Annie XLII: First Steps

(Chronological index: New World Order #2)

Annie went down the slide, then walked towards the living room. Ray was where she had expected to find him. Well, she had expected him to be in bed when the sylphs woke up.

When he wasn't, she knew where he'd be. He was in the chair for the computer desk, staring out the sliding glass door at the sunrise.

She walked up to his ankle and jumped. The fuzzy cloth of the robe was practically an escalator for a sylph. In moments she had traversed his thigh and climbed up on his elbow.

Then she walked down his arm to test of his coffee. The mug was full but the liquid was cold. She nodded, still unsurprised.

She climbed up his arm to the shoulder, kissed his earlobe and asked, "Penny for your thoughts?"

"I have to register her," he said softly.

"Yep."

"Or I'll risk losing her."

"And Pet," she pointed out. "Denise has to die for her will to transfer ownership.

"Or," she went on, "you could write up a receipt and have her sell Pet to you a week ago."

The head she leaned on shook ponderously back and forth. "Can't risk being caught for registration fraud. I'd lose them both."

"Yeah," she regretfully agreed. "But if you do register her..."

"I might lose her anyway. The government may take an extreme interest in her. First sylph this century? Everyone's going to want to take her apart."

"Yes." They were silent together for a few moments. Then she smiled. "So, what do you have planned?"

------

Denise woke up alone. The light through the window made it a much less confusing experience. The bed stretched away from her in a wide, rumpled expanse.

She was surprised to see that Ray wasn’t beside her. Then she listened. The shower wasn't running, and the bathroom door was open.

There was a small sound behind her. When she rolled over, Pet was just landing back on the bed. She smiled at Denise and jumped up onto the pillow.

"I gotcha some clothes for today, Denny," she said happily. But there was something wrong. Denise didn't know what it was, but Pet was acting...suspicious. "Did you sleep okay?"

"Not really," Denise said, skinning off her clothes. "Every thing Ray does makes the bed shake like an earthquake."

"I thought you liked knowing where he was at night?"

"I do," she replied, taking the offered clothes. "Or I did, before he became something out of a child's book." She looked the shirt and shorts over carefully, still suspicious.

"Oh, I know that one!" Pet said happily. "Where the animals all make sounds like zee-zoo-haw when they sleep? 'And sometime after midnight, the elephant goes, SNORE, and whoever had been sleeping isn't sleeping any more!' I loved that book!"

"You loved anything with cartoons," Denise said with a smile. She started dressing. When she was done, she realized that she and Pet were wearing very similar clothes. The same, in fact, except for the characters on the shirts. "Pet? Are we Pooh Buddies today?"

"You don't like Tigger?" Pet asked.

"I love it, Pet. I love being able to dress like twins with you even more."

"Oh!" Pet jumped up happily. When she came down, the pillow compressed, dumping them both to their knees.

Denise giggled and rolled over the edge. Pet followed, laughing.

"That was different," Denise said as Pet helped her stand. "Where's Ray?"

"Annie went to look for him a few minutes ago," Pet said. "They're probably thinking right now."

"Thinking?"

"When Ray bounces ideas off of Annie and figures out what he wants to do." She noticed that the happy expression was wiped off of Denise's face. "Denny?"

"Why is he talking to Annie? Why not me? I mean, this is about me, right?"

"Well, he always bounces ideas off of Annie. You know that."

Denise shook her head and started walking around the pillow towards the corner. "No, with stuff that affects ME he bounces ideas off of ME."

Pet ran to catch up. "Denny? Don't take this wrong? But everything he bounces off of you?" She stopped talking. Denise stopped walking and turned to look at her. Pet looked very guilty. "Well? He bounces them all off of Annie, first."

"WHAT?"

Pet wrung her hands. "Don't take it wrong! Don't take it wrong!"

"What the hell's the RIGHT way to take it? He takes Annie's input over mine? He and his little pet plot MY life together? And he's been doing this since we MET?"

"Um....yeah?"

"Then," she said tersely, "I am taking it right!"

"No, Denny, no, you're just-"

They both turned as they heard steps on the stairs. In a moment, Ray entered the room carrying Annie. He smiled and put the sylph down by the other two.

"Okay," he said. "I have some ideas about what we need to do.

"Oh, DO you?" Denise snarled. Pet took a step back, hands clasped together.

"What?" Ray asked.

"You and your little woman have it all figured out, do you? You just present me a chance to sign on board with it all?"

"What the hell, Denise?" Annie asked.

"I just found out," she shouted, ignoring Pet's whimper, "that you two have been making more decisions than I thought!"

"We don't make any decisions," Annie protested. "He does, and he may or may not use my input!"

"Bullshit!" Denise raged. She ignored the tears that were welling in her eyes. "I've seen him! He hangs on your every word when you talk!"

"You mean like," he said slowly, "when she kept me from breaking into the store and getting you taken away?"

Denise just stood there, hands in fists.

"You mean like, when she helped get you to tell us where Pet was?" he went on. "You mean like, when she told me that Pet was saying you sylphed and I had to drop what I was doing to save you?"

"All I want to know is," she shot back, "how you'd feel if you found out I'd been discussing our marriage with my vibrator all these years!"

Annie gasped. Pet whined. Denise began to wonder if she'd gone too far. But she wasn't about to back down, not now. Something about giving in to the big blurry shadow looming over her seemed like a mistake.

Ray just raised his hands in surrender. "I don't know..." he said. "I don't know if you're actually pissed at me, or taking it out on me. I don't think I've done anything wrong. But before I say something... hurtful? I'm going to go make breakfast." He turned and left.

Denise found herself breathing deeply. She wiped her eyes with short jerks of her hands and turned to look at Annie. "Well?"

"You've got nothing to fear from me, Denise. Yeah, we talk. All the time. For almost 27 years, now.

"He doesn't always take my recommendations. But he always takes your side if you put your foot down." She turned to walk to the corner. Over her shoulder she added, "You should know, he's prepared to give up his entire family for you right now. Ray Foster. Self inflicted orphan, if you can believe it." She jumped to the table and stepped to the sylph pole.

"Oh!" she finished. "And I'm willing to give up Ruth to go along with him." Then she slid down the pole and was gone.

Denise stared at the last spot she'd seen the sylph. The other sylph, part of her mind corrected.

Pet started to walk past her without saying anything. Denise swallowed twice before she tried to speak.

"Pet, I..."

Her pet, her ittle Pet, shook her head and kept on walking. "Denny, an hour after you met Ray, you trusted him with my life. Both of them. That hasn't turned out bad at all, yet, has it?"

"Pet?"

The other other sylph jumped lightly to the table. She paused at the pole, a hand out in Denise's direction. "You coming to get breakfast?" She waited patiently.

Denise sobbed and ran to catch up.

-------

It was the quietest breakfast Denise could remember. Certainly since they brought Buttercup home from church when she was little.

She had never really understood the distances sylphs faced. Not until she made the trudge from the bedroom to the kitchen.

Ray was already sliding pancake pieces onto plates when she made it to her regular seat. Or the placemat next to her old seat.

Annie stood on the counter a safe distance from the frying pan. She nodded in Denise's direction when she made it to the top of the ladder. Ray nodded.

He put syrup in the sylphs' dispenser, broke up a slice of bacon and put the crumbs on a platter and put the tiny pitcher of orange juice beside it.

Annie and the platter were carried over to the table and placed in the center. Pet filled a plate for Denny and ran it over to her. Then she went back to her usual place in the center, next to Annie.

They settled down to eat. Eyes darted back and forth but no one spoke.

Ray regarded his wife out of the corner of his eye. She seemed more than a little uncomfortable. And she wouldn't look anyone else in the eyes.

He suspected that her temper was at least partly from trying to assert her former authority from her new position. In her case it was probably a fear that she'd lost her equality with her partner.

Denise and Ray almost never fought. They had argued things out until a mutually satisfactory result was hammered into shape. Now she probably thought she had to assert herself more to make up for lost altitude.

And there was the standard shrunken resistance to their new status. They responded to lost abilities rationally, but their personhood irrationally.

A sylph training expert had summed it up nicely. "They'll give up their car keys the first time they try to drag them across the driveway. But to get their driver's license you'll need pliers."

The fact that Raymond had even skimmed a sylph training manual in the bookstore was a secret he was going to take to the grave. Annie would never forgive him, and Denise...

Huh. Then again, maybe mentioning it would give the two sylphs something to bond over. Hating him.

He had no intention of reclassifying Denise as a pet, neither in his head or his heart. But anything he said right now would sound patronizing. He'd have to demonstrate his intent over and over and over.

"That was a good word choice," Annie finally said, breaking the silence.

"What was?" Pet asked.

"Vibrator. It compared me to a sex toy, without automatically making you a sex toy."

"Really?" Pet asked. Ray covered his eyes with a hand and shook his head.

"Yes, Pet. See, if she'd tried to directly assert that Ray used me as his sex toy, it might be taken that you occupied the same billet for Denise. This way, she can have a sylph AND a vibrator, while Ray is, on the contrary, using me as an anatomically correct doll and a sounding board."

"I don't think she meant it," Pet protested.

"Oh, of course she did!" Annie said cheerfully. "When people are drunk, angry or surprised, there's no filter. They speak the truth.

"What happens is that they apologize, and they say, 'I never meant to say' or 'I never meant' or whatever. What that really MEANS though, is that they'd never say it out loud, normally."

"Oh," Pet said with a nod.

"Can we change the subject?" Ray asked quietly.

"Sure," Annie said happily. Way, way to happily. Ray's inner alarms were clamoring. But she didn't seem like she was gunning for a fight. Yet.

"Hey, PET!" Annie went on. "You wanna hear the PLAN?"

Pet looked at the far end of the table, then back to Annie. "I, uh, guess so. Um... is it decided, yet?"

"No. Ray only has my and his input. We were going to see if you two agreed with our priorities, then see if the plan made sense."

"Oh! What are the priorities?"

"Well, Pet, Ray needs to register Denise."

"Awwww," Pet said. "There's no way around it?"

"No. The risk is too great that he'd lose both of you."

The platters were empty so Ray refilled the bacon crumbs, pancake shreds and OJ. He carried it back to the table and offered it to all three sylphs.

"Both of us?" Pet asked. Denise's head shot up. She stared as Annie explained the worry that Pet might be lost if Denise wasn't registered.

"I don't want that," Pet said softly.

"So, we need to go someplace that can get her legal and tagged, but hopefully without spectacle."

"They'd make Denise dance?"

"No, Pet. More like a media circus."

"Oh. Where is that?"

"We're hoping the Sylph Centre will host us while she's registered."

"OH! I like that place!" She smiled at Denise but didn't get a response. "Will they..."

"We don't know," Annie admitted. "But if there's any place that'll protect you and Denise until this is all sorted out, it has to be there."

"Yeah," Pet said. "That makes sense. But then what?"

"Then," Annie said as she took the last bite of bacon, "Ray learns magic."

"What?"

"Well, we know, or suspect, that someone can control the sylph effect. We go find them. Or find a way to do it ourselves."

"But haven't people been doing that for the last three decades?" Pet asked.

"But they weren't as motivated as Ray is right now. He will quest, to rescue his wife."

"And you?" Pet asked.

"If it's possible," she said, waving away the concern.

"And....me?" Pet asked quietly.

"Not if you don't want to be a giant, Pet," Annie assured her.

"Oh. Good. I don't..." She paused. "I LIKED being Denny's pet," she said quietly.

"And no one's going to force you," Annie said.

"Okay, then. Um... I can't think of anything to change." The group sat quietly for a moment. After a while, all eyes turned towards Denise.

She wiped her face, stood from her plate and walked towards the rope ladder. "Yeah. Find the magic, fix everyone," she muttered. "Put everything back where it's supposed to be. That's a reasonable plan." Then she was over the edge and out of sight.

Pet shot distraught looks at Annie and Ray. Annie nodded her head towards the ladder. Pet ran to catch up to Denise.

------

Denise avoided everyone for most of the day. Ray decided to take silence for assent and went on with preparations for their departure.

She waited until the others had eaten and left the kitchen before she came in for lunch. She found a sandwich, a glass of water and a checklist on the table. Most of the items were crossed off. One was for her, to phone in a request for a leave of absence.

It struck her that Ray was just refusing to accept that she'd sylphed. She could kind of understand that he didn't want to broadcast the information. But pretending she could come back to work?

She thought it over as she ate. Then the dragged her cell phone out of the bag of clothes and called work. She got Pamela's machine and left a simple resignation. Family problems, please clean out my desk, husband will pick it up later, had a great career, blah, blah, life goes on, blah.

Then she walked under the sofa to have a good cry.

-------

Ray had to clear out space in the garage for Denise's car. He wasn't leaving it out in the driveway while they were gone.

He also planned to have Ruth house-sit if everything went well, and it made the car a little less tempting for a college student with a clunker.

When it was finally stowed away, he went into the house and found Pet crying in the kitchen.

She sat disconsolately on the floor by the leg of the table. He carefully picked her up and held her cupped in his hands. She cried for a bit, hugging his thumb and rubbing her face into the webbing between his fingers.

When she slowed down he asked if there was something specific she was crying about.

"Why can't it go back the way it was?" she whined. "I was afraid when Denny shrank. And I was afraid when the giants chased me. And I was afraid you wouldn't find me.

"But we're all together again!" she wailed. "It should be okay! I'm here, Denny's here, Annie's here, you're here."

"Yes, Pet, but-"

"You still love her, don't you!"

"Of course I do, Pet!"

"Well, then what's wrong? You two don't talk. She won't talk to me. She insulted Annie and Annie said it was a good insult! What the hell? Why is Annie holding back? Why aren't you kissing Denise? Why isn't she talking to anyone?"

She put her face down and cried some more. Ray tried to think of something, anything, to help him make Pet understand.

Then he saw Denise. His wife was in the kitchen doorway. And she looked horrified.

It was a crystalline moment. He saw the whole scene as if packed with hypertext.

For the last six years, they'd had individual ownership of the sylphs, but shared responsibility. Denise hadn't been jealous of him comforting Pet, he'd never felt threatened if she chastised Annie.

But now Pet was crying on his hands, rather than Denise's shoulders. She felt angry that Pet was turning to him for comfort, but guilty with the knowledge that she'd driven the sylph away.

And he knew Denise was still mad at him. That wasn't going to clear up simply by an act of will. But both of them put Pet's happiness at a higher priority than their own.

Right now, it didn't matter who was mad at who, or who was upset about being judged unfairly.

And Ray knew what to say.

Denise watched as the big galoot stroked HER pet's back and spoke soothingly.

He tried to explain why Denise was upset, what she felt that she'd lost and what she feared that she was going to lose.

He also promised Pet several things. They'd always be a family, no matter how things turned out. They'd always love each other, even if they were mad at the time.

As he went on reassuring the young sylph, Denise realized he was also speaking to her. He was trying to make promises she wasn't sure he could keep.

But he'd probably try. And try and try and try. She did know that Annie wasn't the most stubborn head in the house. He'd make this magic search until SHE gave up. Until his wife finally let him off the hook.

He gave a nod and she realized that her expression had changed. When it softened, he started wrapping it up.

"Now," he said, "when you're ready, you go find Denise." He jerked his head to the side. "You talk to her. Don't ask her about what we've talked about." He jerked his head again. She shrugged, not understanding his expression.

"Just FIND where she's HIDING and tell her you love her." OH! He was saying she shouldn't be in the doorway when Pet looked up! She turned and ran down the hall. His voice followed her. "She may be in the mood to talk. But if she isn't, just be there for her, okay?"

There was a mumbled response. Denny headed for the carrier. She'd pretend she was taking a nap.

Behind her, Annie stepped out from between two rubber boots in the closet and watched Denise disappear into the living room.

After a minute or two, Pet walked by, wiping tears from her eyes. Pet looked at Annie with a questioning expression.

Annie gave her a thumbs up, whispering, "You did great," as the blonde went past. "She's in the carrier."

--------

Even Pet found it hard to find a way to say something enthusiastic about dinner. Ray clearly had something on his mind.

The meat was overcooked and the veggies limp. He forgot any sort of sauce and the bread came out of a can.

As Annie picked at her sliver of carbon, she imagined fixing a mood ring to Ray's forehead. It'd probably turn so black that light couldn't escape.

The silence stretched. Foster tradition at meals was, if you couldn't say anything nice, let Annie say it. And she wasn't about to stick her neck out.

"Well, we're all packed," Ray announced. "I, uh, figure to get started as early as possible. Get breakfast and get going."

"Maybe," Pet suggested, moving stuff around on her plate, "we could get donuts on the way?"

"It's that bad, huh," he said with a small smile.

"No, no, no!" Annie said. "It's just that we forgot this is International Food Crafted From Cardboard Day."

There was a small snort of laughter from Denise's end of the table. For the moment, that was raucous laughter. Pet giggled. Annie smiled.

Ray shook his head and walked to the freezer. "So, we're ready for sundaes?"

------

Denise stretched as Ray collected plates and bowls. "I think it's probably a Condition Ruth," she said.

When Annie's younger sister had shown up on the porch, they'd wrapped up the dramatic day by going straight to bed for a group cuddle.

They fell asleep there and woke up late the next day.

Ray agreed and gathered the sylphs together. He took them to the bathroom and placed them on the little shelf dedicated to their needs. "You guys shower and stuff while I finish the dishes."

Then they were alone. Annie waved for Denise to take the first shower. They stared at each other for a second.

"I'll go first," Pet said. "I feel really rank after all the crying and got a little fudge on my legs anyway, so you two can stay out here and...talk. I'll be in the shower, with the water running, so you won't hear a word I say and coincidentally enough I won't hear a word either of you say." She was practically tearing off her clothes and throwing them into the hamper.

"Of course, if you shout bloody murder I may have to come out and be the referee but if you both think you really need to hash things out violently just tell me so." She stepped into the water closet and turned the shower head on. Her raised voice sounded over the spray.

"Someone call? Because I can't hear you over the running waaaaaater!"

The other two sylphs broke out in simultaneous smiles. "I did that to her," Denise said with a shake of her head.

Annie winced and shook her head. "No, no. Don't take it as blame. Look at it this way. She gets ditzy at stress, Ray burns dinner. Which is easier to live with?"

Denise took a deep breath and grabbed both of Annie's hands. "I don't want there to be stress."

"But there is," Annie shrugged. "I'd rather wait until you worked your way through it than that you try to will it away. Then it'll just come back harder."

"Is that what Ray thinks?" Denise asked.

"It will be when I'm done with him," Annie promised. There was a long silence. That is, they were silent. Pet was trying to sing in the shower. She couldn't remember the whole song at the moment so she was saying 'Womanizer' fifteen times in a row, then one line from the refrain. Rinse and repeat.

"I really didn't mean what I said about...you," Denise finally said. "I know, you think it's what I really feel-"

"No," Annie said. "Saying that I wouldn't believe you when you said, I didn't mean that?" She shrugged. "That was me saying something hurtful. Something I didn't mean. Can you forgive me?"

"Oh, God, of course," Denise said. She grabbed Annie in a hug.

"Yay!" Pet's voice came from the shower.

"We're still stressed!" Annie shouted back. "And I thought you couldn't hear us!"

"Womanizer, womanizer, womanizer....womanizer....Yay?"

Pet had a happy bounce to her step when she came out of the shower. Annie handed her a towel and backed away.

"No hugs!" she said, hands up defensively. "We're not all happy fun together, not yet. There are still things we-"

"But we'll get there!" Pet bubbled. "We're on the way! Taking steps! Seeing the light at the end of the tunnel!"

"That light's the torch of the guy that's looking for the gas leak!" Annie said angrily. "That light'll be rushing right AT us any second!"

"Oh, poo!" Pet said dismissively.

"She's got you there," Denise observed. "Run rings around you with her logical rebuttal of your premise."

Annie took the next shower. "Avoiding Pet's hugs is kinda like that puzzle of the man with the wolf, the geese and the bag of grain. Gotta be careful not to be left alone with her."

"I should sneak into the shower and hug her there," Pet mused softly.

"I'll claw your eyes out!" Annie shouted.

"Wow..." Denise said. "Sylph hearing IS all it's cracked up to be."

"Yeah, you'll see," Pet said. Then she turned, her mouth an O of surprise. "Or you won't!" she assured the other sylph.

"Won't what?" Denise asked. Pet backed away. She automatically took a step forward. Pet hopped a bit farther away.

Denise stopped and stepped back herself. "I don't want to bully you, Pet. But I want to know what you mean."

"We just hear real good," Pet said.

"And why would that bother me?"

"We hear...everything. That goes on. In the house." She twisted one one leg a little bit, both hands holding her towel tight against her.

"Okay," Denise said. She closed her eyes. Over the sound of the shower, she heard the water flowing in the pipes. There was air in the ventilation. Ray was downstairs. She could tell he was in the kitchen.

There was a chink, she knew he was putting plates away in the cupboard. After a quiet moment, there was a creak and a sigh. Her mind pictured him leaning against the counter for a moment.

She realized he was just as stressed as she was, but unwilling to show it. At first she felt a burst of anger. He was too good to have a breakdown in front of her!?

Then she realized it was like his retreat earlier. He didn't want to make her feel any worse. He'd keep it bottled in until he could find some way to release it.

Annie stopped the shower and dried herself off. Denise was amazed to realize that she could hear different sounds as different body parts were dried.

The skin was the same, but the body's sounds changed. She had no idea what was what, but that was just a lack of experience. She figured that with practice, she could tell if Annie was drying her thighs or rubbing her breasts...

Oh. That's what Pet meant. "We've never, ever really had privacy, have we?"

"No," Pet said softly. "But don't be mad! We're always happy for you! Even when it's you and-"

"PET!" Annie snapped.

"EEP!" Pet squealed.

"My....deep muscle relaxer?" Denise whispered. "You guys knew?"

Annie stepped from the shower and looked over at Pet. The other sylph stuck her chin out and glared back. Annie shrugged.

"Well," Pet said. "Every time we heard it, Annie would say 'Denise has a healthy libido.' And that's a good thing, right?"

Denise mused over the comments as she showered. They knew. They had always known. Even over the water and two floors away, she knew what part of the kitchen Ray was in, and if he was lifting or cleaning or slotting into the washer.

They would have known the difference between foreplay and intercourse. Probably who was on top. Even when they soundproofed the bedroom...they just pretended it worked. To make their owners feel better.

And Pet's panic about 'maybe you will, 'maybe you won't?' The young sylph was afraid that Ray would find someone to have sex with.

And even if she agreed that he could, there was no place Denise could go to avoid hearing it all. Every slap, tickle and kiss.

The three women were waiting when Ray came back upstairs. "I believe," he said happily, "that someone ordered a group cuddle."

His wide hands swept down on the trio. Denise jumped up in the air and skipped back across the shelf. He looked surprised, then confused, then disappointed, then quickly settled on his usual deadpan expression.

"What?" he asked calmly.

"I, uh, I don't sleep well in bed with you," Denise said. "Not anymore."

She couldn't admit that she was suddenly embarrassed about things they'd cheerfully done over the last several years. It hurt to betray him like this, but she just couldn't bring herself to cuddle him right now.

"I just... Every time you move. Or breathe. Or, well, fart. It's like the end of the world."

"You get used to it," Pet said. She started to look upset.

Annie put a hand on her shoulder. "Light at the end of the tunnel, Pet, remember? We can wait."

"But..." She finally nodded after a moment.

"Whatever," Ray said. "I don't want to pressure you." He lay his hands down flat on the counter. "Can I carry you to the drawer, at least?"

"I'd like that," she said. They shared a smile. Hers widened when she heard his pulse speed up. He had a heart the size of a tractor and she could change the throttle by simply smiling.

She stepped onto his hands and knelt on one palm. The others rushed to join her. He cupped his hands and carefully carried them to the bedroom.

The warmth of his touch permeated her body. The passage through the doorway felt like rafting down a canyon. His touch was gentle and his motions smooth. She could maybe get used to this.

Annie turned her face away from Ray and winked at Denise. She whispered, "You did notice his pulse? And that he's totally whipped, right?"

Pet giggled. Denise wanted to. She really did. Annie was offering another peace-making gesture. But it just reminded her that she'd almost never been alone with her husband. Even at their most intimate.

She shivered and rubbed her hands on her upper arms.

He put them down on the tabletop, then opened the drawer. Denise blew him a kiss and stepped onto the ladder.

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