Annie XXVII, Hardship

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

They all cried at the funeral, at least a little bit. Pet bawled. Buttercup sobbed. Annie teared up and held Pet close. Ray held Denise as she cried.

He teared up a teeny bit. Lucky for his image, some people had looked down at them for bringing sylphs to a funeral. It made Denise and her mother uncomfortable, so that made Ray furious. His scowl helped hide his tears.

But if they sniffed at their attending, they were in for a shock.

Carla helped Denise's mother climb up to deliver the eulogy. Then everyone stared as the woman started screwing around with the microphone.

"I'm not much good at these things," she apologized, bending down to speak into the pick-up. Carla climbed back down and walked to the front pew.

"So, I'm having a very close friend, who's wonderful with words, say what's in all our hearts." You could have heard a pin rust as Denise lifted Buttercup to Carla's hands. "She's a dear friend," Carolyn repeated. "Who loved Charles as much as I did. And he loved her."

A bit of the sad edged out of Carolyn's voice, replaced with a hint of steel as she went on. Ray'd always suspected it ran deep through her frame.

"So if it's a bit irregular, I'd really appreciate it if you'd indulge me. For Chuck's sake." She smiled and stepped back. Carla placed the sylph on the pulpit.

"Chuck saved my life, and my daughter's life, about a month after The Day," Buttercup began.

Carla returned to their pew and Ray offered her the arm that wasn't holding Denise. The sisters held hands over his lap and hugged him close.

Buttercup told them all about Chuck. About the respect he earned, the rules he inflicted and the way he taught his family to live.

She described the six foot two plumbing contractor using tweezers to change baby Pet's diapers in an emergency.

"He was great, but he was never alone with the girl again, until she was about twelve." The mourners laughed.

She went on, balancing his philosophy with anecdotes. Carolyn stood beside the pulpit, nodding and sometimes smiling.

Ray looked around at Chuck's relatives and friends. They were all deep in memory of the man, honoring his life. Not questioning Buttercup's right to speak about it.

His anger faded and he relaxed a tiny bit. Which let the tears flow. His arms were engaged so he couldn't wipe them.

Pet stopped crying at the story about Chuck using her to play a prank on Denise. Then he coached her on what to say to avoid being punished.

With the crying on hiatus, Annie looked up to smile sadly at her Master. She saw the tears. She climbed over Carla's arm and up his suit to the pocket. The loyal pet grabbed a corner of his handkerchief and continued to his shoulder.

There she stood, wiping his face as he turned towards her. 'Thanks,' he mouthed.

"Wimp," she replied softly. He raged for a tenth of a second, then nodded. She went back to Pet.

Buttercup had to stop twice. Once, a particular memory made Carolyn cry out. The sylph walked over and hugged the woman's wrist until she was back under control.

And when she described Chuck's fight against the cancer, she choked up for a full minute.

Everyone waited patiently and understandingly for her to recover.

--------

Ray wasn't one of the pall bearers. He merely had to escort six women to the grave. Luckily, three fit in his suit pocket.

He mostly helped Carolyn across the sparse grass of the cemetery, her daughters following behind.

The minister talked briefly about how God had guided Chuck through life and given him the strength to carry the big loads.

"Bullshit," Carolyn muttered, softly enough that only Ray and the sylphs could hear. "The man had a lethal sense of humor, that's what got him through the big loads."

The remark made Buttercup sniffle in memory. It made Pet wail. Ray bit his tongue to keep from laughing.

He was remembering that sense of humor at the wake. "Chuck had me convinced that it was a family tradition not to kiss the bride at the wedding. Some spectacularly bad luck in the family history."

Denise sipped at her drink and nodded. "But Daddy told him it was worse luck to tell the bride. So when Father Arnie said, 'you may now kiss the bride' this bastard was going to nod and sneeze and make an excuse."

"Why didn't you?" Chuck's sister, Gladys, asked.

Ray gestured to his pocket. "Annie convinced me that it was spectacularly bad luck to piss off the bride."

"Everyone takes the bride's side," Annie pointed out. She bit from a raisin that she had soaked in Ray's drink when he wasn't looking. She thought he hadn't noticed, distracted as he was by the grief around him.

Actually, Ray knew all about it even before Pet tried to warn him. And while a drunken Annie could be an overly candid Annie, he figured that's what wakes were for.

The widow came over with a bouquet of flowers. She held the card out. "Ray? Denise? Gladys? I've been asking everyone who these flowers came from. I don't recognize the name. Trace?"

"That's my family," Annie said. "I think you met Ruth once? Teenager at our house?"

"Oh, yes. Well, that was thoughtful, dear." She put the card back in the flowers and held her hand out for Buttercup.

"Do you remember the Vandenberg side of the family?" she was asking as she walked away.

Ray noticed that Denise was cupping her shirt pocket. He turned and stepped forward so Annie, in his pocket, was next to Pet. The younger sylph was tearing up a bit.

"Hey, hey, hey, partner," Annie said. "Cheer up! This is a wake! Kick up the heels, raise the roof and all that." She glanced up. "Want a bit of raisin?"

Ray gave his wife a careful kiss.

"She's really broken up about Dad," Denise explained. "And about Buttercup staying on with Mom." Both of them ignored the nose-blowing sound between them.

"It's rough. I'll miss Buttercup, too," he told her.

"You will?" Pet called up to him.

"Of course," he said. "With your mom in the house, the adults outnumbered the children." He shook his head sadly. "And that's no longer the case…."

Annie grabbed the stitching on Denise's pocket and pulled herself closer to whisper in Pet's ear. But Pet was already blowing a raspberry up at Ray. Annie nodded approvingly and released the cloth.

"And that's what a wake should sound like," Denise said with a nod of her own. "I think it's time for some laughter."

She grabbed the emcee's mike and started sharing some of her favorite pranks perpetrated by her father over the years. Then she walked through the crowd, getting memories from others. They even got Pet to haltingly describe the Noodle Fort.

------

Everyone was treating Carolyn with kid gloves, stepping gently around her grief. "Look at her," Annie growled as Ray leaned against the wall nearby. "She's not that old, she's not that fragile. They act like if they don't mention Chuck's death, she won't realize it. That's not helping her."

"You want to go over and tender your respects again?" Ray asked.

"I want to go get her drunk. Snag that bottle of Scotch, Ray. I so command it!"

"Yes, commander," he said with a smile. He dutifully delivered the sylph, the scotch and a glass with ice in it.

Carolyn grabbed the bottle and the glass, tossed the ice out and poured. "You want some, Annie? Buttercup?"

"Yes, please," the older sylph replied. She pulled a folding cup out of her pocket and dipped it over the brim.

Annie pulled a fresh raisin out of Ray's pocket and jumped down to the table. Ray demurred, planning to be the responsible one at the end of the evening.

An hour later, the sylphs were crying on each other's shoulders about their imminent breakup.

Carolyn was telling a very uncomfortable son-in-law about a dead man's sex life. "He was always coming up with these new ideas," she said cheerfully.

"New things to try and new places to try them. And by places, I don't mean kitchen or laundry room." She sipped and looked at him over the glass. "You try new things, Raymond?"

"I've been thinking of taking up seppuku for the last ten minutes," he admitted. She laughed, far louder than the joke warranted. A young couple who lived near her wandered towards the table.

"Aunt Carolyn?" Robbie said. "We're headed back to our house. Babysitter's waiting. Do you want a ride home?"

"That would be lovely, Rob," she replied. "C'mere!" She snagged Buttercup out of the embrace and stood. The sylph dangled wildly from her hand as she did.

Ray reached out and took the poor thing before anyone fell. "What if we let Buttercup and Pet spend the night together, bring her over in the morning?" he suggested. Robbie shot a relieved look over the woman's head as she nodded agreeably.

More than a little familiar with drunken sylphs, Ray had lined the bottom of a wicker basket with plastic. Then he strung plastic mesh over it as a hammock.

The sylphs were stripped and spread across the netting. Anything that they voided would fall harmlessly down and away from them.

Annie immediately christened the plastic below with bits of raisin. Buttercup just moaned and started to snore. He stretched a handkerchief over them and waited.

Carla and Denise finally said goodbye to the last mourners and thanked the staff. Cleanup began as they sagged into seats at Ray's table.

Pet wandered over, stripped and climbed up the wicker side. She crawled carefully over the mesh to Buttercup.

"You don't have to sleep on the seasick suitcase," Ray told her.

She gave him the most adult expression he'd ever seen on her face. "I know," she said simply, curling up against her mother's side. Annie reached over and they held hands across Buttercup's back.

The humans watched as Pet stroked the other sylph's hair.

Carla dozed in the back seat as they drove to the hotel. Denise carried the basket on her lap as Ray drove. Every time he glanced over, she was looking down at the sylphs.

At the hotel, the sisters ended up in Carla's room, sharing memories that had been evoked at the wake. Ray unlocked the joining door between the rooms, then put the basket down gently by the sink.

He left all the lights off except the bathroom, then shut that door to a crack. It was an easy nightlight for the unfamiliar space.

"Pet? Here or with me?" he asked. She gave her mother a quick hug and climbed into his hand.

He lay back on the bed and put her on a pillow. "How you doing, Pet?"

"Sad," she said. He nodded. "Ray? Why does Denise look at me so sadly? Did I do something wrong? I got confused about the Noodle Fort story." She explained quickly, "It was just seeing all those big faces staring at me. I got nervous and-"

"Shush, shush," he said softly. "You didn't do anything wrong. You told the story very well for a first-time speaker."

"Annie would have told it better," she said, looking down at her feet.

"Annie would have told it louder," he allowed. "But not, I think, better." She gave him a sad smile of thanks.

He rolled over and hugged a pillow to his chest. She looked up at him with big eyes. "I think Denise is sad that you and Buttercup are going to be split up. But Carolyn-"

"Is alone," she said. "And Buttercup wants to help her, and asked to stay. I know. And I loved how everyone kept asking if it was really something she wanted to do. But I will miss her…"

"We all will."

"Yeah. But what can we do? Drag Carolyn back, away from her family here? That'd be selfish. I just…" She blew her hair out of her face. "I just got used to being around Buttercup, though."

"Would you like to stay with her?" Ray asked. Pet stared up at him. "I think that's what Denise is thinking about. Letting you stay here for a while."

"She'd…she'd give me to Carolyn?" Pet asked, scandalized.

"God, no!" Ray said. Moans sounded from the sink and he lowered his voice back down. "Denise wouldn't give you up for anything. But she would agree to letting you stay. Maybe. I think. We haven't talked about it, but I think that's what she's thinking about. If it's what you want."

They lay quietly for a while. Pet finally stirred and looked over at him, not quite directly into his gaze.

"What would Annie say?"

"She'd SAY that it was great to be the only sylph of the household. That she finally had full control of the TV remote during the day, and of the playlist and the blog entries and she could have Ruth over to sylphsit without having to see what anyone else wanted on their pizza.

"She'd go on at length about being able to watch movies without having to cover the holes in your education on sex, dates, fashion, dirty jokes, political history and cliches."

Pet was giggling by the time he finished. He reached up with one finger and lifted her chin up to face him fully.

"But she'd be miserably lonely. She'd never admit to it, but she would be."

"She's too proud," Pet said with a nod.

"No, Pet. Because she loves you. She'd never want you to be unhappy out of a concern for Annie's happiness. She and Denise would both miss you. But if it's what you want, they want you happy, so they'd both think it was worthwhile. Until you're ready to come back to them. To us."

He let her think about that for a while.

"Besides, they'd both have me to gang up on for Monopoly or Risk. Probably get them to bond over it." She covered her mouth to stifle her laughter.

About three in the morning, Ray got up to do a welfare check on the drunk tank. Pet rose when her pillow shook and raised her arms. He lifted her over to the seasick suitcase.

They were both snoring deeply. He put her down on the counter and lifted the handkerchief. Pet climbed up and helped him clean up the sylphs.

Annie protested being wiped down, while Buttercup grabbed his finger and tried to kiss it. Pet giggled and helped him gently disengage from the embrace.

He pulled out a clean handkerchief and held it over the mesh. Pet nodded and slid between the two. He tucked everyone in, blew her a kiss and went to bed.

Denise crawled in sometime later. He woke up enough to hug her.

Some time after the sun came up, he was yanked awake by a tug on his ear. He woke quickly but moved slowly. Annie stood on his head, smiling down at his eye.

He picked her up as he rolled over. Denise was a lump under the bedcovers, snoring lightly. The other sylphs were on the nightstand. They were showered, dressed and apparently none the worse for wear.

"Revered Master? We're famished," Annie said quietly.

"Really?" He reached over two tiny heads for his pants.

"And we know there's no room service, but there's a bakery JUST down the street." Buttercup and Pet waved. He realized they were standing on a page from the guests' notebook, the one with all the local businesses and a small map.

"Well, what do you know?" he mumbled, looking at where they were pointing. "You think maybe we should investigate their baked goods?"

"I think that Denise will love waking up to the smell of fresh baked breakfast," Annie said cheerfully.

"Denise," the bedcovers growled, "would love waking up to the smell of lunch."

"Yes, commander," Ray whispered as he gathered the pets.

--------

Denise broached the subject over the burgers Ray brought back. She glanced at Ray and Carla, then down at the sylphs.

"Pet? I was, uh… I dunno, I was wondering if you were going to miss Buttercup?"

"Of course I am," Pet said, wiping grease off of her face. "Why?"

"Well… Maybe you could stay with her for a while? If you want? If that's okay with you, Buttercup?"

"Fine by me."

Pet stood and walked over to Denise's elbow. "I love my mother, Denny, but I love, love, love you. I don't want to leave you. When would I see you again?"

"I was going to fly out here at Christmas. Ray and I talked about that before. I'll take you home then."

"Christmas?" Pet asked, a little excitedly. "That's, like, six-"

"Eight," Annie said.

"Eight months from now!" She threw herself across her owner's wrist. "I couldn't go eight months without seeing you!"

"How about a month?" Carla asked. Everyone turned to stare. She shrugged. "I already planned a vacation out here. Tickets are paid for. I'll come out, do the tourist thing, visit Mom, pick you up and fly you home to Denise."

"That's…" Denise started to say.

"I could do a month," Pet said quietly.

"That's…that's…" Denise stammered.

"That's what family does for family," Ray said. Carla nodded. Pet squealed and ran to hug Buttercup, then ran to jump into Carla's arms.

"Oh, stop being so demonstrative, Pet. You know you're like the younger sister of the younger sister I never had."

"What do you mean, never had?" Denise asked. "You had me all my LIFE!"

"I meant the nice sister I never had."

=========

Annie finally stopped waving from the rear window of the rental. About a mile after Carolyn's house was no longer visible, she slid down the seat and stepped across it. Carla picked her up and handed her up to Denise in the front.

"Well, that's done. I'm lone-sylph of the roost, now. Finally, I get the remote all to myself for the day." She squirmed out of Denise's grip to climb to her owner's side and up to his shoulder.

"Yeah. No more idiots wanting ham on the pizza. No one lying about whose turn it is to pick the movie."

She snapped her head around at a familiar noise from her revered Master. "Did you just laugh?"

"No," he lied. "Look, there's the sign for the airport."

"What was so very damned funny?"

"Nothing," he said.

"Hmmm," she said, watching him suspiciously.



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