a Big Phone brought a smile to his lips. "The guys from the State Department, specifically from the Office of Democracy and Global Affairs, are not having success with their mission. Something about trying to blame the Soviets for the fact that the plane broke."

"You guys were the last ones to touch it, you broke it?" Ray said with a smile.

"Pretty much," Ford agreed. He stood and nodded for Ray to follow. "Come on, I'll show you to the guy running things."

The noise outside were merely mechanical. The drill didn't have an agenda or use profanity. After the trailer, Ray found himself enjoying the shrill but even whine.

"So, where's your sylph?" Ford asked.

"She's warm where she is," Annie shouted, "and she isn't coming out for less than a bucket of chocolate!"

Ray shrugged apologetically but Ford just laughed.

--------------

The guy from the Alaska Department of Transportation reminded Ray of a number of coaches he'd had. Arthur Emson didn't have a desk in the trailer, but a table in a tent. He turned from the coffee pot on one end to look Ray over.

"Sylph handler?" he asked.

"Yes, sir," Ray said. He opened his jacket briefly to show Annie. She cuddled her hands against her shoulders and nodded up at the man. Then she sneezed.

Ray bundled back up again as Ford made introductions. "Okay, kid," Emson said. "We lack quarantine facilities here in the middle of the Great Desolation. So the pet stays on the plane. You can visit, he's in First Class.

"Do not break the big yellow seals on his cage. Do not move the cage. Do not suggest to him that he escape from the cage.

"Do not put anything into the cage except that it gets my approval or, if I'm not here, my aide."

"You don't have an aide," Ford pointed out.

"Then you'd better wait until I get back," he said with a smile. Ray nodded. "Okay, the shift ends in half an hour. Be at the trailer then, you can ride the bus back to the motel. I understand there's a room for you there. You mind a roommate?"

"I always have a roommate," he said, gesturing towards the pocket. "And, no, I'm in a dorm."

"Great," Emson said. "So, we're trying to free the guy, trust me, but there's a lot of other shit going around. He may even be evidence of an international violation of understood civil rights."

"Really?" Annie shouted.

"The proffessor's rights, Annie," Ray said.

"Oh. Crap." She curled down in her mitten and sulked. Ray went out somewhere and walked. Then he climbed. Then he walked some more. There was muttering and someone gave directions.

A door hinge squeaked. The sounds of machinery faded as he walked through a jury-rigged airlock and another door.

Then he started laughing.

"What?" she shouted. "What is it?"

"Oh, well, Annie, he's not Don Knotts." His tone was amused so she started dialing down her expectations. In her mind, Blutarski shoved an entire grain of rice into his mouth and pretended to be a zit.

"Well, who?" she asked. He unzipped his jacket but didn't open it.

"Who was the guy that took care of Robin Master's place in Hawaii?"

"Higgins?"

"I guess," he said. "He sorta reminds me of the estate scenes on Magnum."

Annie breathed a small sigh of relief. Higgins was better than- Wait. Knowing Ray, it was as likely that he meant the goddamned Dobermans. They also took care of the estate, technically. And Ray LOVED technicalities.

So she was expecting a dog when Ray finally put her down on a card table set up at the end of the aisle of seats. A big line of yellow tape set a small area aside in front of a fairly standard hamster cage. Yellow wax marked all the openings and a red tag sealed the lid.

She noticed the sawdust under the wire bottom of the cage. God, people pissed her off some times. He had to be capable of using a latrine and walking on wire was a real pain for people with arches and to think-

Thomas Magnum stepped out from behind the water bottle and smiled at her.

Well, it wasn't really Magnum, or Selleck of course. But Ray had put it into her head and the similarities were striking. She tried not to drool. After the crap she gave Ray after that cheerleader smiled when he signed her petition, he'd never let her forget it.

He had what looked like a track suit on. Dammit. For once in her life she needed a sylph to be kept naked and here he actually had stylish clothes that looked comfortable.

"Don Knotts?" he asked.

"She was terribly afraid that you'd look like Barney Fife," Ray said. "Hi. We're Ray and Annie."

"I heard you were coming," he told the man, then dropped his gaze down. "I've heard of you. I'm really glad to meet you."

"Hi," she managed.

"We're going to be looking out for your interests and taking you home once we get the chance," Ray told him.

"Uh-huh," he said without looking up.

"Hi," Annie said.

"Actually, we have to go follow the bus back to the motel. But once we're checked in we can come by whenever-"

"We have nothing else to do with our time," Annie said, "than come make sure you're okay!"

"That's great," he said. "But I'm okay in here. A little lonely, but that's fine. I was just worried that I'd end up…God only knows where."

"I can come in there!" Annie said. "As long as I don't come out, right?" She turned to Ray. "Right? One-way trips are legal!?"

"Remember the trailer?" he said. "You think that adding one sylph to the mix will make things any better? I'd hate for you to have to do six weeks quarantine AFTER Poul gets out, because they can't think of anything better to do with you."

"Ooooh," she fumed.

"It's alright," Poul said. "Come back, we'll talk. And you guys are taking me home, right?"

"Right!" Annie said. Damn, I have to clean the carrier, she thought.

"Time to go," Ray said, reaching for his pet. "Anything we can bring you?"

"Weights?" Poul asked, gesturing a workout.

"Fishing weights, a q-tip and some tape?" Ray offered. Poul flashed him a thumbs-up. "I think we could find that around here."

Annie wriggled in his grip as he strode to the door, trying to put her in her mitten. "I can stay! You'll be right back! I'm okay with that!"

"Annie, please. I do not intend to leave you alone here. There's no telling what might happen." At the plastic sheeting and wooden frame door to the exit, he leaned against a wall and lifted her to his face. "I will, on the ride home, give you all the privacy you wish. But right now, I'm more worried about what the Feds might do."

"Um…okay," she said. "I'll be good."

"Good!" he said and slipped her away. "Now. Do you think he has any petitions he needs signed?"

"Oh, crap," she muttered.

"Because, frankly, I'm not as worried about my risk of drowning in your drool," he explained as he went down the steps. "I perfectly understand YOUR concern about red-headed members of the team morale uplift committee, and their effect on your immediate vicinity but you can go ahead and-"

"I hate your memory."

-----

Ray's roommate in the motel was a driver for one of the officials from the State Department. He managed to convey the general opinion that the sylph, Poul, was the cause of the entire situation including the emergency landing in this godforsaken hellhole of a dump with no decent bars to speak of and only about thirty unmarried white women with ten years of his age in either direction.

He also apparently painted Annie with the same brush for being a sylph, and Ray for owning one. Ray decided the man was just jealous and ignored him.

They found dinner across the street from the hotel. They already had his name on a list authorizing two meals a day. The waiter started to explain how the bill would be paid by Alaska, with bills sent weekly to his university…then they both decided that neither of them cared.

Annie took time exploring the menu before allowing Ray to order. But he enjoyed leaning back with his eyes nearly closed, watching the spectacle of a large room full of men pretending they weren't staring at the tiny woman at the table by the fireplace.

"I wonder if I'd have gotten more attention at that trailer if I had carried you more openly," he murmured.

"Who gives a rat's pale pink patootie?" she asked back. "None of them were going to help you anyway." He noticed that she kept circling the seafood section on the menu.

"We travel 3000 miles from Jacksonville and you want to get fish?"

"Alaskan King Crab?" she replied. "Of course I do! It's not frozen here! Somewhere, right now, Friday's special is in a rocky nook on the ocean floor, putting his affairs in order!"

"You may have a point," he said. "But I was looking forward to Caribou stew. Or Moose kabobs. Venison."

"Ladies and gentlemen," she said, "let's hear it for Ray Foster, gastrointestinal frontiersman! His idea of new cuisine is to kill something else!"

"Fine, Miss Annie, who didn't eat calzones for three years after finding out that feta is goat's cheese. What shall we order?"

"Whatever Poul wants," she said.

"Poul?"

"YOU!" she shouted. "Whatever YOU want! Of course. I, uh, was just wondering… uh…"

"What sort of food they're feeding Poul?" he asked gently.

"Yeah… maybe we can take him a doggie bag…?"

"We'll ask Emson."

"Thanks," she said in a small voice. He sat up to pat her on the head, then folded the menu.

He ordered the crab and didn't pretend that she owed him for it.

When it arrived, they brought a separate plate for her and one of the legs. The room hushed when she stripped so the butter wouldn't get on her clothes.

As usual when they dined out, the press of waiters refilling his drink, his bread basket and his butter dish was almost a constant blur.

Annie usually berated the ones that stared but she was concentrating on tunneling into the claw. Finally she lay on her back, purring towards the ceiling beams.

Ray cleaned her off with a complementary wipe and rolled her into his pocket. Then they went back to the motel to sleep off the travel. Annie was snoring before he got the key in the lock.

--------------

Annie lifted another card from the Pan Am deck and slid it into place in the holder, careful not to look at it. She took a step back and waited patiently.

Poul smiled. "Oh, you're in trouble now," he said. "I discard the fourth one from this end." She wrestled it out and carried it to the pile. After noting it as the 2 of Clubs, she retreated behind her own rack of cards to see if she had a place to use it.

There wasn't so she took the next one in the stack. That one was a ten so she slotted it in by the other three. One of her kings went the way of the pile.

He glanced at her discard and nodded for a new card. "Please," he added. She smiled back. Poul was always so courteous. Of course, the only way he could get anything right now was to manipulate people.

Since he chose to do that by charm, courtesy and humor, Annie was perfectly willing to be manipulated.

She had barely tipped the next card up before he shouted, "GIN!"

"Aw!" she cried. "Not again!"

"That's another massage you owe me!" he laughed. She stomped over to her rack as if that were a serious issue. She'd suggested playing for back rubs only because playing for kisses was to blatant.

She tipped the cards over, careful to keep their faces away from her opponent. She'd had a winning hand for several minutes.

When she looked around at the nearest seat, there was no one there. Ray's Calculus textbook was open, pencil and notes at hand, but her owner was nowhere to be seen. And she hadn't heard him move…

"He just left," Poul said. "He made a drinking motion, probably getting coffee from Emson's tent."

"Oh. Well, he'll be back to shuffle the cards soon, then." She drifted over to sit near the cage, right on the edge of the yellow tape. "So, you never said how you know who I was?"

"Really? Well," he replied, lowering himself to sit across from her. "Well, Dottie, that's Professor Luttuck to you, plays bridge with Professor Denner."

"Oh, crap."

"Now, what's wrong with Denner?" he asked.

"Nothing," she snarled.

"Or is there something wrong with…" He smiled as he paused. She fought the urge to flip him off. "Maybe, perhaps, you have certain feelings associated with…Brent?"

"He told you I slept with him?" she asked.

"He told me you were GOING to sleep with him. He was quite sure about it. Then one day, he stopped talking about you." Poul looked a question at her.

Ah, hell, she thought, if we're waiting for self incrimination, I got through my revered master's high school years interviewed by Mom. Do your worst, tiny man that can't pick me up during interrogations. She reflected the look back at him.

They sat there, staring at each other for a while. Annie found it strangely comfortable.

"Okay," he finally said, "I'll ask. Did you sleep with Brent?"

"Does it matter to you if I did?" she asked back.

"Yes and no," he admitted. "It depends."

"On what?"

"Did you sleep with him before or after he brought up the Sylph Nation rising against our oppressors?"

"He mentioned it while we were cuddling," she said with a laugh. "After. After the very last time I ever even spoke with him. Do I pass judgment?"

"You always did," he assured her. "I just hoped you were as smart as I thought you were." They were quiet again, still staring comfortably at each other.

"Finished the hand?" Ray was walking up the aisle. "Sorry, I had some paperwork they were adamant about." He quickly shuffled and dealt, then sat down at his seat. He left a large stack of paper on the corner of the card table.

Annie glanced at Poul, who shrugged. "What's with all the dead trees?" she asked Ray.

"Oh, just final resolution on Poul's status," he replied without looking up. "And then convert the polar to rectangular…"

"HEY!" Annie shouted. "What IS the final resolution?"

"They tell me that the Secretary of State came out of the Embassy, saw his shadow, and we have six more weeks of diplomacy to deal with."

"Aw, crap," she said. But Ray liked Poul. Ray would be upset about the sylph spending additional time in durance vile. And Ray's break was going to be over at the start of next week. Ray wouldn't be complacent about missing the next semester, even part of it. "What else…?" she asked.

"Oh. Well, they've decided the actual body of the sylph doesn't contribute in any manner to the offense or eventual resolution of the diplomatic incident." He turned the page in his textbook and looked over the story problems. "We can leave once you guys finish your card game."

"Remember this," she said. "Next time you turn your back? And you wonder if you taste anything… unseemly in your drink afterwards? Remember this. Vengeance will be mine," she hissed.

"Again with the sylph uprising," he muttered. Then he put his stuff away and stepped towards the table.

Annie tried hard to keep from dancing in glee. Then Ray opened the cage by merely unclipping it from the base.

Poul grabbed what looked like a footlocker and jumped free of the cage. Ray replaced the cage. No seal was disturbed in any way.

He nodded. "That'll spin 'em a tizzy," he judged. Poul laughed. Annie giggled.

Poul turned at the sound and spread his arms wide. "I have been waiting all week for a hug!"

"Okay," Ray said, reaching down.

"I will KILL you!" Annie promised, running forward.

------

They hurried to the motel, intent on showering, laundering and packing. Annie escorted Poul into her carrier where they sat on a cushion.

"So, do you think we-" Poul started to ask.

"Shhh!" she hissed.

"What?" he whispered.

"There's going to be something," she said softly. "He saves his best teases for threes."

"Oh," he said, sitting back. They sat quietly until Ray set the carrier down on the desk. The diver was out somewhere so they were alone.

"Okay," he said. "I'll run a shower in the bathtub. Poul, you can stay in there as long as you like. I'll wash your clothes in the sink, then use the hair dryer to blow dry them. Then I'll pack our stuff and we can be on the road whenever we're all done. Okay?"

"What about me?" Annie asked.

He shrugged. "I was going to leave that up to you two. Do you need privacy, Poul? Or do you want someone to soap your back?"

"Is that it?" Annie said sharply. "We get all naked and relaxed and you pour the ice chest into the tub? Or something else embarrassing and cold and heartless and mean and-"

He picked her up and held her before his face. His finger stroked her hair. "Annie, what are you talking about?"

"Teasing!" she shouted. "You always tease in threes. I don't know if you're aware of it, but you can't stop until you think of three things. I'm fucking tired of it. Do something so we can relax and get on with… with… with whatever we're going to do! Okay?"

He stared. "Okay. Three, huh? Let's see. I teased about the resolution."

"That's the first one," she said.

"I teased about being the one he wanted to hug."

"That's two."

"And I teased whoever sealed the cage by not breaking the seals."

"Oh…." Her voice trailed off.

"I have, I swear to God, no intentions of doing anything at all to make you or Poul uncomfortable between now and when we get back home.

"Oh. Thank you. Can we go take a shower now?"

"Well, that's up to Poul as much as you, right?"

"Okay by me!" Poul shouted. Annie just pointed down in a 'what he said' gesture. Ray laughed and offered a hand to the other sylph.

-----

On the edge of the tub, they quickly undressed and handed clothes over to Ray. As Poul grabbed the shower curtain to climb down, he paused.

The sound of running water allowed him to talk privately to Annie by speaking in her ear. "You know, you don't really have to-"

"I owe you so many backrubs, I have to hope that soaping it counts. Shut up and get down there!" Annie said. Then she slid down the vinyl. He smiled and followed.

The water pressure of the shower was like fire hoses to the sylphs. Ray had set up the shower head so the streams hit the back wall, then reflected spray hit the floor. If they chose their spots carefully, they didn't get swept off their feet.

Poul stood and watched Annie bend over to rub the bar of soap to work up a lather. When she was well and truly sudsed, she stepped around him and soaped his back. And pits. And sides and front and everything she could reach. By the time she was done, both of them were nicely soapy.

Also by the time she was done, she was around to his front, reaching back to squeeze his ass. He returned the favor. They hugged for a long moment.

They heard the sound of the bathroom door opening. Looking up they saw the shadows move as Ray finished laundering and went out to pack. They were finally alone together for the first time.

"Poul?"

"Mmm?"

"What was your name? On the day? I want to know YOU."

He laughed. She blushed a bit and started to disengage. He hugged her tighter. "Annie, I'm not laughing at you. My name? My real name is Mortimer. Was Mortimer. To be honest? I like Poul better."

"Okay," she smiled. "Poul, I…" She looked down at something poking her in the belly. "Awww, I missed a spot."

--------------

Ray had everything packed in the Jeep before he brought the carrier into the bathroom. "Clean clothes for everyone just inside," he said as he set it on the edge of the tub.

He reached in to turn off the water without opening the curtain. Then he dangled two wash cloths until they were snatched out of his grip.

He sat on the bed and watched, waiting for the curtain to twitch. Nothing moved. "Are you two drying off? Or drying each other?"

"MmmMMmM!" someone hummed with their mouth muffled by something. Or someone.

"If you don't get out now, I'll be negotiating the potholes in the dark."

"Eep!" Annie yelped and started climbing up.

Ray had tried to make a little cushioned pod in the center of the carrier. A few balled pairs of socks were added to Annie's pillows.

Poul burrowed in and pressed against fabric until Annie was beside him. "Is this really necessary?" he asked.

"On the way in? I nearly bit my tongue off," she said. "And I wasn't even trying to do anything interesting with it."

"Ah," he said. They cuddled and talked for the first leg of the journey. Except when they yelped through free fall.

Ray pulled over when he reached the highway. "Anyone need to go behind a tree?" he asked as he pulled the extra insulation out.

The sylphs were covered in sweat as they popped out into the air. "It was like a sauna in there," Annie complained.

Ray opened the side door to take his socks around to his duffel. The cool Alaska breeze wafted through the door and set all three of the Southerners to shivering. "Sauna!" Annie yelled.

Her owner quickly sealed the Jeep and the carrier, turned up the heat and tossed the socks generally aft. Poul and Annie cuddled more naturally on her largest pillow.

When giggles started to sound over the engine, Ray turned on the radio and continuously searched for something, anything, to listen to.

He pulled up to the car rental office at about midnight. It was closed, but to his surprise, the diner across the street was still open.

"Can you guys behave yourselves in public for half an hour?" he asked the carrier.

"Half an hour of what?" Annie asked.

"Hot tubs and dinner?" There was a flurry of scuffling and two flushed faces appeared at the door.

"In that order?" Poul asked.

"We'll see," Ray replied, grabbing the handle.

The waitress wasn't the one from before, but she'd heard the story of the sylph soup. She started reaching for the kettle as soon as Ray put the carrier on the counter.

Ray insisted on two bowls, to avoid trouble, but let them be close enough to reach out and hold hands.

After oohing and ahhhing at the little couple, the woman gave Ray instructions to the nearest motel. She did make him promise to have breakfast at the diner before their flight.

"What do you two think?" he asked. "I would guess that there'll be a camera and a bit of a crowd."

"Mmmmmm," Annie said. Poul nodded slowly as he sank into the water.

Later, at the motel, Annie stood at the door of the carrier and watched Ray be as indulgent as she'd ever seen. He'd set the case down at the edge of the sink. The door was opened and latched in place. A wash cloth was spread as a rug in front of that.

He set the faucet to running, for 'showers or other hygienic issues,' as he put it, even though Annie was perfectly capable of turning water on.

Then he promised to knock before entering, turned on the fan and drew the door shut behind him.

"Is your owner afraid of seeing you having sex?" Poul asked.

"I think… I think he's trying to be nice," she said. "And to avoid touching you when you're naked," she added with a smile.

"Ah," he replied. He stepped closer and took her in his arms. "I can be nice."

"And I can stand to touch you naked," she pointed out.

"Good," he said, lowering his head to kiss her.

"Very good," she agreed.

------

Ray ambled through the Seattle airport at a leisurely pace. He held Annie's carrier, though the sylphs were curled up in his shirt pockets. He had thought to buy two BrainBuckets© before setting out to Alaska, but they remained only a partial solution.

The two pets were using the stopover to recuperate. Annie had offered the left pocket to Poul because she found Ray's heartbeat soothing. He'd climbed back out almost immediately, claiming that it gave him a headache. He was in the right pocket now, wrapped in a handkerchief and snoring.

So Annie had snuggled into her happy place and recovered quickly. She stood, stretched and crawled up Ray's shirt to stand by his ear. He moved to lean against a wall as soon as he felt her start climbing.

"Thanks," she said, planting a kiss upon his lobe.

"Mmm?" he asked quietly.

"You usually check the carrier as luggage," she pointed out. "And make me sit in your pocket. The flight still sucked, but the privacy… Well, thank you." She gave another kiss. He nodded and showed her a smile. They stayed there for a few minutes then he stood away from the wall.

She slipped over his shoulder and dropped down into the pocket with pinpoint accuracy.

"Time to catch the flight," he said.

"Is there some reason you're not running through the place like our last time through?" she asked.

"Whoever made our reservations on the way out didn't think there'd be a problem with a young man running like mad through a terminal." A security guard noticed him talking to himself and started to step into his way.

"But," Ray continued, "they never thought of how a sylph would enjoy the ride." He pointed out his own sylph at the word. She waved, the guard stopped, stared then waved back. They went on uninterrupted.

"For me, though, I arranged our flights with lots of time between, for rest, relaxation and not being rattled around like a pinball."

"Oooooh," Annie said. "I like a man with time."

"Well, you must like me a lot," he replied. She looked up and followed his gaze. Their flight was flashing a red 'Delayed' sign.

----

"Darn," Ray said, turning to look around the hotel room. "I hate when the air line has mechanical difficulties and we have to slum it like this."

To Annie's view, the bed was about the size of their dorm room. There was a mint on the pillow, a real flower in a vase, and the window actually had a view of the Space Needle.

Way, way far away, but the real Space needle. She was about to comment on that when she was grabbed and swung into the air.

"Wheeeeeeeeeeeee!" she squealed as she flew through the air. On landing, the comforter folded around her like a collapsing moon walk. She bounced once and lay there.

"I can walk," she heard Poul say. Ray's arm swung over head as he deposited the other sylph nearby. The blanket quivered a bit as he walked/swam over to her side.

They giggled and hugged.

"I'm going down to the café," Ray said. "I'll bring back…something." He glanced at his watch. "Probably not before, say, ten?"

Then he was gone.

"My god," Poul said, rising unsteadily to his knees. The bed stretched out like a plateau around him. "What do you do with a field like this to play around in?"

"You play!" Annie shouted. She slung her shirt to the side and started to run. Then she rolled over, got to her feet, stepped, fell, then crawled as fast as she could in the direction of the pillows.

Poul laughed and gave chase.

----

They cuddled together under the edge of a pillow. It was like a snow-white cave or the edge of a warm glacier. Annie curled and Poul curved around her.

"How long do we have?" Annie asked softly.

"I can't see the time," he said. He made no move to get a view of the alarm clock.

"I mean, after we get back," she said. "Will I be able to…see you?"

"Oh. Uh. Well. Dottie has some…rules about me dating. Dating sylphs that…."

"Belong to students," she said. "Were you going to tell me?"

"If we only have the moment, why spoil the moment?"

"Good point," she said, coming out of her curl. She rolled over to face him. "Good point."

The room door opened as they kissed. "Is anyone on the floor?"

Poul raised his head. Annie covered his mouth with two fingers. "Shhhh. Let him wonder."

The bathroom door opened. Slowly. "Helloooooooo?"



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