Annie XXXV: Scars

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

“I don’t think I’ve ever been in this room,” Annie said. “Even when we lived her. Isn’t that odd?“ Ray propped the door open and groped around for the light. “All those years, I don’t think I even wondered what was behind this door.”

“Well, Mom never really encouraged me to come in here. Lots of family treasures she didn’t want me to break.” He found the string and snapped the light on. Annie’s first impression was tiers and tiers of dust. “Even Dad has to get permission to enter.”

“Okay, do we know what we’re looking for?” she asked.

“Mom said a blue box.” He stood in the center of the store room and turned around. “But does she mean blue, now, or blue twenty years ago?” Annie pointed at a box on a high shelf. Ray nodded and put her down on top of a chest of drawers.

She looked around as he wrestled the possible target from it’s location. Just off the end of the dresser top was an interesting looking container. She walked closer. It was wrapped in brown paper, secured with huge amounts of reinforced brown tape. One corner had apparently been cut open, then sealed with masking tape. That tape was yellowed and peeling back from the paper.

There was a shipping address she couldn’t read under the dust. She jumped over to the box and knelt by the corner. There was nothing visible between the strips of tape.

“Well, that’s not the tureen,” Ray was saying. “Maybe…”

“Ray, what’s in-” she started to ask. The cardboard she was kneeling on caved under her. She pitched forward, smashing through the tape and dropping headfirst into the container.

Annie was dumped into some powdery packing material. The dust or desiccated foam or rotted cardboard crusted over her skin. She fought and twisted, trying to place her feet. When she found the bottom she was able to stand. The dust came up to her armpits. It was darker than the inside of gator’s mouth as it tried to eat a tire in the bayou at midnight.

“Ra-” she started to scream. Then she simultaneously sneezed, coughed and found something in her eye kept her from blinking.

“Annie?” Ray’s voice came. She turned towards the sound and coughed as loud as she could. What little light shown through the hole she’d fallen through was blocked, then familiar fingers wrapped around her. He lifted her to the dresser, wiping dust off of the corner before setting her down.

“What the-” She paused to spit, hacking to get rid of dust from the back of her throat. Whatever the packing material was, it was everywhere. She shook her skirt, trying to clear it. “What was that? World War One packing peanuts?”

Ray wiped off the top of the package and read the address. “That’s the house. It’s from…Oh.”

“Oh, what?” Annie asked, spitting, shaking, stamping and kicking.

“Oh, as in, ‘oh, that’s Grandpa,’ oh,” He replied.

“Grandpa’s what?” she asked.

“Grandpa’s ashes.,” Ray said. He put the box down and readied himself for outrage. Instead of shouting, though, Annie froze in position. There was a tiny ‘eep’ from the back of her throat, then nothing. “Well, from all I know about him, the dirty old goat won’t mind being up your skirt, so…”

The sylph wasn’t moving at all. She’d gone nearly catatonic. “Annie?” he called, bending down. His pet’s face looked anguished. He reached out to touch her.

“Get him off me,” she whined. He almost couldn’t hear her. “Off me. Off me. Off me.”

“Okay,” he said. He brushed at her clothes. Tears flowed over her cheeks and her nose ran. “We’ll get you cleaned…” He noticed another fluid track in the ashes. Annie had peed herself. He grabbed her tight and rushed to the stairs.

In the bathroom below he stood her under the tap. Water flowed over her hair and shoulders. He pulled her hands over her head and pulled her shirt off. The skirt and her panties were quickly removed as well. He used far too much soap for her tiny form, but he figured overindulging would help her feel cleaner, sooner.

She collapsed into his palm as he tried to shampoo her hair. Racking sobs burst out of her lungs. Ray made reassuring noises and constantly moved soap suds around. When she started running fingers through her own hair he started rinsing her off.

Eventually, Annie calmed down. He carefully maintained physical contact with her even after all the soap was gone. Aside from the hand cupping her, he kept a finger from the other hand in her sight at all times.

“Thanks,” she finally said.

“No problem,” he said.

“OH!” She sat up and looked over at the sink. “Your grandfather! He’s down the drain!”

“Most excitement he’s had in forty years, or so. He’ll be fine. Are you okay?” He grabbed a wash cloth and started to wrap it around her.

“What in the HELL are your grandfather’s ashes doing in the attic?”

Ray shrugged. “Committee rules.” She stared. “Okay, shortly after my parents married, Grandpa Walt died. Dad couldn’t get off work, so Mom attended the funeral.”

“Dad couldn’t get off work for his father’s funeral?” she said skeptically.

“How about if I say that Dad couldn’t leave the job that was the only thing between him and the draft board? During Viet Nam? Make more sense?”

“Still…”

“ANYWAY,” he soldiered on, “when they tried to decide what to do with the ashes, Dad’s family got together. Without Mom, since she wasn’t a blood relative. And, like most committees do, the responsibility was shifted to the guy that didn’t show up. A month after the funeral, Dad opens a package. Realizes what it is, tapes it shut, throws it into the attic.”

“Why didn’t he put him in an urn? Or spread the ashes? Somewhere? ANYWHERE!?!?”

“It’s on his to-do list,” Ray shrugged.

“I lived in a house with HUMAN REMAINS? In CARDBOARD?” she shouted. He refused to get excited over her drama. He stepped out of the bathroom and sat down on the stairs. The sylph was wrapped in the cloth, cupped in his hands. He regarded her critically.

“Death really wigs you out, doesn’t it?” he finally asked.

“No,” she protested. “Dead bodies wig me out.”

“You seemed okay at Chuck’s funeral,” he said thoughtfully.

“One,” she said. The cloth rustled as she tried to free her hand. Ray had wrapped her pretty tightly, hoping to help her feel secure. He shifted her to one hand and raised one finger. She nodded. “One,” she repeated, “I was being strong for Pet.”

“Okay,” he nodded.

“Two,” she called, and he raised another finger. “Chuck was embalmed. In a coffin. I never touched him.” She shivered at the memory of swimming in Grandpa Walt’s ashes.

“And Chuck wasn’t… He wasn’t…” She paused, closing her eyes. Ray waited patiently. “He wasn’t half-eaten by a cat.” Ray nodded, squeezing gently on her cocoon. The hug reduced her shivering. “Dead bodies… They always take me back to The Day. And the night. And Mia. The first person I knew that died.” Ray hugged the sylph to his chest, gently stroking her hair with a fingertip.

She cried softly into his shirt for a while. Then she wormed one hand up to wipe her eyes. “What? Not going to remind me that Mia didn’t really die?”

“For twenty, what, twenty seven years, you thought she had,” he said. The voice rumbled through his chest, shaking her own torso. The familiar sensation wiped out the last trace of her shivering. “That’s going to leave scars.”

“You can say psychoses, Master,” she said.

“I doubt it’s worse than a neuroses,” he said. “But whatever it is, it’s yours, and honestly earned. So, if you don’t want to go back into the store room, you don’t have to. And if you don’t want to ever touch those clothes again-”

“Eugh!”

“Okay. I’ll get rid of them. And if you want, I’ll shave off your hair so Grandpa-”

“The shampoo worked fine on my hair, thanks,” she said with a small laugh.

“Sure? I mean, I don’t mind shaving you bald. So you’ll feel better.” She glared. “Okay. I’ll put you in my room until I find the tureen. And, uh clean everything up.”

He put her by the cage, then put his phone down on the dresser. She looked up at him questioningly. “Well, if you wanna call Denise, tell her we’ll be a little late getting the tureen over to the VFW hall?" Before he walked out, he opened the drawer beneath her. The sylphs maintained a small wardrobe here at the folks' and he put some clothes where she could reach.

Then he walked out. She dutifully relayed the message to Denise. Her co-owner must have noticed something in her voice and set her phone and Pet down somewhere. Annie mostly listened to Pet describe the preparations for the family reunion, the gentle voice flowing over her and carrying away all her stress.

She was so relaxed that she eventually made a suggestion. Ray made her repeat it three times.

-------------

Mom’s only remark at getting the crystal soup tureen was, ‘Finally.’ Dad was about to joke at how long Ray took when he saw the other box.

“What the hell is that doing here?”

“Annie pointed out,“ Ray said, “Grandpa hasn’t been to a reunion in a while.” He slid the box under the table next to the beer cooler. “Just, uh, don’t tell anyone what’s here. And don’t mention it to Annie. Or Pet. Ever.”

Victor nodded silently. Ray went over to help start some of the barbeques set up. His father remained, staring at the box just visible under the table cloth. He knelt down to tuck it out of sight. Annie, on top of the fridge where Pet was pointing out everything she’d missed since the phone call, was the only one that saw Victor pour some beer into his father’s ashes.

--------

A distant cousin brought her own sylph, specifically looking to meet Annie and Pet. “Cruiser‘s… Well, I rescued Cruiser from a bad owner,” Tammy explained.

“Poor guy,” Pet said. She glanced over at the carrier in the far corner. Tammy was trying to prepare them to meat the reclusive sylph. The distance wasn’t enough to keep Cruiser from overhearing, not with sylph hearing, but the noise of the reunion might be. A little face appeared in one corner of the only window. Pet waved. The face disappeared.

“Who named him Cruiser?” Annie asked.

“He did. I said we could change his name, so he wouldn’t be reminded of being Tiny Totter. And, we were playing Battleship as part of his therapy. I know it sounds weird, but if it helps him-” Ray snorted as Annie held up a hand.

“Names aren’t an issue around here,” she told Tammy. “I know a sylph named Poultry.”

“And there’s me!” Pet said cheerfully.

“They’re very nonjudgmental,” Ray said.

“Yeah,“ Annie said, “we always say,“ and snapped her fingers. Ray reached his hand to her, palm down. She slid onto his middle finger as if riding a horse. Pet giggled at their rehearsed act as Ray lifted his sylph way over his head.

She looked down on Tammy, slapped Ray’s hand and said, “You must be this tall to look down on people!”

----------

Annie knocked at the carrier door. “Cruiser? Can we come in?”

“Um…” he said, somewhere in the dark space.

“No pressure,” Pet said. She sat down on the shelf right outside the door. Annie sat beside her. They watched the reunion for a while. Tammy sat at the end of a table nearby. Ray brought her a plate of food so she wouldn’t leave Cruiser all alone.

“Do you guys play…Battleship?” Cruiser asked after a while.

“I do,” Annie said. “But Pet’s never learned. Pet’s eyebrows went up at that outrageous lie, but she didn’t turn to look at the other sylph.

A few minutes later, Ray had finished helping them set up the Battleship set Tammy always carried around. Annie judged it satisfactory and gestured dismissively. He bowed deeply, then walked off to find Denise.

Cruiser stood at the door of his carrier, watching the whole process. “He does what you say?”

“When he feels like it,” Pet said before Annie could make any grander claims. She held out her hand and waved at the game board. “Teach me?”

He took her hand and stepped slowly out of the carrier. Pet got a good look at him for the first time. There were several scars showing on his face and neck. He cringed, waiting for them to react to the damage. After seeing the pics of Mia, Pet hardly flinched. Annie never paused.

“So. You want the side nearest your carrier, Cruiser?” she asked. “So you’ll feel safer with the bolt hole? It’s okay with me if you do.”

“Yes,” he said softly.

“Okay,” Annie replied. She offered her hand. “May the better Fleet win.“ He took her hand and she shook it firmly. Then she stepped closer to the other sylph, grabbed his shoulders and pushed them upwards. “Stand up straight. Show Pet how an Admiral approaches the Fleet.” Then she turned to go to the other board. “I get to shoot first!“ He stared at her back, jaw dropped open.

“Yeah,” Pet said. “Lotsa people do that.” She picked up the plastic aircraft carrier. “Where does this go?”

-------------

Annie didn't try her best to defeat Cruiser. It seemed he had a lot of his self esteem tied up in the game.

On the other hand, she wasn't about to make it too easy for him, either. She spent most of her turns watching the reunion go on around them. It gave Cruiser and Pet a chance to talk.

The sylphs were at similar ages. And Annie had no illusions about how much easier Pet was to talk to.

After a more-than-decent interval, she'd turn and make a snap decision on targeting. She was holding her own, she judged as she slid a red peg into place. It was the last hole in his destroyer.

All that was left was his cruiser. Between her feet was her last ship, the submarine.

She didn't feel like sinking Cruiser's cruiser. Not on the day they met, not while he was trying to show off for Pet. She stood up on tiptoe, looking around the room for Ray. Or Denise. Or anyone that could provide an excuse to quit.

"Annie?" Pet called. "How much longer until we can eat?"

"Oh, uh, well, Pet, if you're really, really hungry…"

"I am!" she said. "Are you hungry, Cruiser?"

"I could eat," he said. Annie tried hard not to roll her eyes. A young man agreeing with the cute blonde? Hopefully, Pet would only use her powers for good.

"We could call it a draw. Then flag down someone who knows where the hamburgers are being herded."

"That's a great idea!" Pet said. "Cruiser, you wanna call it a draw and go get food? Pretty please? I'm STARVING!"

"Yeah, sure," he said. This time she did roll her eyes.

Tammy carried the trio to the food tables. Cruiser told her about the game. It did and didn't remind Annie of Pet. But where Pet would be chattering endlessly about the game, Tammy had to draw the story out with leading questions.

But her pride at every successful shot or working strategy he reported…that definitely reminded her of Pet and Denise.

While they stood on the table, someone bumped it at the far end. The ketchup bottle tipped a bit and struck a bowl of potato salad.

The glass-on-glass tchink was loud to the sylphs. Annie and Pet flinched from it, wincing. Cruiser screamed and ran.

Arms flailing and legs pumping, he shot off of the end of the table and into empty air.

Pet screamed, Annie shrieked. Tammy jumped into the air and grabbed him, dropping to the floor to skid on the linoleum.

When the sylphs ran to the end of the table, they looked down to see Cruiser crying against his rescuer's bosom. She cupped him tight and tried to soothe him.

Ray and Dad appeared. Ray made eye contact with Annie as he knelt down by his cousin. She nodded, signaling that they were okay.

The two men lifted the woman carefully, getting her to her feet without making her let go of Cruiser with either hand.

"I think we should go," Tammy said.

"Yeah, I'll get your things," Dad offered.

"Hey?" Annie called.

"Oh. Sure," Tammy replied. She peered down at her hands. "Cruiser? Do you want to say goodbye to Pet and Annie?" He nodded, still sniffling.

When she leaned down to the table, Pet waved and said goodbye. Annie stood with her arms crossed.

"I'd have kicked your ass, Cruiser," she said. The immediate area went dead silent.

Cruiser raised his head. "The fuck," he replied. Tammy gasped. If anything, the people within hearing got even quieter.

Then Cruiser realized what he'd said. He clapped a hand over his mouth and looked up fearfully. Tammy stared for a second. Then she shook her head. "Well?" she asked her sylph. "Are you going to let her talk smack like that?"

Cruiser grinned. "No, ma'am. I'm going to kick her ass! Um…please?"

"You'd better," Tammy said.

------

Annie lucked out in the next game, finding his destroyer early. That let her widen the spacing of her shots. Cruiser nearly beat her though.

She was down to one remaining hole in her own destroyer when she fired the last shot at his submarine.

He reported it sunk and walked around the game boards. Annie stood by her shooting board, hand on the hole she'd fired at. She lacked the strength to lift the red peg up to it.

Giants surrounded them, all expressing admiration for both players. The hard-fought game had impressed everyone watching.

Cruiser was grinning as he stepped up to shake Annie's hand. "You're good," he said.

"You're better," she replied.

"But…you won?"

"I got lucky." She dropped the handshake and gathered him into a hug. There was a chorus of 'Aw' from the peanut gallery, then they dispersed.

Annie kept hugging until Cruiser relaxed and hugged her back. Pet drifted up and wrapped her arms around both of them.

-----

Sue spelled Ray on the ice cream churn he was cranking. He nodded at the other five guys with their own churns and stretched.

"Oh, my back," he moaned.

"Better not let Annie hear that," Sue said. "Too old to make ice cream any more? She'll make you start working out."

"Then she'd better not hear about that, right?"

Sue nodded and sprinkled some rock salt on the ice.

Inside, Ray found Annie playing Battleship against three young boys. They took turns shooting, giggling every time she sank one of their ships.

"I play the winner," he said, pulling up a chair. They giggled and ran off.

"That's a forfeit!" Annie shouted. She ran along the shelf, cupped hands at her mouth. "YOU EACH OWE ME A BROWNIE!" The laughter faded into the distance. She glared at their backs, but she was smiling when she walked back to where Ray sat.

"You know they just tease you for a famous Annie tantrum," Ray said. He finished pulling the pegs from her board and turned it around.

"Don't know what you're talking about," she said, lifting the submarine and looking at the board. He smiled and started his own set up.

Ray was down two ships before he thought to look around. "Hey, where's Cruiser?"

"Building up his self esteem," Annie said. "B10."

"A hit, I do confess it," he said. Tammy was in the corner of the room, helping Mom set up bowls and toppings for ice cream. "How's he doing that?"

"Ask me where Pet is," Annie replied.

"C5. Where's Pet?"

"Miss. She's building up Cruiser's self esteem. B9."

"Denied," he muttered. "Wait, are you saying…they're…?" His eyes shot to the carrier.

"Oh, you look so cute," Annie said. He flinched as saw her. She had climbed up her pegs to the top of her board. "You have more sex than an alley cat, but you can't talk about the subject without blushing."

"They're…?" He glanced around the hall. "Does Denise know?" he hissed.

"She made sure Pet has protection," Annie nodded.

"But Tammy won't…"

"Tammy found them a place with some privacy," Annie shrugged. "I think she's okay with it."

Ray leaned down close to his sylph's face. "But…he's not… I mean, how's he going to react to…"

"Ray, seriously, relax." Annie spoke slowly and reassuringly. "He's learning that sex can be for fun, rather than fury. It's a good thing. An important stage."

He blinked and sat back. "So… Tammy brought him here so you guys could…"

"No, no. She didn't suggest it. But when Pet and Cruiser asked, she said it was about the right time, and if they were sure, she was happy."

She giggled as Ray's eyes swept the corner of the hall. "You're not going to find them, revered, but prudish, master. Say…" Her tone shifted to one that set off alarms in Ray's head.

"What?"

"Well, you've seen me have sex on Passion Cakes. You didn't seem unduly upset there."

"Actually, I usually get rather excited," he admitted. To his shock, she started to sniffle.

"But you've never watched Pet play slap and tickle." More sniffling. "Does that mean you respect Pet more than you do me?" She covered both her eyes with her hands and started to cry.

"Ah," he said. "If you stop teasing, I'll let you lick the churn when the ice crea-" She placed her hands on the backboard and vaulted over to his board. He caught her before she could fall on his fleet.

"The vanilla one, right?"

"I already reserved it with Aunt Teryl." He carried her out to the ice cream brigade.

Annie dozed in the car ride home. Pet had climbed into a hammock in the carrier and fallen fast asleep. Annie was tired, but not ready to sleep just yet. Something was nagging at her.

She finally identified the odd smell as beer. That wasn't nagging at her, though. She realized what it was that smelled like beer. Grandpa Walt.

Ray had put the carrier on the passenger seat for the drive home. Which meant that he'd probably put Walt on the floor in front of the seat.

Annie tried to remember why that was a problem. She still hadn't figured out the reason when she drifted off to sleep.

The music started and everyone danced. The song was something half-remembered from the 50s or 60s. She was surprised to find that she knew how to dance to it.

Her partner spun her and she saw it was Ray. He was a lot better with this music than he usually was.

That's when she realized. "Oh, it's that dream," she said. Other couples from the reunion spun around her. Everyone was human sized, as usual. Pet danced with Cruiser. Mom with Dad. Ray with Denise. Tammy tapped Pet's shoulder and took over with-

Wait? Ray with Denise? She turned to look at her partner. He grabbed her waist and eased her into a dip.

He was and wasn't Ray. The features were there, but there were wrinkles, gray hairs, and some sort of air about him she didn't recognize.

"Grandpa Walt?" she asked.

He stood her up and spun her around. She broke free of his hand and staggered towards the drinks table. He followed.

As soon as they left the dance floor, the music changed to Tik Tok. Pet squealed in glee. Annie turned to watch. Tammy and Cruiser shifted from ballroom dancing to club. Mom and Dad just sped up.

Ray tried to flee but Pet and Denise each grabbed a wrist and kept him out among the dancers. The rest of the family swirled and jumped and they were gone.

Annie smiled and turned around. Walt offered her a milkshake.

"Grandpa?" he asked.

"I belong to your grandson," she explained. "Victor's kid, Ray."

"Belong?"

"Do you always reply with questions?" she asked.

"Is that a problem?" he asked back.

"Do you know I always win this game with Ray?" Annie smiled and sipped at the drink.

"I don't even know who Ray, um, is?" he replied, raising his voice at the last minute to pretend it was a question. She smiled, showing her teeth in victory.

A chair appeared and she sat in it. He dragged another one up to face her. "Tell me about belonging to that guy over there, dancing with his wife. Are you his other wife?"

"Sorry to bust your visuals, Grandpa, but America's not that liberal yet." He cocked his head with a curious expression.

"Okay, let's see… As I understand it, you died and got cremated. A few years after that, young Raymond was born."

The music continued as she caught him up on family gossip and sylphs.

-------------

She woke up in the dark, in the living room carrier. Pet was snoring softly in the other bed. She twisted a bit as Annie watched, but stayed tucked under her covers. That was a sure sign that a human had done the tucking.

Annie rolled softly out of her own firmly placed covers and tiptoed to the door.

The house was dark and quiet. She stole across the carpet to the book case with the cell phone. It was difficult to wrestle the phone free but she managed it.

There was only one clunk as she lowered it to the shelf. She stood still for a long moment but there was no reaction.

Then she turned the volume down and hit the speed dial. It rang for quite a while. Ray's father finally answered.

"What? Who is it?"

"Dad? It's Annie." She crouched over the mouth piece and talked directly into the pickup.

"Annie? Why are you calling at…two in the morning? Is someone hurt?"

"No, no. I, uh, have a message for you."

"A message? What are you talking about, girl?"

She sat down by the handset and leaned on the case. "Dad, do you believe sylphs are magical?"

"Yeah, sure. You're magical, Pet's delightful, Butter-"

"No, sir. Sylphs. In general. All of us are the product of a magical event of some sort. Would you agree?"

"Um… Okay. Makes as much sense as anything. Why?"

"Well… Today I touched Grandpa Walt's ashes. And tonight I had a dream that he spoke to me." There was silence. "Sir? He said to tell you that he's proud of you."

"Okay," Victor finally said.

"It seemed real. I'd like to think that, maybe, my suspected magical depths allowed him to talk to me. He enjoyed the reunion, he saw the family, he… He had two messages for you. Well, three. He's proud of you and he says you shouldn't worry about the bike. I don't know what that means, sir?"

"I do, Annie," he said softly. "Thanks, that means a lot."

"Good," she said. They were silent for a moment.

"What's the third message?" he finally asked.

"What do you think, sir?" She put her mouth right against the mike and shouted, "SCATTER THE DAMNED ASHES, ICKY!"

There was a long moment of silence from the other end. "Damn it, it's on my to do list!" Victor protested.



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