Annie: XVI: Stranded

Annie: XVI: Stranded

(Chronological index: Ray/Denise wed)

Denise looked up as Ray came home from work. He entered the room with a huge smile on his face and a large bag in his hand.

"Where is everyone?" he asked.

"Wait for it," Denise said. A high pitched buzzing sound approached. A little radio controlled car rounded the entrance from the bedroom hallway. It was a truck with a trailer. The control was lashed to the flatbed.

Annie carefully adjusted the driving yoke to circle around the recliner. Pet stood beside her, adjusting the speed. She slowed down to bring the truck to a stop right at Denise's feet.

Buttercup sat on the cab of the rig. She let go of the plastic rails and clapped her hands. "You guys are great! I never could drive that well. Not two-handed. Oh! Hi, Ray!"

"Ray!" Pet shouted. "I drove! I drove a truck! Have you driven a truck?"

"Hmm," Ray said. "That's about, what, four times as long as you are tall?"

"FIVE!" she shouted.

"Well, no, Pet, I've never driven a truck that much longer than me." He scooped her up into his hand and sat on the couch.

"What's in the bag, Ray?" Buttercup asked.

"I don't remember," he said. Pet wriggled out of his grip to run across his lap and look past his hand.

"It's a box!" she shouted.

Annie rolled her eyes. "Yeah, Pet, that helps."

"Well, I do remember that I got a call today," he said.

Denise helped the older sylphs up onto the sofa. They tried to join Pet but Ray blocked them with his arm.

"You guys remember Kerri Soote?"

"Yeah!" Annie said. "She does the comic!" Buttercup looked confused. "Didn't Pet tell you? The girl that did 'Living Within Reach,' the sylph comic? She met Ray and Denise on a plane. They bragged about us and now she does a strip about-"

"Us!" Pet shouted happily.

"Yep," Annie agreed. "Living with the Weirdo. You never saw it?"

"Chuck and Carolyn tended towards Reader's Digest," Buttercup told her.

"Ah," Ray nodded. "Well, we have the collections around here somewhere. But you'll have to read them alone, Pet hates to look at comics about herself-"

"I do not!"

"Pet, he's teasing."

"Then tell him to stop!"

"Stop teasing Pet, dear."

"Yes, dear. Anyway, I got a call from Kerri at work. Someone's optioned the TV rights to LWW. They want to do a pilot for a sitcom."

"No way!" Annie said, stunned.

"They want Pet and Annie to fly out and talk with Kerri and with the network writers, see if they can get a feel for the characters. I made the arrangements." He pulled Pet back from the bag and reached down inside. He pulled two plane tickets out and gave one to Denise.

"Plus, because flying is SUCH a pain for some people, I bought two of the latest flight carriers at Brookstone." He pulled a box out of the bag. It was squat, the walls thick with insulation and sound proofing. A fan on the side promised steady ventilation.

"Alright!" Annie said. "Beats the hell out of those BrainBuckets© …that beat the hell out of me."

"Yes, we can all travel in comfort. You in a soundproofed seclusion, we without guilt about the horrific conditions of our sylphs."

"Why two?" Denise asked.

"Well, they seemed a bit crowded for three." He placed one on his lap and opened the door. Buttercup swung Annie up to his lap, then Annie lifted her. Pet jumped from knee to knee. They all stepped inside.

There were cushioned sofas wide enough to serve as cots. A chemical toilet sat in a corner with a curtain. A dispenser of water in an insulated sleeve was across the box from that. And there were windows with velcro covers.

"It's kind of roomy," Buttercup said as she sat on one sofa. Pet sat next to her.

"For seven hours?" Annie asked.

"Oh. No, not for seven hours. Not for three of us."

"We are all three going, aren't we?" Pet asked, suddenly anxious. "I mean, Buttercup's not in the strip, but we won't leave her, will we?" She ran out of the box and jumped over to Ray's sleeve. "She's coming, right? She's coming?"

Ray opened his mouth. Denise recognized his 'about to tease' expression and kicked his ankle.

Annie didn't have to see his expression, she just knew her man. The sylph jumped down onto his thigh, digging her heels into the muscle.

"Well, they did-Ouch. OW! Dammit, women! What did I ever do to you?"

"It's what you were about to do to Pet," Annie said. She nodded to Denise. "Teamwork. Keeps the menfolk in line." Denise gave a small salute back.

"Yes, Pet," she said, lifting the little one up to her cheek. "Of course we're bringing Buttercup."

She glanced over the itinerary folded in with the ticket. There was a hiss. "Oh, I hate O'Hare."

"Then," he said, "it's a good thing we're going through St. Louis." She silently reached out and took his ticket. Pet sat on her shoulder as she compared the two forms.

"When you said 'I made the arrangements,'" she muttered, "you meant that you called my travel agent and had her make the arrangements."

"There's a difference?" he asked.

"Just that my account says I travel on the airline I have frequent flier miles on. And your account says…"

"Oh, dear," Pet said.

"You messed up," Annie pointed out cheerfully.

"I leave an hour before you do," Denise said. "And I actually get there an hour after you do."

"I think it's important to point out, here, that I meant well."

"Not well enough," Annie laughed. She held a hand out to help Buttercup down from the box. "Come on, let's go tell Willy's people we'll be gone for a while." Pet slid down Denise's blouse and the three jumped to the carpet. "I think they're going to have words."

"Big words?" Pet asked.

"Terse," Buttercup said.

-------

Ray and Denise stood in line at the airport, watching the air marshals subdue the irate gentleman. Sorting out the chaos took a while, enough that Denise was starting to look from her ticket to her watch.

Ray held both carriers as she shifted her bag around, loosened the laptop and slid her shoes off.

About ten minutes after what she thought was the last minute, an airline employee started shouting off flight numbers. People on those flights moved to the front of the line and scurried through security.

Denise kissed Ray, yanked Pet and Buttecup's carrier and ducked under the ropes.

For once she wasn't behind anyone suffering from partial paralysis or dementia so security was brisk and quick. At the other end of the line, she was putting her shoes on with one hand, storing her laptop with the other.

A guard walked up with her carrier. "Ma'am, will you verify that this is your sylph?"

"GOD your hands are cold," Annie complained. "What, your heart doesn't pump blood on Fridays?"

"Crap," Denise muttered, looking backwards. Ray was nowhere in sight. Her flight was called on the PA.

"Ma'am?"

"Yes. Yes, that's my sylph, thank you."

"Oh?" Annie asked. She moved back and forth, looking out the windows. "Crap."

-----

After they boarded, Denise took a moment to catch her breath, then set her belongings to her liking. A small bag within her shoulder bag came out and she put the bigger bag in the overhead.

The smaller one had a bottle of water, a paperback, her iPod, some candy and a Gameboy. Everything she'd need for the flight without having to get into the carry-on.

The carrier had a strap to hold it to her armrest and she fixed it there. She opened the top to make sure Annie was comfortable.

"Oh, yeah. Thanks." Denise started to close the box. "Hey? Um…about my comment, when I realized I wasn't with Ray any more? I didn't mean anything by it."

"Of course not, Annie. I said the same thing." They stared at each other for a second. "I… I was just disappointed that I won't be with Buttercup on her first flight."

"Yeah!" Annie said enthusiastically. "Me, too. I mean, I know they've both been looking forward to the trip. With you. With each other, and you. Girls together again." She gave a small laugh. "So, uh, let me know when I can turn on my MP3 player, okay?"

"I will," Denise promised. Before she closed the lid, the woman in the next seat leaned over and looked down inside the carrier.

"Oh, she's pretty. Can you make her dance?"

----

The plane had engine troubles when it tried to taxi out to the runway. The quick fix failed, the longer fix failed and then they were into the huge delay. Ray and his sylphs were in St. Louis before Denise and Annie made it out of Jacksonville.

Weather over Chicago made the landing a bit sketchy. They were the last plane allowed to land at O'Hare. Their connecting flight never showed up.

Denise walked briskly from counter to counter, trying to make alternate arrangements.

She started to apologize for jostling her passenger. Annie was tying herself to the sofa when she looked in. "Hey! I'm tough! Run if you have to!"

They just managed to make it aboard a flight to Seattle, with connections to LAX. But when the plane started to taxi, lightning struck the tower. All flights were canceled and they came back to the terminal.

The airline offered Denise a $50 voucher towards a room. Then told her that there were about six conventions in town, plus a host of travelers trapped overnight.

"I'm not even going to bother," she told Ray over the phone. "It's six or seven hours until they start flying again, we'll just sit in the terminal."

"Tell him it's his fault," Annie said from her other shoulder. Denise waved her off. They sat at a chair near one of the only power plugs they'd seen in the last hour. The laptop was recharging from the wall, and the carrier was recharging from a USB port.

"Tell Pet and Buttercup I miss them, but we'll be there as soon as we can. Okay? Annie sends her love."

"The hell I do," the sylph muttered.

"I don't think she does," Ray snorted. "She probably blames me for all this. Well, have a nice night. Or nice enough. Smoochies."

"Smoochies." She folded the phone and put it away. "He says he misses you."

"He probably says he's having more fun with Pet then he would with me." Denise reached up and grabbed Annie gently. "What?"

"Look, you and Ray have a relationship, a style all your own. Don't drag me into that."

"Okay," Annie said. "But I've heard you two give and take. You could easily get away with blaming him-"

"Let me decide what I can 'get away with' where my husband is concerned."

"Alright," Annie said. She curled up into a ball on the woman's palm.

Denise sighed. "Look, I don't want to be confrontational. But you can be a little mean."

"I have to be. Or no one notices me." She looked at the human's smile suspiciously. "What?"

"Annie, no one could ever not notice you. You're smart, vibrant, beautiful, outspoken. You don't have to be bitchy as well."

Annie drew herself up and placed hands on her hips. "Bitchy? The word you are looking for, miss, is 'candid.' Candor is what we call it when we point out the faults of others. Bitchy is when they point out our faults."

"Ah," Denise nodded. "So I was just being bitchy?"

"Oh, god, no," Annie said, rapidly deflating. "When I said 'our' I meant you and me both. And Pet, and Buttercup, Mom, Carolyn… The whole family."

"Ray?"

"He's a guy, Denise. He needs his faults pointed out on a regular basis so he won't think they're his best features." Denise giggled. Annie smiled and sat down a bit more comfortably. They regarded each other for a moment.

"Annie, can I ask you a question?"

"I am physically unable to stop you, Denise."

"Yeah. But, if I ask you the question, can you promise me an honest answer?"

"What?" Annie sat on the palm, legs dangling down past the pinkie. "I think we just established, if I answer your question, the honesty is guaranteed."

"Yeah. Still?"

Annie's eyebrows lifted. "You want to ask about Pet."

"Yes," Denise said. She swallowed and asked, "Have I ruined her?"

"Pet's my partner in crime," the sylph replied. "There's nothing wrong with her. She's a great roommate, and a solid friend."

"I mean…"

"You mean about the whole protected upbringing, stunted emotional growth, extended childhood thing?" Denise just stared. Annie shrugged. "If you're worried about Pet being vulnerable, she's strong. She's stronger than you know. I see signs that she's stronger than I know."

Up above her face, tears welled in Denise's eyes. She wasn't used to making the giants cry. Scream, flee or punch the wall in frustration, but not cry. She squirmed a bit in embarrassment.

"I'm not used to this much honesty where the giant eyes stare at me. Can I stand on your shoulder?" Denise nodded and moved her hand. Annie stepped over and carefully touched the ear. She was telegraphing her position more than she was helping her balance.

"Anyway," she said, "Pet's strong. Her strength come from knowing, I mean to the core of her being, that she has you in her corner." There was a sniffle around the corner of Denise's face. Annie stroked the shell of the ear.

"She isn't used to teasing, I know. So when Ray or I do it, there's a moment that she wonders if her world-picture is wrong. Then everyone rushes to assure her that she's okay. But I know that if we didn't she'd eventually figure it out for herself."

There was another sniffle and Annie rolled her eyes. This was a lot easier with boys. Show them your no-no place and they forgot all about any emotions.

"But…if she's dependent on me…" Denise protested.

"She was, but not any more. She's coming to find that she can depend on me, on Ray, Mom, Dad. She's probably reevaluating her relationships with Carla, Carolyn, Chuck. Hey, that's what I wanted to ask YOU. Why are you the only one in the house with a D initial?"

There was a laugh, which beat the sniffles all to hell. "My first name is Courtney. Mom says the day I realized that Carla and I had the same initial, I threw a fit until Buttercup suggested I use my middle name."

"Moms," Annie mused. "Is there anything they can't do?"

A hand lifted to Annie's side and collected her. It didn't move far, just lifted the sylph to the big cheek for a hug. Annie hugged back as well as she could.

"You're pretty amazing yourself," Denise said softly. Annie wiped her eyes and tried very hard to breath without sniffling.

Flight arrangements were still a little chancy in the morning, so Denise just told Ray to wait for them in the hotel. Then she talked to Pet for a moment and said hi to Buttercup.

Then she held the phone while Annie stripped a layer of skin from her revered and inattentive master. "We could have been in an actual HOTEL last night. Do you know what we had for breakfast? A Mounds bar!"

"Annie, it could easily have been that we were all trapped in Chicago overnight."

"Then it's still your fault that we weren't together!" She turned around on the chair and stalked away. Denise lifted the phone.

"You should know that she stomped all of eight inches away from the phone in a huff," she told her spouse.

"This is going to cost me, isn't it?" he asked. "I've failed about everyone but Buttercup, and she just has no expectations from me." He paused. "Oh. I added cream to the coffee before pouring out her cup this morning. It's official. I've failed everyone."

She smiled at the cheerful tone in his voice. "Well, I guess the four of us are just going to have to beat it out of you."

"That sounds fun in a kinky sort of way," he replied.

"You wish. Whoops. They're calling our plane. I hope. See you soon. Smoochies."

"Smoochies."

"Come on, revered passenger," she said, holding out the carrier. "Time's a wasting."

"A seven hour layover," Annie spat.

"Oh, that's not even my personal best," Denise replied. She shifted the carrier and her laptop case around. "There was one time…"

-----

Ray had the corner chair of the hotel lobby staked out. They carefully made their first kisses between spouses, then they exchanged carriers.

Denise opened the lid and pulled out her pets. Pet glomped onto her thumb and cried. "I was so worried I'd never see you again."

"No you weren't," Denise said in a matter-of-fact tone. "You knew I would never stop until I found you again. And I had Annie. If anyone got in my way, I'd just have thrown her at them until they begged for mercy."

"Pretty much what I figured," Buttercup said. Denise kissed the top of her head. Then she looked Pet in the eyes.

"You were quite sure we'd be together again, weren't you?"

"Yes," she said softly. She seemed to mature a dozen years in Denise's view. "Yes, I knew you and Annie would come through anything." Then she hugged the thumb again. "But I still missed you."

"And I missed you." She hugged them both to her cheek. "Now, tell me all about your flight."

"Oh! The movie was Tim Burton's Gulliver's Travel to Lilliput! I never saw so many sylphs in one spot in my LIFE!"

Annie was still heaping invective in Ray's ear as he picked up Denise's bag. Her luggage was already being taken up to their room. He put an arm around her waist and they moved to the elevator.

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