Annie XXXI Distraught

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

Ruth finally had her sleepover. After a long, slow campaign to get Momma to allow it, she had the sylph over for a weekend.

Momma was polite, but uncomfortable around Annie. She spent a lot of the time in her room. The girls didn't want to crowd her, so they spent as much time as possible out of the house.

After they did the dishes for lunch on Saturday, they lit out for a tour of the neighborhood.

Annie sat on Ruth's shoulder, describing changes she recognized or memories. She pointed to the house on the corner as they approached it.

"And that's where Mr. Mountfort lived," she said. "Weird guy. Always afraid that the kids were teasing his cat."

"Were you?" Ruth asked.

"That mangy beast? Half the time we saw it, it was dragging a mouse back to the porch for it's master." She shivered in revulsion.

Ruth laughed and walked on. "Maybe that's where you learned to bring Gumi Bear carcasses back to Ray's pillow."

"Yuck! That's not even… Oh, God, now I can never do that again." She shook like a dog shedding water and changed the subject. "So, who lives there now?"

"I dunno," Ruth said. Annie noticed that she'd adopted the one-shoulder shrug Ray and Denise affected. She didn't even appear to notice that she did it. "Some recluse, I think."

They rounded the corner and found that the house's garage was open. A man slightly younger than Ray was sorting through boxes inside. He nodded as Ruth walked past. Ruth and Annie both waved back.

"Whoa! You've got a sylph? Hey, can I, uh, ask you a question?" He stepped towards the sidewalk. Ruth backed up a couple of steps. He noticed her reluctance and raised his hands.

"Sorry, shouldn't have rushed you."

"It's okay," Ruth said. "You just… Who are you?"

"Andrew Potter," he said. He waved towards the house. "My uncle, Tom Mountfort? I don't know if you knew him?"

"Knew?" Annie asked.

"Yeah. He went into the hospital about a month ago. He..well, he died about a week later." He gestured at all the boxes. "I've been trying to go through his stuff. Clean up the house to sell it."

"Uh huh…" Ruth said slowly.

"Well, I've been finding weird things in the house. I… I think he had a sylph. But there's not one registered in his name, so…"

"So, like, what?" Ruth asked. "You want us to search the house and find her? Why? So you can sell her, too?"

"Oh, no!" he said. He seemed sincerely surprised. "I just worry about the poor thing. He's been all alone for a month. I don't want to think about him starving in a crawl space or anything."

"Well…" Ruth looked at her sylph. "I don't like to think about that either, but I'm not going into a strange man's house for a heart-jerker story."

"Good girl," Annie said.

"Okay, okay," he said. "You wanna get your dad or someone to come with? Whatever it takes, seriously. I am worried about Uncle Tommy's pet. If there is one."

----------

Poppa walked the girls over to the Mountfort place that evening. Annie had recovered her excursion pack from the carrier and Ruth had a flashlight.

"I hope he's cute," Ruth said.

"I hope he's alive," Annie replied.

Potter met them at the garage door and shook hands with Mr. Trace. "I think there's a nest in the kitchen," he said as he escorted them back.

The place was gloomy and cluttered with furniture, clothes and boxes. Annie saw about a dozen places she could have disappeared just on the short walk in.

In the kitchen there was a tiny table with a matching chair next to the flour bin.

Tiny plates and a bowl hammered out of beer-bottle tops were stacked neatly on the end. A withered dandelion blossom lay in a small jam jar beside it.

Ruth put Annie down beside it. She looked it over, then walked to the wall. There was a tiny button on the wall. Pushing that released a hidden doorway.

She glanced over her shoulder to see worried but hopeful expressions. Hefting her hinge-spear, she eased through the doorway.

There was a cozy room beyond. A hammock was strung between little stands. There was no other furniture.

Clothes were in little piles under the hammock. They were roughly sewn out of rougher cuts of material. They showed lots of wear.

"Been here for a while, fella?" she asked. Silence answered. She dropped that and turned around. A little ladder was set in the corner, leading down through a hole in the framework.

She stepped back out the door to tell the others where she was headed.

"I'll bet it leads outside," Ruth said. "I'll go look for where you come out!"

"Or to the floor space," Gerald suggested. "Just bang on the ceiling every so often, so I can follow you."

"I'll check the basement," Potter offered. Everyone turned to look at him. "What?"

"You must be from up nawth," Gerald said, accentuating his accent. "Ain't hardly no basements in Florida. Water table's about…" He held a hand to his knee. "Here."

"Vermont," Potter admitted. "Tommy didn't have any closer family. It's why no one knew about the sylph."

"Well, it ain't a cockatoo," Annie said. She went back into the wall.

The ladder led down to a small chamber with a big door. Big to the sylph, anyway. She slipped the bolt and opened it.

A worn path twisted through the dirt and leave outside. Big bushes lined the house, thick branches blocked the sky.

Annie walked a bit down the path, looking all around. "Hello?" she called. "Alle-alle-ox-sylph-free! Anyone out here?"

She heard a distant rustling, but it was much to big to be anyone at her scale. Ruth was probably looking for her.

She picked her pace up a bit, aiming for the edge of the hedge. Just before bursting out to where her sister could see her, she saw movement out of the corner of her eye.

A crazed figure bounded out of the darkness and bowled her over.

It hovered over her for a second or two, then ran off. She lay still on the dirt, trying to sort through her quick impressions.

The chipped-glass knife had been right over her eye, so it probably wasn't quite as big as her memory told her it was.

The scar, though. That was huge.

It was definitely a sylph. There were clothes, much like the ones in the secret lair. And a scar. An ugly, jagged scar ran across a forehead, over a milky-white eye, and down the cheek.

The hair was ragged and unkempt. She remembered that she'd always had to make her friend do something with it after practice or she'd look like a cavewoman. Wait. What was that memory?

"Annie?" Ruth called. She knelt down by what appeared to be a tiny path in the grass.

Her sister lay on her back, staring up at nothing. She watched the tiny mouth work silently. "Annie? What is it?"

"It's Mia," Annie said. "God in Heaven, it's my friend, Mia."

"Who?" Ruth asked.

--------

For the second time in two decades, Annie told the story of her first day as a sylph.

She sat on an empty butter tub on the dining room table and sipped from her water quite a bit. Poppa, Momma and Ruth sat around her and listened without interrupting.

She told about the shrinking, and the searching. She described the cat, the fear, the running.

She told about hearing the scream somewhere behind her.

And how it cut off suddenly.

"And when Ray found me, I thought I'd killed my best-"

"HUSH!" Momma said. "Dear Lord, child. You didn't kill anyone." She reached out and lifted her daughter in cupped hands. Everyone else stared in shock as she gathered the girl to her bosom.

"Horrible, horrible things happened that day. You didn't deserve it. And you've only done your best since.

"If you ran to Mia, hoping the cat would take her instead of you, that would be disappointing."

"I didn't Mamma," Annie said. "I never saw her." She started to cry.

Momma covered her and stroked her back. "I know, Annie. I know. That cat took her catch back to her owner. Who took the girl in and… Well, kept her as a pet, clearly."

She finally noticed the looks the others were giving her. She didn't try to pretend she didn't know why they were shocked. Her eyes dipped in shame.

But that just drew her gaze to her daughter. Her distraught daughter. Who needed her.

"Gerald? Go see if you can find the Coles' number. They'll want to know about Mia. Maybe they can help bring her in out of the cold.

"Ruth, get a can of tuna fish out of the cupboard. Take it to Mr. Mountfort's back yard. Open it, leave it on the ground and come back here.

"Then, um, maybe you should call her… Call Mr. Foster. Annie may want to talk to him." She stroked the quivering form a bit. "Later, when she's calmed down. Hush, it'll be okay. You can still rescue Mia."

She lifted the sylph up to her face and lifted the tiny chin with one finger. "We will rescue Mia. Okay?"

"Oh, oh, okay," Annie sobbed. Momma moved to the rocking chair and cuddled Annie close.

Her stunned family shook themselves and scattered to do her bidding.

------

Ray and Denise walked up to the Trace house. His hand reached to grasp his wife's.

"Are you going to be okay?" she asked, giving him a little squeeze.

"Probably," he said. Just before they knocked, Ruth opened the door and stepped out. "Hey! The phone call was… Who's Mia?"

"In a second," Ruth said. "Um. Momma's…"

"Bitchy?" Ray asked. Denise slapped the back of his head firmly. Ruth winced.

"No, Ray. She, uh. She's comforting Annie. Touching her. She picked her up and held her."

Ray's face went blank for a moment. Ruth crossed her fingers behind her back. Denise readied herself to slap him again.

"Well, that's great," he finally said. A smile broke out across his face. "That's really great." His smile got wider. "And you were worried that I'd yank my pet out of her grip, ruining a 20-years-late reunion?" She nodded slowly. "Don’t worry," he promised her, "I'll behave." He reached for the doorknob.

"One more thing," Ruth said. She looked even more apprehensive. "Momma can't bring herself to refer to you as Annie's master. Or owner. Is that-?"

"Not a problem," Denise said. "Annie mostly calls him master to be sarcastic." Ray nodded. She finally let them inside.

--------

They were back at the dining table. Annie was cuddled up in Momma's hands. She'd stopped crying but wasn't completely over the turmoil.

Ruth told the story, glancing down at the sylph to be sure she was getting it right. Poppa said he'd been unable to find any way to contact Mia's parents.

"Oh, we can use the Registry for that," Ray said. "Part of the reason it was created was to help you find out if relatives had shrunk. Mia disappeared on The Day, so she's almost certainly been listed."

"Can you find them after all this time?" Denise asked.

"Probably. I'd, uh… I'd wait until we actually had Mia…inside, first."

"In case she runs away?" Ruth asked.

"In case I didn't really see Mia," Annie said. Ray nodded. "It was dark, I was scared, it may… It may be a sylph that just looks like her."

"Well, she still deserves to be rescued," Denise said.

"So how do we go about that?" Momma asked.

------

Annie dragged the box down the path. There'd been no sign that Mia had returned to the little bedroom in the house.

She may have poked at the tuna fish, but after some animals had been at it, no one could tell.

As she approached the spot she'd been knocked down, Annie started to talk. "Mia? It's me, Annie. Are you there?"

She cleared the bushes and walked to where the path faded into the grass. "I brought you something! It's not a trap. I wanna rescue you. I wanna help you. I wanna… Apologize.

"I didn't know you were there when the cat was chasing me…"

She opened the cardboard box as she spoke. While describing her nightmares about The Day, she slid a cigarette out. It was the same brand they'd favored in high school. She scraped some of the tobacco out into a square of very fine Kleenex.

She hadn't smoked since The Day, and had never rolled her own. But she went slowly and methodically, rolling it as Poppa had taught her the night before.

No one in the house had suspected he had that skill. He looked guilty until his wife had hugged him, forgiving him any past vices that helped them today. Annie heroically resisted the urge to ask the woman for some ID.

Annie slid the electric lighter out of the box and carefully lit her ugly little unfiltered cig.

Not knowing what Mountfort had or hadn't told Mia, she described the Sylph Act, her life with Ray, her friends Pet, Buttercup, Kelly, Cherry, Amelia.

She waved the cig around and tried to remind Mia of their last day together. The big part, not the part after the shrinking.

She circled as she talked. At one point she saw the shadows under a bush move. She kept moving, kept turning.

Her eyes were watering, even though she only lightly sucked on the cigarette. It was hard not to cough. And the tiny things burned quick, like a fuse.

She was rolling her fourth one when she suddenly wasn't alone.

Mia stood within arm's reach. She had the glass knife in her hand, but there was no sheath so it may not have been a threat.

The scar was an ugly red in the sunshine. She stared at Annie. The other sylph stood slowly and offered the cigarette.

Mia took it, lit it and comfortably sucked on it. "Next time," she said in a rough voice, "use the paper from a Hershey's Kiss. Works wonderfully."

"Plus, you have a butt-ton of chocolate," Annie said. The joke fell flat and her smile wilted.

They stared at each other as Mia puffed. Annie wasn't sure if Mia was trying to out-tough her or just convince herself that Annie was really there.

"Where's my Master?" Mia finally asked.

"Mountfort died. His, uh, nephew's boxing the place up." Mia nodded. "He sold you to my owner. Well, they have a contract. As Mountfort's executor, he forgoes all rights and privileges of ownership and other lawyer blah, blah, blah, for the price of one dollar to Ray."

"Sold?" Mia growled.

"That means Ray can make sure no one has a legal claim on you when he transfers ownership of you to your parents," Annie said cheerfully. "It's a good thing! Really!"

"Parents?" Mia said softly.

"Well, we're trying to find them." She sat on the cigarette box and tapped the spot beside her. "They were looking for you after The Day, but I thought you were… Mia?"

"MY parents?" Mia asked.

"Yeah. Last I saw, they were okay, why?"

Mia cried out wordlessly, then shot to her feet and took off running. Annie gave chase almost immediately. But once the other sylph disappeared into the tall grass between rose bushes, she was gone.

Annie cast back and forth for a bit. But there was no sight or sound from the other woman.

She didn't give up, but after a while Ray came out and picked her up.

------

Sunday afternoon, Ray pulled up to the Trace house with a familiar truck. Ruth was running out to the curb before he was out of the cab.

"Red Teenager Needs Food Badly," she squealed. He held up a hand and she skidded to a stop. Behind her, the rest of the family was coming out onto the porch.

"Denise and Ray," Ray said, "Are going to be running the remotes. The Teenager will be carrying the remotes back and forth. The Teenager will not be risking microsomatognosia. The Teenager will be physically restrained if she gives any indication of breaking this rule."

Ruth sagged, the very picture of rejection and dejection. Momma put an arm over her shoulders. "What's risking micromat… What's that?"

"Permanent psychological damage," Ray said. "Something we didn't know about when we let Ruth use this last time. I am mortified, and guilt stricken over it. And I'm certainly not going to let her risk it."

"Of course not," May said with a nod.

"But you'll risk it," Gerald said.

"For Annie's friend's sake," Denise said. "Sure."

Poppa nodded, looking from his daughter in his hand to his daughter standing by his wife. "If you need a third operator," he started to say.

"Poppa, NO!" Annie called. "These two haven't gone crazy, so they're probably not going to. You can't risk it!"

"I didn’t go crazy!" Ruth pointed out. The adults all shushed her.

"It's not a risk we're willing to take," Ray said. Everyone else, including Annie, nodded.

"Aaaargh!" Ruth moaned. "Well, can I at least carry the remotes?"

"That's the plan," Ray said. He locked the cab and moved to open the side door.

"Hey, Ray?" Ruth asked. "If this thing is so dangerous, how do you get to play with it?"

"Oh. I've been sinking the residuals from Annie's TV show into stock where I work. I own about 48% of the company right now."

Denise went straight to one of the couches and started connecting herself. Ray gave a short explanation to the Traces who looked around the space with wide eyes.

"What do I set the timer for?" Ruth asked.

"Well, we replaced the old couches with ergonomic ones, I improved the air conditioning, and there's a pile of energy drinks and snacks under each chair. Four hours?" Denise nodded.

Then they went quiet. At the foot of the two chairs, tiny figures started to move.

Ruth let Annie, Little Ray and Little Denise down in the back yard. "What do I do?" she asked.

"Go inside," Ray said. "Listen to the radio for pitiful cries for help."

"Or success," Annie said, a little bit of challenge in her voice.

"Yes, Annie," Denise said. "That went without saying." She looked around as the Teen retreated. "So, clamps crossed!"

Annie hefted her bag of tobacco and strip of Kiss paper. "I'm going to search the rose bushes. Ray, you try the hedges. Denise, I'd appreciate it if you'd look around that tree in the corner of the yard?"

"You ask her but order me?" Ray complained. But he was already walking in the direction she'd indicated.

"Suck it up, revered master," Annie called after him. She gathered Denise's remote into a quick hug. "Thanks," she whispered into the audio pick-up.

"You'd do the same for Pet," Denise replied, returning the hug.

"Alice in Wonderland syndrome would be redundant for me," Annie pointed out. She released her co-owner.

"You know what I mean," Denise said.

They split up.

As Denise approached the tree, she remembered Annie's comment in the arboretum. Jack's motivations in climbing the beanstalk made a lot more sense at the foot of a giant tree.

She circled the roots, eyes out for burrows or hiding places in the roots. Nothing came to eye, so she looked up again.

The bark was full of handholds for one at her size. And the view from the branches would be quite majestic. She shrugged and started up the slightly tilted bole.

She paused every so often to look around. The house was a distant, stucco mountain. The ground below was like the view of a valley from a scenic overlook. And she was still below her 'real' eye level.

The first branch had some weird markings on the bark. Denise realized she was looking at wear patterns. Someone had been here, several times.

She slowly pulled herself up and looked around. At the first fork there was something like a treehouse. She approached slowly.

There was a wide but low structure of Popsicle sticks and wire. Wire mesh covered the windows. She could see that there was an interior, but not into the interior.

About a foot from the fork, she stopped and called out. "Knock, knock."

"Who's there?" Mia answered instantly. "Argh. I mean, go away."

"Go away who?" Denise replied. There was a stretch of silence. A piece of mesh got pulled back. The disfigured face peered out suspiciously.

"What the hell are you supposed to be?"

"A friend," Denise replied. "If you'll let me."

Mia stared for a bit, then rolled her eye. "Well, come on in then, if you're not going to shut up about it."

They sat at opposite ends of the treehouse. Denise explained about the remotes, and her relationship to Annie. And how they were hoping to rescue Mia.

And how many people were in the kitchen, trying to look through the window and see if the rescue was working.

Mia looked out the mesh for a bit. Denise sat patiently.

"Master told me that everyone in my family shrank," she finally said. "That it was a genetic response to…something. That the government…" She turned and sat down beside her friend. "That the government was killing the little people off. To prevent the spread of the condition.

"He saved me. Kept me instead of reporting me. I couldn't leave the bedroom. After Kitty died, I got a bit more freedom. But I couldn't leave the yard or the government would find me and.."

"Well, Mia. Your Master lied." Mia nodded slowly.

"Are you going to come inside with me?" Denise asked. Mia shook her head. "Why not?" There was no response.

"Um, well, if you're going to leave it for me to guess… Are you afraid they'll be frightened by your scar?" Mia stroked her cheek but didn't say anything.

"Pet? Is it because a sylph's legal status is that of an exotic pet? That your parents won't want to…own their daughter?"

"I've been a naughty girl," Mia said. "The things Master made me do… Or he'd turn me over to the Registry. I can't face my parents after that. They'll know… I've been… I can't."

"You're saying your parents are jerks."

Mia's head spun around. "No! They're not!"

"You've been a victim!" Denise said, a little louder than she intended. "You didn't ask to shrink, you didn't ask to be mauled by Kitty, you didn't ask to be a prisoner of a, a, dirty old man, I take it?

"Hell, girl, if your parents are going to treat you like a slut for surviving, maybe you shouldn't go home to them!"

In her earphones, Ray cautioned his wife to tone it down, just a bit. She ignored him.

"I mean sure," she went on. "It's possible they'll forgive you anything, just to have a chance to hug you, kiss you, make your favorite…uh…"

"Blintzes!" Annie suggested on the radio.

"Fruit blintzes."

"Cheese," Mia corrected quietly. "Cheese blintzes. My favorite."

"Right. Well, who'd want that!? Living with people who've missed you for years. Being part of their lives again.

"You can stay with us. We won't even tell them you're alive. Then you'll never have to worry about them being judgmental.

"Huh," she snorted. "Judgmental parents. Who'd imagine having to live with something like that?" She ignored the line of tears on the sylph's face.

"Or," she said. "I suppose you can stay here. We'll put a lien on the place, owners must put a tin of tuna fish out every, what, week or so?"

"Denise?" Annie asked. Denise sat quietly, watching Mia think, shake her head and think some more.

The woman had her remote crawl over to sit beside the sylph. Mia didn't move.

"What's the problem, Mia? What are you afraid of?" Nothing. "Or guilty about?" Denise guessed. Mia burst into tears. The human gathered her to her shoulder and held her.

Mia finally turned her one eye up. It was leaking a steady stream of tears. "Annie," she said. "I thought Annie was dead."

"What? She thought you were dead, too, but you know, that scream-" Mia was shaking her head.

"When I woke up on the patio… I thought the cat had eaten her. That's why it wasn't hungry enough to eat me."

"Oh. Well, yeah, I can see that."

"But I was happy that she was dead," she cried. Denise hugged the sylph closer.

"It's okay. It's okay to be glad you survived."

"No, no, no!" Mia waved in the direction of the house. "At first, I was glad I was alive, even if it was at the cost of her life. Basic survival, you know? But then… With Master… I was glad she was dead. Because she was beyond the pain."

Denise started to cry a little bit, too. "Mia. Oh, Mia, Mia, Mia."

After a few moments of stroking the unruly hair, Denise shifted her speaker to the other's ear. "You have to know that Annie will forgive you."

"I will!" Annie's voice said. "I do! Tell her I do!"

"Not just yet," Ray said.

"I can't face her," Mia was saying. "I wanted my friend dead. I can't…"

"Well, she's spent the last twenty thinking she survived because you died. And feeling guilty about leading the cat to you, even if it was accidental. I think you're even on that score." She lifted the dirty chin to face her screen. "She is just so glad you're alive. Like your family will be. Everything else is just so much leaf clutter."

Mia bent her head back down and sobbed, but not as loudly.

They stayed there until Ruth tiptoed out of the house and stood under the branch. "Denise? Is it okay?"

"That's Annie's little sister," Denise said. "You'll like her. Come on. Please?"

Mia followed in a daze as Denise led her out of the shelter.

They climbed down to where Ruth could reach them. Mia tensed but didn't jump away from the teen's hand.

She shoved Denise's remote unceremoniously into a pocket, then cupped both hands around Mia.

She stepped over to the back door of the house and placed the sylph down next to Annie.

Mia started to say something, then she just started crying. Annie took her into a silent embrace. They stayed there until Ray and Denise arrived, sweating but smiling.

Ray put the carrier down and Annie led her friend inside.

----------

Ruth brought her laptop out to the kitchen. Ray started looking for the Coles while Annie and Ruth helped Mia bathe and dress.

Momma and Poppa stayed near Ray in case he needed help.

"Oh, hey!" he announced. "They have a link to a family website." He clicked on that and surfed to the Cole's Missing Sylph page.

He found the 'Contact Us' link and started a conversation.

"They've moved to Tampa," he announced as the girl carried the sylphs back into the room.

Mia was wearing a track suit that Ruth had bought as a gift for Annie. She looked a lot better.

Ray thought she'd look very hot with an eye patch, but would suffer a hot poker before saying it out loud.

"You found my parents?" Mia asked. Denise put her down on the table. Then she realized the poor girl was surrounded by five giants, more than she'd ever seen in her life.

She touched Gerald and May on the shoulder and nodded her head. They followed her around the table, taking chairs and sitting down.

"Ah," May said when she realized what Denise was doing. She pat Denise on the shoulder. "Good idea."

Ray was recounting the correspondence so far. "I told them we'd found their missing daughter, and something of your living conditions.

"Turns out I'm not the first to tell them you've been found. They've grown suspicious of people telling them what they want to hear.

"I just told them we'd gotten you back to Annie's parents' place. We're waiting for their response."

As they waited, Ray surreptitiously took Mia's picture with the webcam. He wasn't sure if the sylph was self-conscious about her disfigurement, or if she'd give permission for a picture.

But he was sure that the parents deserved a chance to have any horrified reactions out of the way before Mia saw them for the first time.

The waiting was clearly getting to everyone, especially Mia. She started to pace, then noticed that everyone was watching her. She sat down, but they still stared.

Then she picked up the tiny folding chair and turned it to the wall. Annie moved her chair up beside her.

"We need ice cream!" Denise announced suddenly. She shot to her feet and turned to the kitchen.

"We don't have any," May said, popping to her own feet and aiming for the door.

"I'll go get some!" Denise replied, drawing out her keys.

"I'll come with you," May announced.

"I'll drive," Gerald said, grabbing his hat.

"I think we've got you parked in," Denise said.

"Then I'll pay," he replied. In a matter of two minutes there were only two sylphs and two humans left in the house.

Mia stared at the big empty chairs in surprise. "What the hell just happened?"

"They didn't want to crowd you," Annie said. "And they wanted to do…something."

"Anything," Ray added.

"Kind of like when they told expectant fathers to boil towels," Annie said. "It makes him feel like he's helping."

Ray's gaze was locked on the laptop. Ruth had stepped around to take Momma's chair and look over his shoulder.

Annie drew her friend to the shadow of the laptop's display. When Ray stopped pounding the keys, it was almost easy to ignore the presence of the two.

Mia visibly relaxed. Annie gave her a hug. "They'll probably come back with about forty flavors of ice cream," she said. "And when they do, you look at the bags, put on that puppy-dog look of yours, and say, 'No toppings?' I'll bet you anything they'll all stampede out again."

Mia giggled at the thought. In that moment, Annie saw a glimpse of her high school co-conspirator.

"Annie?" Ruth said. The sylph backed away from her friend until she could look around the screen. Her sister was pointing at the display.

"What?"

"That's what it says! The note from Mrs. Cole. Annie, question mark, is the subject line."

"I guess they remember you being Mia's friend," Ray said.

"More than that. Okay. Hit reply and take this down." Ray's hands poised over the keys. There was a giggle. At the corner of the laptop, Mia was watching a tiny woman command a giant. And he obeyed.

"Mr. and Mrs. Cole. You came to the Foster's house a few weeks after The Day. You told me you found my and Mia's gym clothes on the field. You knew we'd smoked-"

"They KNEW?!" Mia ducked back down out of sight. Ruth tried very hard to keep from laughing. Annie kept on dictating.

"A cigarette. I kept saying I never saw Mia. Which was sort of true. And sort of not. And you knew that. And you couldn't get the full story out of me.

"I'm very sorry, but I thought it was too horrible to share. Now, though, I find out that there's a happy ending to the nightmare.

"Mia's alive. Her hair's a mess, like always, and she-"

"ANNIE!"

"It is. It always was if you didn't take special care of it. That's how they'll know it's really me and it's really you." She looked back at the screen and opened her mouth to continue. "Hey! Don't write down what SHE said! This is my email! Ruth, hit him!"

Ruth shook her head. Ray still deleted the extraneous lines without the physical threat.

Annie told them a few details about birthday parties and dances that she and Mia shared. She stood silent as she watched Ray attach the photo. Then he hit send.

He sat very still for a second. "This is silly," he finally said. "Holding my breath won't make their response come any faster." He took a deep, slow breath.

Then he stared at Ruth. She followed his example and relaxed a bit in her chair. "Sylphs, too," he ordered. Annie sucked in a lung-full. She didn't feel a lot better, so she tried it again. In moments, she was hyperventilating.

Ray laughed gently and lifted her to his chest. Mia stepped out enough to see him press his pet to his heartbeat. It calmed her down like Valium.

"You wanna try it?" Annie asked as Ray put her back on the table. Mia shook her head, a small smile on her face.

There was a beep and Ray sat up straight. His hand went for the touch pad. "Mia? Do you want to read this with us, or would you like me to read it first?"

"Can't she see it alone?" Ruth asked.

"Oh, yeah, of course," Ray said. He moved the cursor, then stood up. "Press that button right there and it'll open." He and Ruth walked to the other side of the table.

Mia walked over to the button he'd indicated. She looked at the key, then the screen. Then she waved Annie over.

Annie held her hand and smiled. "Go ahead."

---------

"They live in Tampa, now," Annie reported as the others packed ice cream in the freezer. They had brought back seventeen small tubs, with six kinds of toppings.

Denise had pointed out that emotional roller coasters built up an appetite and they had loaded up.

"They need to gas up the car, and they'll be coming straight here."

"That's about a five-hour drive," Gerald said. "So, figure they'll be here in four?"

Ray nodded. "Yeah. I'm going to take the remotes back while we're waiting."

"Don't you want ice cream?" May asked as she set out the bowls.

"Maybe when I get back," he said. He unplugged the recharger they hadn't needed and started stowing it.

Annie was breaking off bits of a waffle cone to make spoons when she noticed Mia was quivering again.

"What's up?" she asked.

"They're gonna see me," Mia whispered.

"Your hair? Oh, they're not going to care about that wren's nest you call-"

"MY SCAR!" Mia shouted. Then she saw everyone staring at her and covered her face with her hands.

"Well, pirates are back in style," Denise said. "You'd looked wicked with an eye patch." She turned to look at her husband. "What's with the funny gasp, lover?"

"Nothing," he said. "Gas."

"AAAAAAAAAnyway," Annie said, "they may hiss because it's clear that someone they love was in pain, once, but they're not going to love you any less."

"I’m just afraid they're going to…"

"Barf?" Ruth asked. Momma hissed. Poppa frowned. Denise clapped a hand to her forehead.

Mia nodded. "Okay. Now I KNOW she's your sister."

------

Ray made several copies of the sales agreement with Potter, along with the transfer of custody from him to Mia's parents. He also added a few sheets with his and Annie's phone numbers, emails and the URL of his sylph's blog.

Mia still wasn't sure what all of it was, but thanked him when he put the manila envelope down beside her.

He checked his watch. "They should be getting close to the city. They were going to call my cell when they crossed the St. James. Annie, do they know how to find your house?"

"They haven't been here since The Day," she said. "But you can give them the directions."

"We could meet them at their old house," Denise suggested. "They can find that."

"Oh, they tore down that whole neighborhood," May said. "It's a strip mall, now." Annie gasped a bit as Mia gave her hand a sudden squeeze.

"I don't want to wait for them in a Mickey D's lot," Ray said. "They may not recognize the place."

"I know one place they'll be sure to be able to find," Gerald said. "The place Mia went missing."

------

"Right there!" Annie said. Ray nodded and set the carrier down on the bench. The sylphs stepped out and looked around the dark field.

This was the spot that their gym clothes had been found after The Day. It did and didn't look like it had on their last day as students.

The strip of trees, bushes and rushes that Ray had found Annie in were mowed and tended. There was no way to guess where Kitty had pounced on Mia, or even where they had actually shrank.

"No place to sneak a smoke," Mia said. "Probably healthier."

"But that would have meant Meat found us before Ray did," Annie replied. Mia frowned. Annie posed her fingers in a ward-off-evil cross.

The Traces hovered some distance away. It was Ruth's school, so the nostalgia stretch was only as far back as last Friday for her. Her parents had been to her science fair a month before that.

Denise was about halfway between them and her husband, walking slowly forward. His eyes were aimed at the ground here, but seeing the past. She wondered what he was seeing.

Headlights drew their attention as another car pulled into the parking lot. It idled for a long moment. Then the door opened.

"Mia?" a woman's voice called.

-------

No one in either car had dry eyes on the ride back to the Trace's home. As the six people stumbled or were carried inside, Ruth thought it was sweet.

It was also funny, the way Poppa and Ray gave each other a wide berth. They still didn't exactly like each other, but they were each giving the other man privacy in the face of something so unmanly as tears.

Mia's reunion was something Ruth was going to have to remember, because there was no way she could accurately describe it in her blog.

She recalled that everyone had been hugging everyone else, and thanking everyone else, and forgiving everyone else.

Everyone had been crying or pretending not to cry. It was like the last day of a meditation course, on mood elevators. With booze.

Individual moments were blurred into a chaotic mass of memory. The fact that it was three in the morning didn't help.

"Oh, man, I have to be in school in four hours!" she realized out loud.

"You're not supposed to sleep during sleepovers," Denise pointed out. "That's why they call it a sleepover."

"I can't put my finger on it," Ray said, "but there's something about that statement…"

"I'll write you a note," Momma said offhandedly. Ruth nodded, then did a double take. She never got to take a day off of school without broken bones or a temperature of one fifty.

But this weekend, she realized, that wasn't even the most out-of-character thing Momma had ever said. It didn't even make the top ten.

Still, the weekend was over, and so was the sleepover. She glanced over the adults as they settled into chairs at the table. "Who's got Annie?" she asked.

"Mrph mumpf?" her pocket asked.

"OH!" She pet the outside of her shirt gently, feeling the sylph stir slightly. She was more tired than she thought.

"I'll pack her stuff up right away," Ruth promised Ray. "Then you guys can get her home."

Ray glanced from Ruth to May to Gerald. "She is home. One of them, anyway." The motion in her pocket became more energetic.

"You know, she's been talking up this sleepover for a month. What she was going to do, where she was going to sleep, who she was going to gossip about… She really can't come home until she's got that out of her system."

"That's sweet," Denise said.

"Self preservation," Ray said. "My sylph will be impossible to live with, if she blames me for taking her home before she has a popcorn fight.

"So, you might as well keep her for the week. Recover from this weekend, call Mia on the phone once she's home, rent some movies, have the official 'sleepover' next weekend." He turned to May. "If that's okay with you, May?"

Then it was Momma's turn to pretend not to cry. "That would be…lovely, Ray."

Annie rose slowly into view, rubbing her eyes. "Did my master say something…nice?"

"Yes, he…" Ruth started to say.

"Nice? No. But if I take you home, I risk retribution from you and your sugar powder supplier when-" His voice faltered. He cleared his throat twice but couldn't continue.

Ruth put Annie down on the table. She also seemed to be unable to speak. She ran over to Ray. He picked her up.

Ruth had kissed Annie a few times. On top of the head, mostly. And her sister had smacked her knuckles and cheeks several times. She'd never seen Annie and Ray share an intimate kiss.

He lifted his pet to his face and tilted his head. Annie put hands on his chin and leaned a bit. Her face rested between his lips for a moment, with a gentle humming sound.

Denise smiled and rubbed her husband's shoulder. Ruth sighed. Ray handed her sister over and nodded his head towards the hallway.

"You'd both better get to bed," Gerald said. Ruth kissed Ray on the forehead, then circled the table to kiss her parents goodnight.

She tucked her sister into her bed on top of the carrier. They'd moved it there the first night so they could easily see each other.

As she got ready for bed, she thought about the weekend.

"Annie?"

"Mmmm?"

"Now that Momma doesn't think you're…evil? Maybe Poppa could offer Ray some…"

"Don't wanna do that," Annie replied. Ruth leaned over the carrier. Annie hadn't opened her eyes.

"Why not?"

"Lotsa reasons," the little thing murmured. Ruth leaned down closer to hear. "I wanna visit, be a family member. If you guys own me… It'll change things. Like the difference…from living together to being married."

"No, Annie!" Ruth protested.

"Think about it," Annie said. "If you or Momma or Poppa could win a fight because they own me? That would suck."

"RAY never wins fights because he owns you!"

"Shoulda seen us in high school," she said. "When the cage door really locked."

"But Annie," Ruth started to say. The other one sat up and reached out to give a giant knuckle a squeeze.

"I've been thinking about this since I met you. Trust me." She yawned, stretching theatrically. "We'll talk tomorrow."

She rolled back onto her side. Ruth shook her head and walked over to her closet.

"Besides," Annie muttered, too low for her sister to hear, "the first thing Ray's gonna wanna say is, 'you had your chance.' And nothing good will come after that."



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