Annie X: Sylph Center



(Chronological index: Ray as College Junior)

"It's not that I don't just ADORE Thomas," Annie said. "But seriously, one drunken party is enough for me."

"It's not going to be a drunken party," Susan said. "Thomas loves me too much and Ray fears me too much to allow overindulging or strippers or anything like that at my man's bachelor party."

"Sure," Ray said, looking around the room. "No one's going to insist that you attend a boring night of…" He paused. "Um, wine and cheese tasting."

"Oh!" Susan said, leaning forward. "So you'll be inviting Deliah? Sounds like her sort of party."

"I, yuh, well," he stammered.

"I'm busy that night," Deliah said. "Besides, the quartet he hired does chamber music by Beethoven. I hate Beethoven."

"Me, too," Annie said. "All those string instruments? They make my bowels quiver in sympathy."

"Can't have sylphs in sympathy," Deliah said, picking Annie up to pet her hair.

Susan glared at them and the silent Thomas. "You guys have GOT to work on getting your stories straight." She stood and kissed her fiancé.

"Try not to contract anything social at the party, lover. If you need me, I'll be out the bushes. Look for the camcorder's blinking red LED." She blew a kiss to the assembled friends and walked out.

"And on that note," Ray said, "I have a guest of honor to deliver and strippers to costume." The men stood. Ray kissed Deliah goodbye, then tilted further down. Deliah lifted his pet to his lips and they kissed goodbye.

Then Deliah was alone with her ward for the evening.

"So?" Annie asked. "What's up for tonight? Punk? Disco? That Lambada place?"

"Actually," Deliah said apologetically, "I have to pack."

-----

Annie stood on the counter as her keeper arranged a shipping container on the kitchen floor and started opening drawers. "What the hell are you packing?" she asked.

"My knives, some special pans, some secret ingredients. Everything I need for the competition!"

"Oh, thank god," Annie said. She sat down at the edge of the counter, legs swinging against the paneling. "I thought you meant packing as in leaving town."

"Well…"

"What? No! Not really?"

"Relax," Deliah said. She looked at the equipment she had arranged on the counter and started moving pieces into place. "It's not a for sure thing. But if I win, I could end up with a job offer."

"Cool! What sort of job? Oh, no, not that, sweetheart." She hopped to her feet and scampered down the counter. Deliah put the knife case back down. Her eyes followed the sylph to the wok.

"Biggest, nastiest thing goes in first. Everything else fits around it. That's how Mom packs. She can probably put a howitzer into a gun holster."

"Okay," Deliah said with a shrug.

"Won't they have most of this stuff where you're going to be?"

"Well, they might have A wok, but they won't have MY wok. Know what I mean?" She turned back around to the counter and saw a rather sober look on Annie's face.

"Not really," the little woman said.

"Aw, I'm so sorry." Careful hands collected the sylph carefully to her bosom.

"It's not bad," Annie said. "It's just… sometimes… I'd like to feel that what I have is what I sought out. Not what he gave me or let me have, you know?"

"Not really," Deliah replied. They laughed. After a moment, Annie pushed away and Deliah set her down again.

"Job?"

"OH! Yeah, do you remember President Anthony?" She went back to packing.

"He was the one…the one who took office after the sylph legislation." Annie sat on the edge of the counter again.

"Yeah."

"And," Annie said after a moment. "He owns a sylph, doesn't he?"

"He did. After he left office, he gave it to his daughter, Samantha."

"It?" Annie asked, her voice low.

"Oh!" Deliah froze, hand to her mouth. "I'm so sorry. Her. He let his oldest have her. Have Amelia."

"I remember now, she sylphed on national television!"

"That's the one."

"What about her? Are you cooking for her?" Annie leaned forward in excitement, ignoring the drop to the floor.

"She's opening the SylphCentre in DC next week. They've been looking for dishes that humans and sylphs can both enjoy and-"

"And that's what you've been working on!"

"Exactly." She put the last item in the box and shut the lid. It just closed. "Top prize for the best menu is a job in the SylphCentre kitchen. Next three best dishes get added to the menu. After that, there's some money, a coupon for pots…"

"You want the job!" Annie said.

"Yeah," Deliah said slowly. "Yeah, I think I do."

"Can I go? I wanna meet Amelia. Seriously, can I?"

"Oh, no, Annie," Deliah said, taking Annie back into her hands. "I have to leave tomorrow. And Ray's going to be Best Man at the wedding."

"I'm not in the wedding," Annie pointed out. "Not officially. No one can think of an official position for a sylph except on top of the cake. And I'm not doing a Passion Cake for a wedding."

"Well… I'd love to have you, but how can we talk Ray into letting you come with me?"

"Leave that to me!" Annie said confidently.

------

At four in the morning, Annie's watch started to beep. She rolled out of bed and crawled quickly across the bottom of the cage.

She pressed both hands to the button on top of the watch and the thing silenced. She stayed in that position for a moment. Deliah murmured in her bed but her breathing stayed deep and even.

The sylph slipped easily out of her carrier. It hadn't actually been intended to secure her in years. Ray just didn't know that she'd oiled the hinges on one door so she could sneak away.

The trip down the dorm hall was blessedly unobserved. She scampered across the lounge, past the illegally opened door and into the stairway. The trip down the stairs was tedious but quick. Two steps, jump, land, stagger to her feet. Two steps, jump, land…

On Ray's level she squirmed under the firedoor. One spot on the rubber gasket was coincidentally loose for a length remarkably similar to her shoulder width.

Then she marked off the familiar number of steps to Ray's door. It was open a crack. Looking up, she saw that the doorknob had a brassiere looped over it and running into the room, propping the door open.

"Better hope they wake up in time to find that," she muttered. She slipped in to find her revered master curled up in a ball under his bed. He clutched a Tiki doll to his chest and snored.

Thomas had passed out half on, half off his bed. His head hung over a football helmet doing poor duty as a barf bucket. She didn't need to see the stuff leaking out the earhole, the smell told her what it was there for.

She slipped straight to Ray's head. His breath was like a physical wall. She moved to his forehead. Big flecks of glitter were worked into his hair.

"Big brave partying master, is it alright if I go to DC with Deliah tomorrow?"

"Mfphreff."

"Is that a yes?"

"Feffphrer."

She leaned on his head and kissed it gently. "I'll take that as a yes."

"I'll be your witness." She spun around to find Susan sliding a wastecan under Thomas' head. The helmet went into a plastic bag. Annie hadn't noticed that anyone sentient was in the room.

"Crap, you're quiet!" she hissed.

"I just have to be quieter than these guys," Susan said. She kissed her fiancé once more, winced at the smell, and moved to the door. "Want a ride up the stairs?"

She grabbed the bra and held the door open for the sylph to join her.

---------

Deliah secured the carrier on the passenger seat and turned to give Susan a hug. "Sorry! But the dates just…"

"It's okay," Susan assured her. "We'll miss you, but everyone's family is in town, so we can't change it." She kissed Annie on the head and handed her over. "We'll miss you, too."

"Save me some cake!"

"What? You're going to a cooking competition at the capitol! You should be saving US something!"

Deliah laughed and lowered her passenger into her ammo case. Annie wriggled up into the cupola and gave a thumbs up.

Then they were off. The city streets were pretty empty at six AM. Annie mused on the scenery speeding by.

Deliah's car was newer and sportier than Ray's. And behind the wheel she was more aggressive. The car shot up the coast as if cops were something that happened to other people.

The radio stations she picked were a lot more lively than Ray's. Annie found herself dancing in place.

She didn't quite feel like getting over to the dashboard and dancing in earnest. Deliah was cool, but didn't have Ray's reflexes from years of driving with Annie.

That might come with time. She could wait.

They talked about a lot of inconsequential things. Annie got even more comfortable with the younger, if larger woman.

"Why the SylphCentre?" she asked as they crossed the Carolina border.

"It's a challenge," Deliah said. "Ever since I read Amelia's interview, about the day she shrank and life in the White House, there's one line that's stuck with me. One of her first meals as a sylph, they had, 'pork…something. Hard to tell when you're small enough to miss an entire seasoning.'

"I thought that was unfair, that she couldn't even tell what dish she was eating because a cook couldn't be bothered to make it something she could recognize."

"Huh," Annie said. "Had you already decided to be a cook?"

"Yeah," she smiled. "I was going to be the first black lady chef on the Space Shuttle. Cooking in zero-G. Setting the salt shaker to pouring and leaving it floating over the food while I did something else. I had it all worked out."

"That sounds like fun," Annie said.

"Yeah, but you grow up and your dreams change."

"Or, you grow down and your dreams die."

"True," Deliah said. "Sad but true."

They arrived at the SylphCentre at about eleven. An enthusiastic staff carted Deliah's wares to the kitchens, her car to a nearby garage and her suitcase to one of the many cozy rooms in the basement. After the SC was fully operational, those rooms would house visiting diplomats, politicians and experts.

For now, the finished ones held chef hopefuls and their sylphs. Deliah was yawning as she placed the carrier down on the floor by the bed.

Annie was about as sleepy but saw the light outlining a tiny door in the wall. That led to a bathroom that was sylph-scale. Exploring all the facilities took her a while.

"Annie? What are you doing?"

"Playing with a shower nozzle. It's got JETS!"

"Go Joe Namath," Deliah muttered and sank down on the pillow.

------

They were gently awakened by a knock at the door. A schedule of events was slid under the door. "Hey! We get breakfast!" Deliah shouted towards the tiny bathroom door.

"I can't hear you! I'm taking a bath!" Annie shouted.

"How come I hear the shower running?"

"Can't hear you! Taking a shower!"

Deliah shrugged and headed for her own bathroom.

-----

Tables in the Meeting Room were circles that had room for up to a dozen humans. The center of each one had a conversation pit for sylphs.

Deliah took her seat and placed Annie beside her plate. The sylph licked her lips at the cinnamon roll on her hostess' plate. Then she scurried over to the pit.

Seating there was overstuffed upholstery. A table in the center held platters of food. Annie found a single Rice Krispie covered with caramelized sugar holding powdered nuts.

She took that back to a cushion and nibbled. "Mmmm. 'At's good stuff," she mumbled. The other sylphs stared at her. "In't it?"

"That's, uh," one of them started to say. "That's the stuff you get at most restaurants around here. Cereal with a topping. That's what they consider sylph food."

"Mmm-hmm," Annie said. "Oh! There's a filling! How'd they get a filling in there!" She took a few more bites, smiling around. There were four men and five women around the other seats. It was the largest group of sylphs she'd ever been among.

They smiled back, but she still started to feel uncomfortable. "Look," one of the men, "that food you're enjoying? That's the crap we're here to replace. We're supposed to do better than that."

"Oh," she said, blushing slightly.

The woman closest to her leaned forward. "Just what have you been doing for your owner for this competition."

"Oh," she repeated. "Well, I mostly tasted her stuff and told her what I liked." The group snickered. Annie curled in on herself a little bit.

"That's supposed to impress Amelia? That you like it?" one asked.

"Obviously she wasn't selected for her skills," another said.

"Or much of anything else," the closest man said.

"Well, I helped with her style," she said defensively. "I told her not to cook with seeds."

"Why not?"

"Well, we don't have the teeth to crack them anymore."

"So you cook with the seeds," one man said as if talking to a child, "for the flavor and for the humans. And sylphs eat around the seeds." Everyone nodded as if everyone knew that. But they were supposed to be advancing the envelope here, weren't they?

"You could do that," Annie said. "We came up with something else. You crush the seeds in a mortar and pestle…" She paused as everyone around the circle leaned forward. Best not to give away too many secrets, she realized.

"Yes?" someone asked.

"That might work."

"Then you use a Mour Brush to strip out the husks and leave the meat."

"Mour?" one asked.

"Sure. Deliah's dating an engineer. He found her one with three speeds." The other sylphs glanced around the circle.

"Still," one asked, "does your owner know anything about Amelia Anthony? Couldn't she afford a more…appropriate sylph?"

Just then Annie noticed that all the other sylphs were black. It wasn't something she'd ever cared about. She was just so comfortable among people and furniture of her size…she hadn't noticed. But…they thought Amelia was looking for cooks with black pets?

A human stepped up to the table with a tray that bore a railing and seven sylphs. One of them stepped off and walked down into the pit. The human took the rest to the next table.

He was Asian and spoke with a disconcerting Australian accent. "Hello, I'm Ichiro," he said with a smile. "Welcome to the SylphCentre. We're going to be meeting Amelia and Samantha soon, then heading off to cook some wonderful food, alright?" Everyone cheered. Annie forced a whoopee.

"So, I need all your names, and an idea of what you do in the cooking." He produced a clipboard and started working his way around the pit.

When he got to Annie she shrugged. "I don't really have… She's not my owner. She dates my owner. I just… I just wanted to see the SylphCentre."

"Well! Here you are!" Ichiro said. He took her name, listed her sponsor and moved along. The tray came back and he was collected. The pit was quiet for a moment after he left.

"I know what she's here for," one said. Annie wasn't sure if he'd said anything up to now. She glanced over at him "Does your owner's girlfriend plan to finish with a Passion Cake?"

The others giggled. "You're certainly hot enough. Is that the plan?"

"NO!" Annie shouted. The conversation going on among the humans stopped as everyone stared down at her. She bowed her head. "Sorry," she muttered. They started talking again.

"So…you're not here for a Passion Cake? Or a Passion Pudding? Passion Fried Ice Cream?"

"No," Annie said more softly. She realized that she'd never really asked about Deliah's final menu plan. But anyone that talk about Amelia the way Deliah had, wasn't going to whip out graphic sex front of her.

"But…" a woman said slowly. "You've BEEN in a Passion Cake, haven't you?"

Annie turned and climbed out of the pit. She scampered over to Deliah. The chef picked her up with a questioning look. Annie shook her head. Deliah held her through the rest of the introduction program.

After a brief speech by Samantha Anthony, they broke up to go to the kitchens. Deliah ran down the stairs to their room before taking up her prep station.

"I hope you don't mind, Annie," she said as she opened the door. "Kitchens can be dangerous for sylphs. Hot grease, dropped knives, stuff like that. Since you're not involved in the cooking, there's no reason to expose you. I mean, Ray would kill me if-"

"It's okay, Deliah," Annie replied. "I'll just stay here in the room."

"Well, don't shower more than a half hour at a time," Deliah warned. "You'll become one big wrinkle." She patted Annie on the head, placed her on the bed with the TV remote and turned to the door.

"OH!" Annie shouted. "If anyone asks to borrow your Mour brush? Tell them you left it home."

"What the hell's a Mour brush?"

"I dunno," Annie admitted. "I just made it up. Just…don't tell anyone. Please?"

"Okay." Deliah glanced at her watch. "I'm going to want the whole story later, but it'll have to wait." Then she was gone.

Annie looked at the door for a moment, then dragged the remote to the edge and started surfing the channels.

--------

After an hour or so, there was a very subtle knock at the door. Annie slid down the comforter and jogged across the fine-loop carpet. There was a tiny door beside the human-sized one (she tried hard to keep herself from thinking of that one as the 'real' door).

She opened it to find a sylph woman smiling at her. Black, a little bit taller than Annie, and noticeably but not outrageously older.

"Can I help you?" Annie asked.

"I'm Amelia. I hear you wanted to see the Centre?"

"I, uh, I, uh.."

"It's okay, Annie. Can I come in?"

Annie staggered away from the door. Amelia waited a moment then entered slowly.

"Hi, I, well, I've always… Hi!" She offered her hand. Amelia looked at it and hesitated. "Oh! That's pushing it! I'm sorry!" She snatched her hand back.

"No, no, it's just… Well, Annie, there are two things that happen when someone sylphs. People treat them like they have contagious cancer, and never touch them, or people never put them down. Are you touch starved or overtouched?"

"I'm, um, I'm okay. I guess?"

Amelia spread her arms and took Annie into a warm, close hug. Annie hugged her back, surprised at the emotion that sounded in the other woman's sigh. "I never get enough of this, not since The Day."

"I kinda know what you mean," Annie said, stroking the shoulders under her hands.

"Really?"

"No," Annie admitted. "Not at all. I got picked up by a preteen on The Day. And held most of the way through his puberty."

"Oh!" Amelia yelped. She let loose and tried to step away. "I did ask you if-"

"Hush," Annie said, holding on tight. "I get touched by giants all the time. I don't get enough of this, either."

They finally stepped apart after a minute. "That was nice. Thank you," Amelia said.

"Hey, it's the nicest thing that happened to me since I got here." She paused for a second. "Other than the Annie-sized shower of course."

"Of course. Tour?"

Amelia was quite proud of the design of SylphCentre. She took Annie through an extensive system of hallways and elevators that lined the walls, showing her the various encounter rooms.

Most of the construction was done, the decoration was being installed and furniture was piling in the hallways.

"Samantha is something of a demon for getting people to support this place," she said proudly.

"I can see," Annie said. They came onto a gallery that looked out over the kitchen. Cooks slaved over various productions. Sylphs were at work here and there. To Annie's eye, they looked to be mostly doing make-work. She thought that commenting would sound catty.

"You're not down there?" Amelia asked.

"I'm not really involved in the cooking. I helped in the experimental phase."

"I heard. Maur Brush?"

"Ah…" She backed a step away from the window. Amelia wrapped an arm around her shoulder.

"Relax, Annie. Some of the people that were in the pit are friends of mine. I heard all about your morning." She shook her head. "People are just not GETTING this place. We're supposed to see, we'd hoped that people would see sylphing as a minor change, something we could overcome. If nothing else, it should make it clear that skin color, at least, is meaningless." She looked down at the strategically selected sylphs and shook her head.

"We just thought… The sylphing should be a wake-up call. The world is so, so very different than we imagined. And we're still doing the same, boring, powerplay crap."

"Amelia?"

"Yes, Annie?"

"I love your goals, and I love that you feel strongly about them, and gosh, I'd love to help you achieve them in any way I can…"

"But?"

"But I'm losing sensation in my shoulder."

Amelia laughed and made a production of peeling herself out of Annie's tender flesh, one curved claw at a time.

For her part, the younger sylph waited until she was freed, then staggered around holding her shoulder and moaning.

"Come on," Amelia said, offering an elbow. "It's about time for the judging."

-----

The elevator doors opened onto the sylph catwalk that edged the kitchen. Every sylph in view noted that Amelia stepped out with Annie in tow. They hugged goodbye and Amelia headed towards Samantha and the cooking judges.

Annie found the bridge to the prep stations, crossed it and ran across the counter. Deliah lowered the last plate to the serving cart, wiped her forehead and caught the sylph up in her hands.

"What are you doing down here?" she asked. "I was about to go get you!"

"Amelia gave me a tour," Annie replied excitedly. "And we talked and we saw-"

Someone hissed and everyone in the kitchen quieted. The order of serving was announced and the judges walked off to the dining room.

Annie rode on Deliah's shoulder as she served. Neither woman was especially comfortable when the sylph was in the pockets of her shirts.

Sam and the judges were polite enough as the food was served. They nodded to chef and sylph, made some gentle comments about presentation, then the nervous duo were able to make their escape. Annie finally found Amelia on the table and waved just before they left the room.

She sat on Deliah's knife box as the chef cleaned her station. "How do you think you did?"

"It all depends on what they're looking for. I don't know." Something about the tone told Annie that she didn't want to talk about. She'd wait until they were alone.

"Oh, but four of the other chefs did ask if they could borrow my Maur brush." She winked and started washing her knife.

There was no announcement about the judging that afternoon. Chefs wandered back to their rooms to shower and change and decompress.

Deliah started pacing and talking as soon as the door was shut. Annie tried to keep up with her on the desk top but even her energy flagged.

"Hey! Deliah! What do you do to calm down?"

"Um, shower? I just wanted to talk…"

"Then you can shower and we can talk at the same time. Just please, god, don't do laps around the tub!" Deliah smiled and picked the sylph up.

She sat the little woman down in a corner of the tub, on a shelf above the shower head. Then she stripped and stepped under the flow.

Finally she was talking slow enough that Annie could keep up.

"There're, like, two main ways to cook for sylphs," she said.

"Well and poorly," Annie guessed.

"No, no. The most popular one is to use a blender. Everything gets mixed up and cut up and mashed together. So it tastes the same to everyone that eats it, no matter how much they get at a time."

"Makes sense, I guess."

"It makes everything taste like baby food in my opinion," Deliah spat. She set the shower to massage and moved so major muscle groups were under the spray.

"The other is to stew everything together until every flavor in the pot has permeated every item equally."

"Like chili," Annie asked, "or Creole?" She tilted her head. "Or hot water?" Deliah nodded and moved so the stream worked her spine.

"I like chili," Annie said.

"Every night?"

"Uh…Ray would."

"Well, personally, I can't see serving that five nights in a row for a conference." Deliah said as she turned off the water. She grabbed a towel, taking care to dry her hand before reaching up to the shelf. It turned out that reflected spray had soaked the sylph already.

She grabbed a washcloth on the way out of the bathroom.

The two dried and dressed.

"Wait," Annie said, "you don't cook either way. I mean, not more than every now and then."

"Exactly," Deliah said. "Cooking isn't just flavor, it's a whole experience with sight, texture, changes and surprises." She picked the other woman off the floor and sprawled on the bed.

"Let's call Ray and let him know you're alright," she told the sylph. "Then we'll go do something."

"'Kay!" Annie hopped over to the console phone by the bed, gleefully taking up the sylphic handset.

"Hello?"

"Ray!"

"Annie? Where the hell are you? Where's Deliah?"

"Didn't Susan tell you?" She twisted the phone cord in her fingers and suddenly she was a teenager again, talking to a boy on the phone about what a girlfriend had said about what a boy knew about what she wanted. It was a weird flashback.

"No, she didn't. She said that she would verify the story you told, when you told it, and that I shouldn't worry."

"Oh. Okay. Yeah, Deliah got a job offer to cook on Air Force One and I always wanted to meet the president so she said I could come and I asked you and you said 'sure okay fine let me sleep' and we were touring the plane when war broke out in the Caribbean so they made us strap in and we're circling the Dominican Republic right now and the Air Force guy said I could make one call to let you know we were okay and we are. How are you?"

"Dominica?" he asked. "I, uh, well, I guess that's a safe distance from the Grenada invasion."

Annie held the handset away from her ear and stared at it. There was a real war in the Caribbean right now? Where the Hell was Grenada? Who was invading? Why was the desk rattling?

She turned and saw Deliah's slack face sinking slowly into her down pillow. The snoring was making the nightstand rattle.

"Anyway, Deliah's had a stressful morning, so we're taking a nap right now. Oh! And I met Amelia Anthony!"

"Who's Amelia Anthony?"

"Who? What do you mean, Who? YOU INSENSITIVE BASTARD!" Annie shouted and hung up the phone. She turned to face Deliah's sleeping form. "Well, I guess I told HIM," she muttered.

She slapped both of her hands to her cheeks. "Oooooh. I told HIM."

Some time later, as Annie curled up under Deliah's chin and formed her apology, Ray put a volume of the encyclopedia back on the shelf.

"Damn. Guess she told me," he muttered.

----------

Annie walked with confidence to the conversation pit at breakfast. She noted the stares as she collected breakfast and sat down. Today there was a filleted corn kernel, boiled and covered with crystallized maple syrup.

She looked around as she ate. This time the stares didn't bother her. "Hey, guys!"

"Should have known," one woman said. Some of the others nodded.

Annie was in too good a mood to poke at the comment. "Man, this Centre is going to be an amazing place, you know? They've got encounter rooms that have-"

"I said," the woman said louder, but not enough to interrupt the giants overhead, "we should have known."

"Yes, you said that," Annie agreed. "Anyway, there's one room where-"

"Amelia rides around," the speaker went on, "on a white bitch's shoulder. She must be 'into' white bitches these days."

"Near as I can tell," Annie said quickly, "she's into humans. Whatever size they are."

"Look, Barbie," a man said, "whatever you're trying to do here-"

"I'm trying to meet Amelia. And I have. And she's made it clear that SylphCentre is for the advancement of our future society, not to preserve the bullhockey of the past."

She took a last bite and savored it. "So, I'm here to have fun. Yeah, I hope Deliah's recipes win. But if they don't, it's because a better recipe, a better chef is here, and they'll make SC a better place. And that'll be good for all of us."

The others glared until Samantha Anthony started speaking.

Several of the chefs were given their walking papers. They were thanked, of course, for their efforts and their contributions and certainly some of their recipes would be considered on their individual merits. But the chefs' performances so far were not IAW the Anthonys' vision.

They were encouraged to keep thinking of interscale communications. They got nifty certificates and they their photos taken and they got led out.

"Some of you," Samantha said after the doors were closed again, "still aren't getting it. But at least you show promise, unlike some of those that just walked out.

"Keep in mind, we're looking for something that people of both scales can all enjoy, not just something that one size appreciates and the other can choke down.

"So, let's see the second half of your programs," she said cheerfully and pointed towards the kitchens. After two steps, she came back to the microphone. "Oh, and I'm sorry. We've looked into the requests some of you have made. We will not be able to install a Maur brush in the kitchen at this time."

Annie looked around at the smaller group in the conversation pit and giggled.

----

Deliah was distracted as she placed Annie near the elevator, thinking about the assigned dishes and how she's approach them.

"Hey!" Annie yelled and beckoned. Deliah bent down. "Don't change your gameplan now! Don't lose confidence because other yahoos blew it, okay?"

"Okay," she said with a smile. They waved crossed fingers at each other then Annie went back to their room.

There was a knock at the minidoor before much longer. Annie smiled and ran to open it.

Two of the sylphs from her breakfast group waited outside. A man and a woman, both a little bit taller than Annie. "Help you?" Annie asked shortly. She shook her head. "Sorry, this is the Centre. What can I do for you?" Her tone was much more welcoming.

"We can get you out of here," the man said.

"Freedom," the woman said. "We know people, we can get you on the Underfoot Railroad."

"Uh huh," Annie said suspiciously.

She grabbed the doorknob tightly. But where the pair could see her, she smiled. "You guys know someone who knows someone who knows someone?"

"Pretty much," the man said. "And we-"

"And you're still here?" Annie asked. "Why haven't you taken off for Freedomland, where every day's a party and every giant's a friend?"

"We want to do some good," the woman said. "If our owners get this job, we might be in a position to influence real policy."

"Uh huh. Look, I shrank on The Day. Every year since, at least three people have offered to take me away from Ray. To put me in contact with friends of friends who will see to it that I can get out of my slavery."

The two kept looking up and down the hall impatiently. Annie went on, not giving them a chance to interrupt.

"I've learned, and it was a sharp damned learning curve, not to trust giants making that offer. Certainly not giants with hard-ons. Almost as bad are giants with erect nipples, offering to find you a 'safe place to hide.' And you're the first sylphs to bring up the subject, but…"

"But what?"

"But I can't really believe you're sincere when you refer to your owners. Here's a tip, next time practice using 'our oppressors.' Or something like that."

"There won't be a next time!" the man said and stepped forward. Annie shut the door.

She'd noticed before that sylphs must have been involved in the design of the Centre as far as choosing materials. Humans tended to make really light, really delicate things for the tiny people.

Tiny people whose muscle-mass ratio made them stronger, on a pound for pound basis, than Olympic weight lifters.

The bamboo and paper constructions that were offered as sylph homes right after The Day were comfortable enough, but an angry tenant could rip her way through a wall or an entire building by accident.

Sylphs could handle much heavier things than humans tended to realize, and were comfortable with densities that would frighten their masters.

The upshot of all this was that the door Annie swung shut was no balsa wood panel. It had heft, it had mass and as Annie stiff-armed it forward it had substantial inertia.

When such a door met, say, an intruder's slipper-clad foot, it wasn't the door that shattered.

Ray had been something of a thug when he'd found Annie. He hadn't exactly taught her how to fight, but his theory of conflict was simple. You hit until you're not afraid any more. Or not angry any more, either will do.

Annie slammed the door on the guy's foot four times before his partner dragged him away. The door swung shut and the latch clicked. She leaned on it for a second, breathing hard.

Then she yanked it open. The woman rose from her friend and snarled. "This isn't over," she hissed.

"Bitch, I've killed rats in the wild," Annie exaggerated. But she had killed one big, ugly rat. "If you want to tangle-"

Bitch screamed and ran forward. Annie slammed the door on her head. She looked down at the still form. "I was GOING to say, I'd be glad to step outside, moron! But I was going to warn you, it's really easy for me to dispose of the bodies. Well, once Deliah gets back and helps me get you up to the toilet bowl."

She fumed for a few more minutes, then knelt to check for a pulse. Her second victim screeched and reached up for her throat.

Annie poked her fingers in both eyes. The screech changed to screaming and Annie rolled the woman out into the hall. "I also watch lots of movies, idiot." She slammed the door.

"Oh, I need a shower," she said, turning to walk across the room.

----------

After an hour or so, there was another knock on the door. Annie grabbed her spear, set herself and flung the door open.

Amelia stood outside. She had something under her arm that looked like a business card. Her other hand was in front of her face and she gazed at her fingers.

She looked up and saw Annie holding a spear behind her. Annie tried to nonchalantly use it to scratch her head.

"What the hell is that?" Amelia asked.

"Uh… The hinge from the door of my carrier. It fell out and I was trying to put it back."

Amelia stepped through the door, glancing from the sylph to the carrier. It lay on the floor under the bed. Quite a distance from where they stood. "From all the way over here?"

"I'm hoping that a running start'll help me shove it in place."

"Is that sharpened?"

"It may have worn into a point in the hinge…" Annie stared helplessly at Amelia. The other woman turned her hand around to show bloody stains on her fingers. "Ah. I'd have thought that was dried up by now."

Ten minutes later they were sitting at the little chairs under the TV sipping drinks.

"What do you want to do?" Amelia asked.

"What can I do?" Annie asked. "Can't arrest sylphs. Can't claim assault, we're not protected. And I won. My owner's not here to go ape on their owners. Or, these days, he'd trash their credit rating." She was quiet for a moment. "For the first time in four years, I kinda miss the baseball bat."

Amelia put down her wash rag and took Annie's hand. "What do you want ME to do?"

"Concealed weapons pass?" Annie asked. Amelia pretended to consider it, but couldn't keep her face straight.

"Hey, if they can't arrest you for assault, they can't arrest you for carrying a… What would you carry?"

"Nothing is magnetically attached to the wall of my carrier," Annie said. "I swear."

"Hmmmm." Amelia stared for a second.

"What's the business card?" Annie asked.

"Well, that's the big question." The other sylph reached to the floor and lifted the thick card. "I got flowers delivered today."

"Lover, fan or asskisser?"

"I don't know. It was on a big bouquet of roses. It says," and she held it up. "'For Amelia, ask Annie Foster for the dedication.' What the hell does that mean?"

Annie gasped. "Oh! He forgives me!"

"I got flowers because you…?"

"I told my owner that I met you. He said, Amelia Who?"

"Huh. College student?"

"Yes."

"If he's a Communications major, or American History, or Political Science, I may be upset."

"Computers," Annie said quietly, eyes on the card.

"I forgive him, then."

"Good," Annie replied. "I didn't. I called him an insensitive son of a bitch or something like that. And… hung up on him."

"You cursed out your master and hung up on him? And he sent ME flowers?" She considered the card for a moment. "I think I may have to meet this young man. What's the dedication?"

"He wuuuuuvs me."

"I can see that, Annie. What's the message for me?"

"Oh, love you, honor, greatest fan, love your work, glad I met you?"

"Cool." She stood and offered her hand. "Well, I guess they're your flowers as much as mine. Wanna go see them?"

----------

Deliah was pacing in the room when Annie returned to it.

"Hey, stretch? How did it go?" Annie called. She stiffened as Deliah scooped her up and threw herself on the bed.

"I don't know! I don't know! We served the food and they ate it and they liked it… Then they started asking questions."

"Oh-oh."

"Yeah, oh-oh. They asked what's the biggest group I ever cooked for, what's the biggest number of different dishes I produced in one night, what's the longest I went without a break at the grill, what's my favorite mis en place arrangement and how did I come to use it, where do I want to get-"

"Okay!" Annie shouted, throwing up her hands. "They asked questions. Then what?"

Deliah lowered the sylph to her belly and shoved a pillow under her head. The two stared at each other.

"Then they laughed."

"The filthy BASTARDS!" Annie shouted. "Wait…what did they laugh AT?"

"Well, they asked what I wanted my boyfriend to cook for me for a romantic evening."

"Ugh. Ray thinks that romantic cooking is grilling two steaks."

"Yeah… I asked if they meant what I wanted or what I would be willing to put up with." Tears started to drip from her eyes. "And they laughed."

"That's fine, girl, they thought you were joking."

"But I wasn't!"

"But they thought you were. And they were willing to laugh!" She crossed the barricade of the girl's chest to slide onto the throat and hug a cheek. "They like you. If they'd already decided to axe you, they wouldn't have laughed."

"You think?"

"I know. Now, go ahead and cry it out, then wash your face. We'll go wait for the announcements, okay?"

The door knocked. The big door.

"I'll get it!" Annie shouted. "You go wash your face. HURRY!"

When the bathroom door closed, Annie opened the sylph door. She left the sharpened hinge leaning inside the door frame, handy but hidden.

Amelia was outside. Beside her was a foot. Way above the foot, Samantha Anthony smiled down.

"Milady dost powder her nose," Annie said. "Canst I be of assistance?"

"Yeah," Amelia said. "Push the red button and let us in."

----

They sipped icewater at the corner table of the room. Deliah was unnaturally subdued in the presence of their guests. Annie made up for it by becoming even more extroverted.

"…and then, _I_ sing out, 'Fifteen men on a dead man's chest.' Had the crowd eating out of my hands."

"You did the whole song?" Samantha asked.

"From memory," Annie said with a nod.

"Wow. I can't even get a Limerick right," Amelia said.

"So, are you calmed down, now?" Samantha asked Deliah.

"Yes, ma'am," Deliah replied.

"Good. Because you're not going to win tonight."\

"Interesting," Annie muttered.

"What?" Deliah asked.

"You're not going to win the big prize tonight," Samantha said.

"Your food's great," Amelia said, "but we're concerned."

"To be frank," Samantha said, "the chefs we asked to evaluate the contest, they're concerned.

"You're still in school. Your creations are brilliant, but you don't have the experience leading, directing, ordering, planning-"

"Delegating," Amelia put in.

"Cheffing," Samantha finished.

"Um…okay," Deliah said. "I guess we'll pack our things and…"

"Ask what they want," Annie said.

"Huh?"

"Toldja," Amelia said.

"Hush," Samantha told her sylph.

"This isn't how it's usually done," Annie said. She stood and walked over to stroke Deliah's hand. The girl was still a little stunned. "They. Are. Up. To. Something."

"You think?"

"I know," Annie said. "Find out what." Deliah looked a question over at the other two.

"We're kind of interested in your culinary secrets," Samantha said.

"How do you make the food so tasty?" Amelia asked. "Everyone says it's among the best."

"Good, good," Annie said. Deliah picked her up and held her face high.

"What is going on? Why is this good? I lost."

"If they'd said you were in the top three, and asked for your secrets, you'd have told them, right?"

"Um… maybe."

"Oh, be honest, Deliah! You'd have sold your soul four minutes ago. You'd certainly explain about the Maur Brush, your secrets, your hopes, dreams and where you like to be licked, if anyone asked."

"What IS a Maur…" Samantha started to ask.

"Hush!" Amelia ordered her owner.

"Now, though, you know you have nothing to lose by revealing them, but nothing to gain by revealing them, either. It's very polite, really."

"So what do I do, Annie?"

Annie stage whispered. "What _I_ would do is tell them 75% of my secrets. And tell them it's free because I want the Centre to be as good as it can be.

"Then go home and concentrate on the 25%, until it was so good that next year, they would be FORCED to hire me. But I'm a manipulative little bitch, I'm told."

She pouted. "Even though I'm just a sweet widdle gurl," she said. Everyone laughed.

"Okay," Deliah said. "The secret is fractals."

Everyone blinked. Except Annie, she covered her eyes with her hands. "Oh, he'll be impossible to live with."

"My boyfriend explained all those fractal prints you see everywhere. And his example was bread. If you flattened out the surface of each one of those little bubbles inside, the surface area in a slice would cover more than the rest of the loaf. It'd probably cover a table, or a kitchen, I don't remember."

"Um…okay," Samantha nodded.

"Well, I had this idea that the surfaces of each of those bubbles could be a canvas. If I could paint taste there, each bite would be a different experience."

"Huh."

"Yeah, so I try to foam or crystallize or make bubbles in everything I can. Tiny little pockets of flavor."

"So, it's not quite like using a blender," Amelia observed.

"No, that's an attempt to homogenize the flavor and texture. I try to…make little pockets. And each bite is something different."

Amelia and Samantha looked at each other and some sort of signal passed between them..

"Oh!" Annie said, "Tell them about the brine!"

"Brine? That's marinade?" Samantha asked.

"Not quite," Deliah said. "See, meat cells in a salt mixture seek balance. A salty solution will work like a commando, sneaking any flavors you dissolve in it inside the meat on a cell by cell basis." She warmed to the topic, disappointment and fear all dissolving like Kosher salt.

Annie relaxed and let her lecture.

-----

"You're mighty smug for someone that didn't win," Annie observed from the dashboard.

"Oh, pshaw," Deliah said. "Or however you pronounce that. I got a much better deal than a mere win."

"You could say that," Annie agreed. "Finish the semester, move to Georgetown, finish your degree by day, cook under a famous chef by night, live in the Centre until you graduate. Forget anything?"

"No!" Deliah said happily.

"How about Ray?"

Deliah's smile wilted. "Oh. Ray. Annie, he's…"

"He's not moving to DC to chase you, don't worry," Annie said.

"He's not?"

"No, and you don't want him to. Concentrate on your career, on this opportunity, and the lovely 20-hour days ahead of you. If you're still interested in him when you have your feet under you, and he's interested in you, Fate will bring you back together."

Deliah looked like she was about to cry. Annie hopped from the dash to her hand, ran up her arm and hugged her throat. "It'll be okay," she said. "I promise. Except that you have to ship your brownies in the mail…."

--------

Several years later, Annie sat up suddenly on Denise's lap.

"What is it?" Pet asked.

"That woman. The woman in the apron!"

"The Chef de Cuisine of SylphCentre's restaurant?" Denise asked. "What about her?"

"That's Deliah!" Annie hopped over to Ray's lap. "That's Deliah!"

"You know one of the judges on Top Chef?" Pet asked.

"We both do!" Annie said. "I went to DC with her! And Ray used to… Uh."

"I knew I didn't marry a virgin, Annie," Denise said.

Ray picked Annie up and held her by his face. "Think we should send her some flowers?"

"I think," Denise said, "that we should take a trip to DC."

"You want to move TOWARDS an old girlfriend of mine?" Ray asked.

"No. I want to see the Centre. I want Pet to see the Centre. I want to eat at Portion Control. And if you know someone that can get us a good seat at Portion Control, I'm quite willing to let you exploit that old, forgotten relationship on my behalf."

"But if it's forgotten," Pet asked, "how can he use it?"

"Hush, Pet," Annie and Ray said together.

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