Annie XXIV: Independent Ops

(Chronological index: Ray/Denise Married, Ruth known)

Ray placed the carrier gently onto the table. Annie stood on the placemat where Ruth sat. The two watched Ray gaze at the customized ammo box for a while. It was what Annie recognized as his nostalgia face.

"Annie drove about twice before The Day," he finally said. "For the first two months after I got my license, she was certain she was a better driver.

"Push it, you'll make it. Gun it, it's clear. It's clear if you hurry. Don't be afraid of the cop, he's headed the other way." Annie stood on the table, arms crossed but silent.

"When you're comfortable driving, or comfortable ignoring Annie's incredibly helpful suggestions," he advised, "then you can decide where she rides."

"Yes, sir," Ruth said.

Annie rolled her eyes. "I'll be very responsible," she promised. She turned around to face Ruth. "He's just jealous that I'm a naturally superior navigator."

Ruth started to giggle. She blanked her face when she saw Ray's glare. With a small nod she collected the carrier and picked Annie up.

"You really don't have to worry about where you put me," the sylph went on. "But it'd be polite to have me on the floorboard when you leave and when you come back. Just to make him feel like he's in charge if he's watching."

Denise held the door as the two departed then sat down next to her husband.

Ray glanced at the window as they heard a car door open and shut. He gave a little sigh. "Do you remember when Annie used to be afraid of me?"

"No," Denise said, matter-of-factly.

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Ruth wedged the carrier between the front and back seat. "Nothing judgmental," she promised the sylph. "I just think this'll be safer until I can get a permanent mount for it."

"Okay," Annie said dubiously, watching from the cup holder. "But you're not going to make me ride in that, are you?"

Ruth twisted around to stare at her sister. "Roy made it a condition of taking you with-" But she couldn't keep a straight face, not after seeing the expression of betrayal on the tiny one before her.

"Please! You'd whine more from the floor than you'll backseat drive from the dashboard." She pulled her seatbelt into place, waved to the house and started the car.

Annie hunkered down in the holder, though no one could possibly see her from inside. It still felt deliciously conspiratorial.

About a block away from the house, Ruth paused at a stop sign and lifted Annie to the dashboard. "So, where do you want to go?" she asked her first passenger.

"Anywhere," Annie said cheerfully. "As long as it doesn't include a men's room."

"Mall?"

"Mall!"

They picked the Avenues, as it was closer to Ruth's home and school. She didn’t have to hide her visits any more and was looking forward to introducing her friends to her sister. On the way, they talked family.

"I don't think she's ever going to let go of the idea that your shrinking is related to sin," Ruth explained. "But she has decided it wasn't specifically your or her sins that got you shrunk."

"Really?"

"Yeah. She thinks it's a general curse on mankind, like Babel or the Flood…"

"Or telemarketers."

"Exactly." Ruth slowed way too much for the turn, then had to accelerate madly to merge into traffic. Annie had to bite down on her lip but she was able to keep silent. She didn't want to distract the driver on the Southside Connector, and she REALLY didn't want Ray to be right.

"Um…" Ruth cast about her memory for the topic from way back before the turn. "Oh. I told her about Denise's church's view. That your shrinking is a test for the rest of us. She likes the idea, but hasn't fully taken it on board. I'm sure she will."

"I hope so," Annie said. "Oooh, when did they put a movie theater in here?"

Ruth spared a glance as they passed the lot. "What? I can't remember a time there wasn't a theater here."

"Oh. Well, Ray almost never comes this way. He usually sticks to the freeway."

"I…" Ruth swallowed. "I don't think I'm ready for the freeway, not yet."

"That's okay, sweetheart," Annie assured her. "Some days I don't think Ray is ready for the freeway. Not through downtown anyway."

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"First things first," Ruth said as they entered the mall. "Time for lunch!"

"Ooh, baby, love you long time," Annie purred from Ruth's cupped hands. "But didn't you just have breakfast?"

"Yeah," the teen replied. "But I've noticed that the sylph metabolism needs fuel more often than even I do. I'll buy you a chicken nugget, get me a drink or something."

"Cool," Annie said. "I have to beg and beg Ray before he'll go out of his way."

The line at the chicken place moved more slowly than usual. Everyone was looking over their shoulder at the sylph.

Ruth found it kind of a kick to be at the center of such attention. There were three teen boys and a guy with a North Florida University T-shirt giving her (and Annie) the once-over.

She ordered a soda and a Petsnak and took a table. She squeezed a bit of ketchup out for Annie and sipped at the Diet Coke.

"No one here that I know…" she said after a look around (and a chance to catch the eye of two guys from the line).

"We could maybe swing by later?" Annie suggested. "I mean, after you work up an appetite?"

"Yeah. Yeah that would work."

Ruth had searched out and purchased a shirt that had shoulder epaulettes. With a little effort, she had customized them into saddles for Annie to ride. It left her hands free as she walked through the mall. At least, that was the idea. It turned out, one hand or the other was always hovering under the sylph, ready to catch her or protect her.

On the way out of the food court, Annie drew attention to a kiosk. "I need a lottery ticket. I always have good luck with the tickets here. If you don't mind…?"

"No," Ruth said. She started to ask which issue of ticket the sylph wanted when the dealer spoke.

"Oh! It's you! I didn’t recognize you without your owner." She started to turn towards the rack of lottery tickets. "Usual order, of course." Then she paused. "Unless… Unless this is your new owner?"

"Oh, no, no," Annie assured the woman. "Revered Master just let me out of his sight for a day."

"Great, great. So, here you go. Good luck." Ruth handed over the money, keeping a quarter out of the change. She sat at a nearby bench and watched as Annie knelt to scratch the coin across the coating.

"You look like you're trying to sharpen a manhole cover," she giggled.

"Hush," the sylph snapped. Annie was very serious about her allowed gambling.

She was very happy to win twenty dollars. She first repaid her sister for the tickets, then offered to buy lunch.

"I thought you went to the candy shop after a win?" Ruth put the winnings in a shirt pocket and the sylph on her shoulder.

"Well, yeah. But that's my ritual with Ray. I ask for stuff I can't have, we argue, he gets to puff out his chest and be The Master, I retreat to what I really want. With you? I just want to buy your meal."

"I'm okay on that score," Ruth assured her. She stepped into the Lollipop Fun Shop. "Plus, Ray never told me what you can't have."

"Ooooooh," Annie said softly. "You've run rings around me logically. Head for the Gummi Bears. No! The gummy alligators. No! The gummy cokes bottles. Wait! The, uh…the, uh…"

"You know, you don't have to decide right this minute, Annie." Ruth said. She picked up the sylph and held her over the rows of candy. "And you have fifteen dollars to spend."

"Hmmm. Then which do you think would be worse to find in your hair? An alligator tail or half a coke bottle?"

Summer camps were more popular with their parents than they had been when Annie was young. Ruth advised sugar-based dust over gel candy.

"If you spread it right, it gets in everywhere," was the deal-making comment. Annie spent most of her winnings on candied powders and delivery systems (straws).

She did get one bag of Gummi Bears. "If I didn't," she explained, "he'd get suspicious."

"Well, can't have a suspicious owner, can we?" Ruth replied as she handed over the cash.

She looped the bag over one arm and they continued past the store fronts.

"Wanna see something wicked?" Ruth asked. Annie looked around suspiciously from her shoulder vantage point.

"Teen wicked, girl wicked, school wicked?" she asked. "Just tell me it's not engineer wicked, 'kay? No gadgets, no expensive toys, no software packages that perform for…"

Ruth turned as the sylph rattled off the offenses of her owner's interests. The older woman was counting on her fingers rather than pay attention to where she was being carried.

Until Ruth stopped in front of a mannequin. Annie looked up. "Huh? What? What are we…?"

"This dress," Ruth said. Annie grabbed one ear and leaned out to look it over.

"It's nice," she finally decided. "Strapless, thigh slit, simple turquoise/jet black color scheme. A few rhinestones thrown in… Nice. You know, if you're into that sort of thing."

There was a small but significant pause from her sister. She turned, trying to see the young woman's face. Or at least her profile.

"I, uh, I have one on layaway. Mom and I picked it out. For, uh, my prom."

"Oooooooooooooh," Annie purred. "It's beautiful."

"You think?"

"I know. I can just see you in it." She glommed onto the cheek beside her. "You're going to be stunning." The cheek dimpled beneath her.

"Thanks…"

"You're quite welcome, sweetheart. Oh! I love proms. I wish I could go!" Ruth giggled. Annie stepped back from the cheek. "What?"

"Oh, nothing," Ruth shrugged, then turned to walk out of the store. "Didn't you go to Ray's prom?"

"Pffft! Ray went to Ray's prom. He took me along as a babe-magnet." She settled back down on her saddle and watched the storefronts go by. "Lucky for me, the school forced him to buy me a dress. It wasn't anything like your dress. Bare minimum monies spent on the sylph. As always."

Two doors down from the candy store was Sylphbarite. The luxury store was like a Sharper Image for sylphs, or for owners who indulged their pets.

Annie clapped her hands when she realized Ruth was headed into the store. "Yay! Most revered Master hardly even lets me window-shop here." She pitched her voice low, attempting to mimic Ray. "This is too expensive. I mean, really, ridiculously so. For what this dress costs, we can get half a wardrobe for you at The Comfort Zone."

In her normal voice again, she expressed appreciation. "Thanks, sis! Ray never lets me have any fun."

Ruth paused for a second at the comment, then continued inside. They oohed and aahed the clothes, the vehicles and the sylph sized furniture.

But Ruth kept circling back around to the dresses in the windows. "I think you need one of these," she finally said.

"What? No, sis, no. I mean, I tease Ray, but, wow, the price on these things! You can't afford-"

"Don't worry about the cost," Ruth said. She sounded a little sharp to the sylph.

"Ruth? Honey, what's wrong?"

There was a long stretch of silence, then Ruth stormed out to the middle of the mall. She threw herself down on a bench, then picked up the sylph. She held Annie up to her face and glared.

"Honey? Did Annie do wrong?"

"You…" Ruth tried to speak. "Ray, he… I just… I want… You shouldn't…" She growled. "Ray's not that bad, Annie!"

"Sez you," Annie replied. "Ray ever put you in a collar?"

"Ray gave me seventy bucks, Annie!" The sylph stared, trying to imagine what the teen could have done to earn that much money. Then she tried to burn that image from her mind.

"What… Why? What for?"

"He said I should buy you a new dress, something to match mine. So you'd enjoy going to the prom with me!" Annie gasped.

"But ever since we got here… Heck, even before we left your house, you're always talking mean about Ray."

"Oh, no," Annie muttered.

"Evil master this, no fun that, selfish bastard, evil chintzy son of a-"

"Stop!" the sylph barked. Ruth shut her mouth with a snap. "Well. Most of that's just 'Annie being Annie.' Okay?"

Ruth nodded. "And you know my relationship with my revered master is built upon mutual hidden respect and mutually expressed snark. Okay?" Another nod.

"But I just…" Her militant tone faded. "I dunno. You and I? We don't have the baggage. I guess… I guess I compare what YOU do with what RAY does to show that you're… That you're okay. Okay?"

Ruth thought for a bit. Annie waited a second, then went on. "It's not that I'm really that mad at Ray. It's just… Trying to make you feel better. But I'll stop, okay? I'll stop comparing you to a thirty-seven year old married man. If you want."

A giggle burst out of the teen. A smile grew on her face, a matching one showing up on the sylph.

Annie winked. "You're thinking of my Master in your prom dress, aren't you?"

They laughed together for a while. Annie suddenly sat up straight in her sister's hand.

"Wait. You said prom! You said I'm going to your prom! With you? Did you said that? You said that. Tell me you said that!"

"I said that," Ruth giggled.

"You asked to take me to the prom and revered master said it was okay?" She tightly gripped the hands that held her and wiggled in glee.

"It was Ray's idea," Ruth admitted. "I called him, asking about… Well, Mom wanted to help me pick out the dress. But I kinda wanted you to help, too. But I didn't think you two were ready to cooperate on one shopping trip?" Her voice raised at the end of the statement, making it a question.

Annie nodded slowly. "Yeah, that's probably not a great idea."

"So, I was asking Ray who I should ask. He said have Mom help me with my dress, and then have you help me pick out your dress." They stared at each other. "It seemed like…a fair solution?" There was another stretch of silence. Ruth started to fidget.

"That's…so cool," Annie finally said. "And, you know, I wouldn't have been jealous or hurt if you'd let Mom help you. Instead of me."

"Annie," Ruth said, "I'm holding you. Right up to my face."

"Yeah?"

"So when you put your hands behind your back and cross your fingers? I see it AND I feel it."

"Oh." The sylph sat for a moment, then pulled her hands out into view. She straightened all four pair of crossed fingers. Then she slowly said, "I would have been jealous of Mom getting to help you. But I would never, I promise you, have thought that you made the wrong choice.

"It's your choice to make. You have to do what's right." Then she clapped her hands. "Now! Let's go find something that won't dishonor your dress, but also won't distract from it."

Ruth giggled at her mercurial sis and stood up.

"So. Is there a boy on this prom date?"

"Elwood asked me. I said maybe."

"Why didn't you say yes?"

"I said I had to get your okay."

"Oh. Well, is he good enough for you?" They discussed Elwood's qualities as they started to search through the dresses.

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"Eep!" Annie looked up at the protest.

"What?"

"You're… you can't just…" Ruth looked left and right and leaned over the counter. "Isn't there a changing room?"

"Not for sylphs," Annie said. She continued to strip off her clothes.

"Even a place like Sylphbarite?"

"Especially a place that indulges indulgent owners. They don't want their pweshus pwetty pet out of their sight." She stepped out of her panties and held her hands out for the dress. Ruth held it out, then bent over to block Annie's nudity from view.

"You look like you're covering for a really bad shoplifter," Annie pointed out. She finished with the dress and stepped over to the hand mirror. "Oooh. Perfect." She spun around. "And I already have perfect shoes for it."

She looked up. "What do you think?"

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Denise and the sylphs oohed and ahhed appreciatively over the dresses. Annie modeled hers. Ruth passed around her cell phone with a couple of photos of her dress.

Denise made sure Ray was absorbed in the pics as Ruth smuggled Annie's candy haul into the hall closet. He shrugged at both dresses. "Nice, I guess."

His wife dope slapped the back of his head. "Pay no attention to the IT guy, Ruth," she advised. "He has nothing like an artistic soul."

"That's it," Ray muttered. "I'm a guy, I'm straight, and I had an engineering scholarship. I can tell you what keeps the strapless dress up, but not what makes it better than nice."

He grabbed Annie around the waist, lifted her up carefully and looked her over. "Any change?" he asked. Then he returned the silent stares of the women assembled. "From the seventy bucks?" he explained.

"The dress," Annie explained slowly, "cost your sister-in-law eighty four dollars."

"Really?" He twisted her around, looking from all angles. "For this little slip of a thing?"

"Put me down you Neanderthal!" Annie shouted. He complied. "For your information, fabulous beauty takes time, effort, carefully selected materials…."

Denise escorted Ruth to the door while Annie educated her owner on the basics of fashion.

"Call us," she told the girl. "We'll figure out who picks up who and when, all that logistics stuff."

"'Kay." Ruth nodded towards the kitchen. Annie was still tearing a strip off of Ray. "She's not going to get in trouble for this, is she?"

Denise giggled. "Ray'll put up with a tremendous amount of crap from his sylph. She tests him, he tolerates her. It's how they know they still love each other."

Ruth shook her head. "I suppose that's a good thing." Denise raised an eyebrow. "As the daughter of a recovering alcoholic? It's nice to know that my home life isn't the most…."

"Fucked up in the world?" Denise suggested. Ruth laughed. They hugged. Pet and Buttercup waved from the windowsill as she pulled out of the driveway.

Ray nodded at his wife as she collected her sylphs and went upstairs. When they were alone he picked Annie up. Her diatribe rattled to a stop.

"It's the perfect dress," he said. "It matches your eyes. And it won't outshine Ruth's. No more than taking a sylph to a school function will, anyway."

Annie carefully smoothed her skirt, not looking him in the eye. "It is pretty, isn't it?"

"It's beautiful. You'll look very alluring on the night of the dance." He stroked her hair with one finger. "So, all in all, I think today was worth half a Gummi Bear in my ear at some point."

"Actually, Ray, I was thinking of letting you off the hook for this week's lottery. Since you bought the dress and all." She raised her eyes without lifting her head. "Thank you."

"Oh, don't do me any favors," he said. He placed her on the table and moved the dress' box beside her. "If you didn't put candy on my pillow I'd think you were mad at me."

The sylph smiled wide as she started to undress. "Remember you said that, big fella. Remember you said that."

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