Annie XLVI Search

(Chronological index: New World Order #6)

Amelia rang the doorbell at the Foster's place and set herself to wait. Unless the sylphs were waiting for a guest they could be quite a ways away from the door.

To her surprise, though the door opened immediately. The big door. Ray leaned out, turning towards where she waited.

"Amelia! A pleasant surprise! Come in, come in!" He held the door and stepped back. She walked briskly towards him.

Annie and Pet had trained Ray pretty well. He didn't pick sylphs up unless they asked for it. Strange sylphs, anyway. Anyone he was married to was fair game.

She ran to the door and looked around the apartment. His wives were up on the dining room table. They waved her over. She looked at the distance, the height and the stretch of carpet between them and her.

With a sigh, she raised her hands to indicate a desire to be lifted. It was a little humiliating, a little dangerous and usually pretty uncomfortable.

Ray remained a perfect gentleman, though, and it wasn't nearly as bad as some lifts.

She was welcomed with some enthusiastic hugs as Ray took his seat. She saw that the table was covered with a board game. She wasn't familiar with it.

"What's this?"

"Group Therapy!" Pet said. "And Ray's losing!"

"There are no losers in Group Therapy, Pet," Annie said. It sounded practiced, or recited, to Amelia. "There are only those that fail to fully realize the potential of the assets available to them."

"No," Denise said, "he's losing." Above them, Ray nodded his head.

"We're almost done," Annie said. "Unless this is an emergency?"

"No, no. Social call. And maybe recruitment. But go ahead and finish."

"Alright," Ray said. He picked up a card. "Group question." A dial was spun and he looked at the results. "Annie goes first. Who do you admire the most of those you know personally?"

He leaned down to smile at his youngest wife. "Personally. So that means we won't have Spongebob Squarepants as an answer." Pet crossed her arms and stuck her tongue out at him.

"That's easy," Annie said. "My mom."

"Really?" Denise asked.

"Yeah. She's done more growing in the last couple of years than I have my whole life." The others nodded and waved little blue plastic flags.

Annie moved her piece four squares forward. Amelia traced the track to see that she was headed for an end block marked 'Healthy (enough).'

Two other markers were close behind her. One was clear at the other end of the track, a few blocks away from 'Get Help! (Now!).'

"Boys go in the opposite direction from girls?" she asked.

"Not on purpose," Denise replied.

"Denise? Your turn," Ray said.

"Oh! Um, Pet." She turned and took her friend's hand. "There's far more to Pet than I think anyone realizes. I'm amazed that she's willing to share it with us, even as she finds out herself."

"Damn straight," Annie said with a nod.

"Thanks," Pet said quietly. There was a round of blue flags again and Denise walked her piece four squares forward.

"Pet?" Ray asked.

"Amelia," Pet said softly. "She's helped build such a great place here. And her personality is stamped on it in every corner." She raised her eyes slowly to see the other sylph's reaction.

"I'm, um, touched," Amelia admitted. "Considering the competition, that's pretty heady stuff."

"It's true," Pet assured her.

"Sure is," Denise said. Four flags waved, four squares advanced. They all turned up to Ray.

"I admire each of you equally, so-" he started to say.

"BOO!" Pet shouted. "COP OUT!"

"Cop out, Ray," Annie agreed.

"Again," Denise said. They waved yellow flags.

"Well, I'm sticking to it," he said, waving his blue one. "So, that's one square forward and three squares backwards." His token slid into the Get Help square and he leaned back. "There are no losers. But I just lost."

"Aw," Annie moaned sympathetically. She walked over to hug his wrist. The others followed, reassuring the big copping out giant that he was still loved. Amelia shook her head as she watched.

"Okay," Ray said after a moment. "Annie's turn." He took another card. "If they made a movie about your life, who would you want to play your character?"

"Lynda Carter," she replied instantly. "She has grace and talent, a wide range, a former Miss World, with a series of-"

"It's the boobs, isn't it?" Ray said. "The only thing between you and that $30K value is your cup-"

"NO ONE ASKED YOU!" Annie pointed out. "YOU'RE the one that NEEDS HELP!" She stomped over to his wrist and kicked it. "You can SHUT HELL UP! And put that flag down! People in the Help spot don't vote!"

She returned to her spot and lifted her blue flag. "Miss Carter's my choice and I'm sticking with her."

"I dunno," Denise said. "I think that your choice is honest, but your explanation lacks..."

"Well, I believe in her," Pet said, waving her blue flag.

"Sure," Ray muttered. "Take her side. I get penalty flags all afternoon. Annie shades the truth-"

"There are no SPEECHES in GROUP THERAPY!" Annie said.

"That's a blatant lie!" Ray replied. "This is nothing but speeches!"

"Are you guys about done?" Amelia asked. Denise shrugged and waved a blue flag.

"Aha!" Annie said, rushing to push her token three blocks ahead. "I'm healthy! I'm healthy!"

"So much for verisimilitude," Denise muttered as the sylph did her victory dance on the board.

"Well," Amelia said, raising her voice over Annie's rendition of 'That's the way (uh HUH uh HUH) I like it,' "who wants to help me kidnap someone?"

"I'm in!" Annie said, instantly calming.

"Anyone that's not protected by the Secret Service," Ray said.

"Oh, yeah. That's important," Annie agreed.

"Oh, poo," Amelia said. Pet laughed.

---------

Samantha ran from the communications center to her office. Fourteen more business reps waited in the hall outside. They thanked her profusely for the opportunity and promised to get in touch, have to talk to the money, great opportunity, love the demo, doing great things, blah, blah, blah.

Then the miracle staff whisked them away to limos and a bus to get them all home.

She staggered into her office and collapsed into her office. Three secretary sylphs waited patiently on her blotter for her attention. She closed her eyes and took one deep breath.

"Okay. Pipkin?"

"Miss Anthony, the Chinese called. They're willing to build a factory for sylph remotes if they can have one license for every other remote they build."

"Nope. Offer one in fifty, don't go lower than one in ten. Butters?"

"The Pentagon requests some instructors for the remotes. They want to run twelve classes a year on each coast."

"Great. As long as they accept sylph instructors."

"They were hoping for a mixed core of instructors, Miss Anthony."

"Yep. Well, they can wait for a First Coast Animatronics opening. I think they should be able to help them in 2032?"

"I'll explain it to them," Butters said with a smile.

"You do that. Nancy?"

"One of the busses had a flat on the way to the airport. Most of the reps made their flight, but the British didn't. They're hopping mad and-"

"Mad British reps?" Sam asked.

"They told the driver that things were a bit tetchy," Nancy said with a wince.

"Crap. Okay. Call a limo, get me out there to hold their hands."

"There aren't any," Nancy said with a deeper wince. "They're all taking bodies elsewhere. And before you ask, there are no vans, no trucks, no busses and the electric golf cart the landscaper uses is recharging."

"Dammit," Sam said, standing by her desk with a tight grip on the edges. She tried to breathe slowly.

"If I may?" Butters said, "Mister Foster is in the residence. You could borrow his car."

"I'd have to park and run in..." Sam muttered.

"He would be happy to drive you!" Pipkin said. She nodded. She hated to treat him like an employee, but he knew what was at stake here.

"Okay. Okay, call him and-"

"He's right outside," Nancy said. "He was in the restaurant when the bus broke down."

"Great," Samantha said, grabbing at her purse. She completely missed the incredible timing of his availability, her mind focused on creating sylph jobs in Britain.

Ray handed her into the front of his car with his usual attempt at grace. She yanked her feet in before he closed the door on them and started to breathe easier. He ran around to the other side and drove out into DC traffic.

Minions kept her up to date on the last minute details of the finished sales conference. She couldn't rest for a second, it seemed. There was finally a moment of silence and she leaned back in the car seat.

The phone rested in her hand until Ray took it. "What the-?"

"You're going to drop it," he said softly. "I'll put it in the cup holder."

"Okay," she nodded, closing her eyes again. "Can't wait for this to be over," she muttered.

"Neither can anyone else," he said.

"That bad?" she asked.

"People who care about you think you're overworking yourself," he said matter of factly.

"Does that include Amelia?"

"It includes me. Your office. The valets. The whole damned building. Everyone who's at work at 4 am talks to people who are at work at 11 pm. No one knows when you sleep."

"Neither do I," she said.

"Okay. Well, that's why this is an intervention."

"Right, an overworking intervention." She sat up and looked around. They were not on the way to the airport. "Okay, very funny, get me to Reagan."

"The Brits were among the first to fly out. Very satisfied, very happy, very much on time," he said. "This was a ruse."

"I haven't got time for ruses. If you won't take me back, I'll call a cab." She picked up her phone and flipped it open. It felt light. "Where's the battery?"

"Nowhere you'll ever find it," Amelia said. She stood up behind the cup holder and smiled. "You've been giantnapped!"

"Some little lady's getting punished when we get home," Sam muttered darkly.

"After all her work?" Pet cried. Sam turned to find the blonde sylph at her shoulder. "She got a favor from the President and Everything!"

"What favor?"

"They're going back to Denver for Thanksgiving," Annie said. She was on the other shoulder of the seat. "Amelia got permission for us to use Camp David. Special guests!"

"Ray and I are cooking," Denise announced. She was on Ray's lap.

"Look, I can't afford-" Sam protested.

"You get one phone call a day," Amelia promised her. She held up her hands and Sam picked her up. "Enough to guide your very capable subordinates and so you don't go crazy. But the rest of the week's going to be information deprivation."

"That's cruel," Sam said. But she smiled.

-------

The Marines ran Camp David's security. They were waiting for Ray's car and passenger. Sam started to wonder where her Secret Service detail was in all this.

Then she noticed the suited individual on the porch. Just as she realized that he wasn't part of her detail, her sister stepped out into view.

"Melissa!" she squealed. Ray parked the car where the Marine indicated and let her out. She rushed to the porch and hugged her sibling while he got the bags.

Rooms were sorted out and everyone gathered in the front room of the lodge they were assigned to. Melissa introduced her detail and the detail introduced the Marines they'd be seeing.

To everyone's surprise, the Marine officer, Colonel Shackle, knew Ray's name before anyone mentioned it. "I've been looking forward to meeting you, Mr. Foster."

Ray stared, hand engulfed in the soldier's grip. The sylphs stood on the table and stared.

"You, uh, what?" He shook his head. "Brilliant, I know. What can I do for you, sir?"

"We've been issued twenty units of the Sylph Scale Security System," the Colonel said.

Ray blinked. "The remotes?" Annie asked.

"Oh. Yeah. One of the original imagined uses," Ray nodded. "What about them?"

"Never saw anything in the field, except that the techs knew things that weren't in the manual," Shackle said with a smile. "I understand you were part of the development team?"

"You want a briefing?" Ray asked. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Samantha start to raise her hand. "Well, I had some help developing it. Annie and Pet, here, plus Sam, Denise and Amelia during the testing. If you don't mind a sylph or two helping the brief...?"

Shackle smiled. "I know the official stance on sylphs, sir. And I know that my job is to protect the President and anyone he brings here. I'm not too proud to take help where it's offered."

Sam smiled, Ray reflected it and shook the man's hand again. "Okay. How about nine o'clock tomorrow morning?"

"Oh nine hundred it is," the Marine nodded. "Thank you, sir. Thank you very much."

Then they were alone. Sam put her hands on her hips and glared at the surrounding friends and relatives.

"So, my one phone call a day? Who do I see for that?"

------

There was no kitchen staff, but the fridge and pantry were well-stocked. Ray started looking around to figure out what dinner was going to be. He found Samantha kneading some bread dough.

"Hope I'm not in your way," she said. "I love to bake but I never get a chance."

He raised an eyebrow as he watched her pummel the innocent dough. "Stress relief?"

"Oh. Yeah. Um. I may have overdone it..."

He reached over to pinch it. "You may want to let hit rise again. Or just shoot it." She sheepishly replaced it in the bowl and covered it with a towel.

He opened the fridge and looked over the meat available.

"Where is everyone?" she asked.

"Turns out Melissa was a big fan of 'Living With The Weirdo,' they're all discussing how much was fiction, how much was life inspired."

She sat on a bar stool and leaned against the counter. After a moment she felt fingers start to rub her shoulders. She tensed for a second, then relaxed.

He had a deft touch with back muscles. She found herself melting under his attentions. As she rested her arms on the counter and her head on her arms, she managed to ask, "What happens if your wives find us like this?"

"Samantha, I don't get internet access until you're asleep. They've assigned me three backrubs a day until we go back."

"Mmmm," she murmured. "Anyone ever tell you you're pretty good at this?"

"I've had seven offers of marriage for giving backrubs," he said. "When a woman asked I finally said yes."

She smiled. Tiny footsteps sounded on the tiled floor. "Her therapy isn't going to delay dinner, is it?" Annie asked.

"Hush!" Amelia said. "If it does, it does! Look at her! She hasn't been that relaxed since... I don't know when!"

"Yeah, yeah, very comforting. I'm talking about food, though. FOOOOOOOD. Capice?"

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

Ray finished tenderizing the chicken breast and put the hammer in the sink. "Lancers!" he called. The Foster sylphs scurried into the kitchen. Amelia followed to see what the excitement was, Sam and Mel trailing after.

They were surprised to see the girls strip, carefully piling their clothes on a low bookshelf. Then Ray lifted them to the sink for a quick washing.

"What's up?" Amelia asked. She raised her arms and Sam picked her up.

"Well, they have to be clean to help with the cooking," Ray explained. "And it's raw chicken, so washing up after will be easier if they're naked."

"You wanna help, Amelia?" Pet asked. The older sylph shook her head. Ray finished washing his wives and dried them off quickly. They ran across the counter and took up a bamboo skewer.

Ray slathered a cranberry sauce over the chicken, then shook some spices over it, finally rolling the flattened breast up towards his wives.

They aimed the skewer and drove it into the rollup to keep it together. Ray held the meat as they grabbed another one and pinned the other end.

He put it on the pan then lay another breast across the cutting board. He reached for his sauce.

"Aw, you're letting them help," Mel said cheerfully.

"Letting?" Ray snorted. He smeared and sprinkled. "If I try to do this alone, I bleed."

"It's true," Denise said. "He always tries to get the perfect seal, so he ends up with too many fingers in his own target area."

"Stabby, stabby," Annie added.

"Can we help?" Sam asked.

He started to roll up the breast and nodded towards a mortar and pestle. "If someone could crush the crackers," he said. Mel moved to grab the brass container. Sam moved closer to the chicken, holding Amelia where she could see.

"They don't have any smaller skewers?" Amelia asked. The girls giggled. "What?"

"First time he made this," Annie said as they prepared to thrust, "he calculated the smallest wooden picks required to make the chicken keep it's form."

"Uh huh?"

"And the ends burned off during cooking?" Mel surmised. Ray muttered something. "So the sylphs were okay..."

"But the humans ate wood!" Pet giggled.

"I'd like to point out," Ray added, "the longer skewers give them more leverage to stab with."

"Yeah, yeah," Annie sneered. "It's all about the sylphs."

-----

"It looks like the last supper," Mel said as they ate. There were very few pieces of sylph furniture on the base, but they'd managed to scrounge two tables.

Rather than have the sylphs sit with their backs to someone, they seated the four of them on one side of the two tables. All four faced the three humans.

"A little," Ray agreed. He poured more wine for everyone on his side of the table, then filled a pitcher and handed it over to Annie.

When everyone had refilled, he lifted his glass and offered a toast. "Rest. It's not what you run from, or where you run to. It's who you run with."

Everyone agreed to the sentiment and glasses were clinked. Sam sipped, then leaned over to rest her head briefly on Ray's shoulder. "Well, if I have to be held incommunicado, I could have had worse company."

"Yes," Mel agreed, patting Ray on his other shoulder.

"Which reminds me," Sam muttered. "How many calls a day does Amelia get?"

"Oh, we never-" Amelia started to say.

"One," the other sylphs and Mel said together. Amelia looked scandalized. Sam looked gleeful.

"What?" Annie asked. "It's your rest, too. Everyone in the office knows you're working as hard as Sam."

"So, we took the batteries from your phone, too!" Pet said.

"And hid ours," Denise finished.

"How DARE you!" Amelia protested.

"My idea," Mel admitted. "When Butters called me with your plan? He said that Sammy needed it. And he sorta suggested that you were in a similar fix. So, I figured two birds with one stone was justified."

"But still!"

"Oh, shut up and be relaxed," Sam said. She picked up her sylph and hugged her close to her throat. "You had a great idea. I love you for it. You just got caught in your own trap."

Amelia blew a raspberry but she sagged against the beating pulse.

----------

The Anthony's did the dishes. Amelia stayed with the sisters while the Fosters did something in the living room.

They walked in together to see that a Ouija board was set up on the table. Well, it looked sort of like the alphabet/number divination table.

But the pointer was odd. There was no point, just a circle. Sam tried to make sense of the border, too. She wasn't sure if those were handholds or what.

Mel was the first to notice that the pointer was floating over the board.

"What the hell?" Amelia asked.

"His idea," Annie said, spearing a thumb at Ray.

"Well, in the hopes of finding the magic that can restore Denise, and maybe Annie and Pet-"

"Don' wanna!" Pet quipped. Ray ignored her. He moved around the room, dimming lights and lighting a few white candles.

"I thought about how to decide where to start looking. That leads us to divination. And this seems to be the most straightforward. We could try Tarot, but I'm not sure we could know that 'tall dark handsome man' was metaphor or detail or a mix of both."

"Okay...." Mel said.

"You don't have to join us," Denise said. "But we're hoping that sylphs are magical-"

"We know sylphs are magical," Annie said. "Grandpa told me."

"Right, right," Denise agreed. "Annie saw Ray's grandfather's ghost in a dream. A really powerful dream."

"Ooooooh," Mel whispered. She smiled at Amelia. "I always thought you were magical."

"You thought she was scarier than a tarantula," Samantha replied.\

"She associated me with the crash," Amelia said. "We've long since forgiven each other."

"Well, we're hoping," Annie said, "that we're the right sort of magical to make this thing work. We'd, uh, appreciate your help?"

"Sure," Amelia said. She kicked a bit and Sam put her down on the table. Mel shrugged and sat down. Sam sat opposite her. Ray returned to the head of the table and sat.

"Why is the pointer pointless?" Sam asked.

"Oh, it's not," Ray assured her. He touched the disk and turned it. It moved sluggishly. "There's a pretty complicated electromagnetic float system. It keeps the planchette up and free floating, while braking any tendency to drift. Kind of like a submarine at neutral buoyancy.

"Any movement has to be imparted from outside." He shoved gently and the planchette drifted over the alphabet. As it did, the top of the disk displayed the letter, number, yes or no that it passed.

"Very precise," Mel said.

"It's got finger points for big people to hold," he said, indicating the touch pads, "and smaller pads for the little people."

"But we're not magical," Sam pointed out.

"Don't be so sure," Denise said. "My mom saw my dad in a dream. He told her I'd sylphed before we flew out there."

"So, what do we do?" Sam asked.

"Well, we're supposed to all touch it," Ray said. "Then..."

------

Ten minutes later they listened as Ray invited any spirits that might want to guide them to give them a message.

The humans had fingertips on the planchette. Sylphs stood between their grips, grasping handholds. They were clothed but wearing socks.

Those stockings slid across the board slowly as the planchette started to move...

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

Samantha was sitting in bed reading a paperback when Amelia jumped on her. The sylph had climbed the bed cover and pounced.

Sam gave a little start, then realized it was just her partner standing on her knee. She said hi, then noticed the little woman's stance.

Amelia stood with hands on her hips, kinda glaring.

"Amelia? What is it?"

"Oh, nothing," she replied, relaxing slightly. "Hey, freaky day, huh?"

"Yeah. Any idea if Ray's translated those numbers we got?"

Amelia shrugged. "He's playing around with them, but I think he's waiting for tomorrow morning. Maybe someone'll get a dream about how to interpret them."

Sam shook her head. "Hard to believe an IT type waiting for dreams rather than building a database."

"Well, you know Ray," Amelia said. She lowered herself to sitting on Sam;s thigh. "Hey, did you know that Ray was the one that came up with the term JAMS?"

"Just after my sylph? That was Ray?" Sam nodded, laying a finger on Amelia's leg. "Sounds like something he'd come up with. Of course, we noticed the syndrome well before medical science had a term for it." The two shared a smile, remembering some of their dating experiences.

"That's probably a big reason that Ray and Denise are together," Amelia noted. "They want each other more than they want anything through the other."

"Yeah, yeah," Sam nodded again.

"Lord knows, some of your boyfriends have been after you for something other than your sparkling personality."

"Gods above... Presidential daughter, celebrity, rich, a sylph owner after Daddy left the White House... I think Jeremy was after Secret Service protection."

"Probably... Well, Ray doesn't seem to want any of that."

"No, Ray's a nice guy." Samantha picked Amelia up and sank down under the covers. She turned to the side and put her friend on the pillow next to her. "A real nice guy."

"Sure is," the sylph agreed. "Not after your money. Not after your sylph. Not seeking celebrity. He cares about sylphs almost as much as you do. He saved some sylphs for you."

"Amelia? What are you saying?"

"Well, if you dated him, you'd be safe. I'd be safe. With three wives already, if you have to work late you don't have to fear that he'd feel underappreciated. He's got plenty to do."

"Amelia...."

"And if Annie's personality or Denise's history or Pet's cuteness starts to eclipse you, you can be the only wife that, mmm, let's say, you can sit in his lap and kiss him at the same time."

"Amelia!" Sam exploded. But after that outburst she was speechless. She stared at the poker-faced little creature in shock.

She slowly sat up, gathered the sylph in cupped hands and held her before her face. "Are you...trying to fix me up with Ray?"

"No, Samantha. I'm trying to figure out why you're throwing yourself at him."

"What? I never!"

"Oh, please. You've got magnetic hands. You've leaned on him, kissed him-"

"His cheek!"

"...Grabbed his hand when the planchette moved."

"We had ghosts! I was scared!"

"I was between your dominant hand and your sister. YOU reached your left hand over Pet and Denise to grab Ray's wrist and squeal like a high schooler whose date took her to Friday the Thirteenth."

"I didn't... I never..."

"The Foster girls are discussing your flirting. They all blame Ray, by the way." Amelia shook her head as one disappointed with the very race of Man, in all their scales.

"No," Sam said softly.

"Pet's willing to let you have a fling. She's very forgiving. Annie wants to lock the door to their room. Denise wants to lock the door to OUR room."

"Oh, God."

"Ray started off claiming innocence. But that would shift the blame to you, and he's too much of a gentleman to do that. So he's starting to accept the responsibility. They've got him half convinced he started flirting."

"How do you know all this?"

Amelia brushed an ear and shrugged. "They're only two doors away."

"Can THEY hear US?" Sam whispered.

"Over the sound of Annie right now? I doubt it."

"Crap..."

"The interesting thing is, no one's saying, 'Annie, that's enough.' Ray's putting up with her rant, Denise is cheering her on. Pet's being quietly noncommittal.

"But you know Pet, any solution that makes all her friends happy is her preference." Sam nodded absently, her mind on how to apologize.

"What do I say?" she asked.

"Say nothing," Amelia suggested. "Just remember that any time you're with Ray, you're probably with his WIFE! One to three wives. Who he takes seriously. Then, when we get back to the Center, let me, Deliah, Booster or Melissa fix you up with someone safe."

"But Ray! His wives! I have to explain!"

"He's already explaining!" Amelia insisted. "If you just rein in, it'll blow over. Okay? Just...be nice. Be friendly. Don't be carnivorous."

"Okay. I'll try. And if I get...'magnetic?' Please yank on my leash."

"I will," Amelia promised.

-----

Two rooms away, Ray finally shook his head and put down his notebook. "I give up," he said. "Unless we can get some clues about context, these numbers don't make any sense."

He looked down at his wives. They sat on a box for a deck of cards. They had all been quietly sharing each other's company for quite a while. Now he noticed that they were passing rather self-satisfied smiles between each other.

"What?" he asked. "What's going on?"

"Nothing," Annie said. "Just heard some good news."

He glanced around the room, wondering what their hearing had picked up, and from who.

"Weather over the rest of the holiday," Denise told him. "Clear and calm for the foreseeable future."

"And no magnets!" Pet added. She giggled as he tried to figure that one out.

-------

Buttercup was making Iwo Jima Chicken Jubilee when Pet walked into the kitchen. She smiled to remember that her mother had taught that dish to Ray. Of course, in this kitchen it was just Chicken Jubilee. Without speaking she picked up some skewers. As her mother held the roll she pinned the flesh, then picked up another skewer.

They worked quietly together for quite a while. Pet was surprised at how easily the skewers went in, but just shrugged and went on. When the pan was full, Buttercup put them into the oven and set the timer. They drifted over to the dining table, still without talking.

Some glasses of wine were already poured. Pet counted three and wondered who they were waiting for. She took a sip and regarded her mother.

"Buttercup, does this mean you're dead?"

"Of course not," she said with a smile. "Just a shared dream." She sipped her own wine. "So how are things going?"

"Great," Pet said.

"Marital harmony?"

"Of course," she replied, ignoring the teasing tone. "We're spending Thanksgiving with Samantha and Amelia and her sister. At some camp the president uses."

"Camp David? I'm impressed." They sipped a bit more.

Pet kept staring at the remaining wine. Her curiosity finally got the better of her and she asked, "Who gets the other glass?"

Just then the back door of the kitchen opened. A man in a policeman's uniform limped in. He kissed Buttercup and eased into the seat beside her.

"Daddy?" Pet asked softly. He smiled.

-----

Melissa and Samantha were playing cards on Air Force One.

"Wow, it's been, like, years since I played Go Fish," Sam pointed out.

"Maybe that's why we're playing poker," Mel replied.

"Mom won't let us play poker," Sam said slowly.

"But you don't use chips to play Go Fish," Mel pointed out. Sure enough, there were chips on the table between them.

Amelia walked up and took a seat beside them. She handed plastic bottles of water over to the other two and put one on the remaining chair.

"Thanks," Mel said.

"No problem," Amelia told her.

"Who's that for?" Sam asked.

Special Agent Genevieve Stone took up the spare bottle as she sat down.

"Hey, Gene!" Melissa said. "Haven't seen you since the plane crashed!"

"This plane...." Sam said slowly.

"Yep," Stone said happily. "Never a moment's regret," she told the sisters. Then she took Amelia's hand. "Thanks for getting my girls out okay."

--------

Walt met Annie at the VFW again. It was empty this time but music played. He took her in his arms and they danced.

"So," he asked, "You used to belong TO my grandson, now you belong WITH him?"

"Mmm-hmm!" she hummed enthusiastically.

-------

Denise found herself at a father-daughter dance sponsored by their church. She hadn't been to one in about twenty years.

Chuck took her onto the floor and told her how proud he was of her. She lay her head on his shoulders and told him how much she missed him. He wouldn't let her cry. There was no reason to cry.

She did anyway.

------

Ray sat up in the bed and stared down at his wives. They slept on the other pillow like coma patients. They'd exhausted themselves working for his pleasure. He had no complaints, but there was a nagging feeling about the sex.

He'd almost have sworn that they had somehow been marking him... As their territory.

Now he glanced from his notebook to the case the ouija board was in, then to Denise, Annie and Pet. Just what was he thinking?

Either he was the first human on Earth to figure out that sylphing was something to be cured.... Or he was the last man on the planet to accept the inevitable.

So, was he starting on a long, long search for something that would thrust society into an unlooked-for cataclysm? Or just passing time with his fingers in his ears?

The whole world had any number of magic systems, practitioners and traditions. And even more hoaxes and charlatans willing to take his money.

If he couldn't find some way to thresh the chaff from the wheat, as it were, it was just going to be a waste.

Pet yawned and rolled over. She rolled out from under the blanket as she did. The tiny body started to shiver immediately.

He used two fingers to slide her back against Annie, then tucked her in more securely. She sighed and relaxed.

Ray considered the women curled against each other. If he was wasting time, he was wasting it with people he loved. So what was the harm?

There was a knock on the door. Before he could do more than make sure he was covered with a blanket, the door swept open. Amelia held the doorknob and the door frame as she leaned in. "Coming, Ray?"

"Coming where?" He glanced down to see that the pillow was empty. When he looked up, Amelia was gone.

He stood, dressing quickly, and walked out into the hall. The dining room was full of people. A long table seated his wives, some friends, some strangers.

There was one empty chair at the head. He stepped towards it.

"Oh!" Samantha stood up. "We need more wine!"

"No, we don't," Melissa protested.

"Sure we do!" Sam insisted. "Give me a hand, Ray? While you're still up?"

"Sure." He followed her out into the kitchen and took the wine bottles she handed him. Just before they went back, she stepped over to hug him around the waist.

"I'm sorry I got you in trouble with your wives, Ray. It won't happen again." Then she was gone.

"I'm in trouble?" he asked softly.

Introductions were made swiftly. Ray knew Chuck and was not surprised by Walt.

Pet's dad gave him a hard glare but then a firm handshake. Agent Stone had an even harder handshake and a more challenging glare.

Amelia stepped between them and took him to a corner of the room. There was a white board with writing on it. "Date-time-group," she said. "It's how the military keeps track of messages."

"What?"

"The numbers. Each one starts with the Julian date, a Zulu timestamp, then GPS coordinates. Be there, that time, that day, Genevieve says. Even an IT guy should be able to parse that," she finished with a laugh.

"Great!" he said. He looked the board over. "I need to memorize this."

"Ray, it's already written in your notebook. Just put colons and commas and hash marks in there." She tugged him back towards the table. Buttercup was dishing out Iwo Jima Chicken Jubilee and Sam was pouring wine.

"Amelia? Why are they doing this? WHO is doing this?"

"The spirits that sent the message, so you can GET the message," she told him slowly.

He waved his hand at all the people. "But all this? Just to give me the context?"

"It's a shared dream. Everyone's going to corroborate your message. We're all going to remember all these details. Then you'll know that it was very unlikely to be coincidence."

"Damn," he swore.

"What?" she asked.

"We're dreaming. That means the foursome wasn't real."

She laughed. "I would suggest you don't bring that up in the morning."

---------

Ray was working in the common room at dawn. He'd found the white board he'd dreamed about and filled in the numbers.

Military time hardly gave him pause. He'd always thought that 2100 hours was much more efficient than having to specify which 9 o'clock you'd meant.

Trouble is, most people had to have military time translated to them and any efficiency was lost. What really bugged him was having to translate the first twelve. What sort of mind couldn't figure that 0800 was 8 o'clock in the morning? Sure, 1300 to 2400 took at least a little bit of math but 0800?

He shook his head and went back to the written number string and the blanks on the board.

The date was a bit more complicated. The approved format was a number for the day's position in the year, X out of 365. Tenth of January was 010, while the Twenty Sixth of September was 269. And another digit was either a placeholder or a year. He'd have to ask the Marines for help with that.

He'd finally just taken a calendar off of a bathroom wall and filled in the numbers. He'd long since stopped wondering why there was a calendar in every single room, and most big closets, in the lodge.

After that it was just putting in spaces and hyphens, colons and periods.

Then he found one of the ten or twelve atlases in the place and started roughing in locations.

He had the first four places labeled by the time his wives found him. Pet was the first. She ran up to his ankle and jumped up to hug his pant leg at the knee.

"Ray! Did you see? Did you see my Daddy! I saw Daddy, Ray!"

"Yes, I saw him," he said, sitting down by his board. He picked up Pet and held a hand down for the others as they ran up. "He didn't talk much but he didn't shoot me."

"Oh, he likes you fine, Ray," Pet assured him. "He told me you were okay for a geek." She held out her arms and he hugged her to his throat. "And he likes me, too." She sniffled a little bit.

Annie and Denise sat in his other hand and he settled back in the chair. He cupped his hands and all three wives smiled up at him. Denise and Pet both teared up a bit.

"I was so glad to see your Daddy, Pet. And to see Chuck again, Denise."

"He told me not to cry," she said. She disobeyed him again. Annie moved to sit between the two and let them cry on her shoulders.

"Huh. I just got dancing with an old letch," she said with a smile.

"I noticed," Ray said. "He spent the whole night looking you three over."

"I think he tried to put his arm around Gene," Annie said. "But I got the impression she doesn't swing his way."

"Not a big band fan?" Pet asked. Annie laughed and gave the blonde a squeeze.

"So, what have you figured out, Ray?" Denise finally asked. Ray turned his back to the board so the sylphs could see it and face him.

"I think in a couple of weeks, we need to be somewhere outside of Kissimee in Florida," he said.

"We're going to be near Tampa?" Annie asked. Everyone stared at her. "What?"

"Well, questions about how real this is come to mind," Ray said. "And how many of us go. And if there's any clue about what's going to happen there. But sure, yeah, we'll be in the general vicinity of Tampa. Same time zone, same state..."

"What is it, Annie?" Denise asked. "You want to see Mia?"

"Well, she's...not doing well. She's having a difficult time adjusting to being with her family." Everyone sat patiently in silence. Pet eventually tapped Annie on the shoulder.

"Oh, well, uh, there's no other sylphs around her, which she's used to, but her family won't leave her alone, which she's not.

"And they keep telling her uplifting things, and try to keep her spirits up and tell her that her scars don't matter."

"Which drives home the fact that they do," Pet said. "Like telling my refugees that Amelia's black."

Ray smiled at the possessive claim but ignored it for now. "So, what do you want to do?"

"Can I... Can we please go visit Mia? And maybe help her get herself together?" she asked. "Please?" She glanced at the others. "Please?"

Ray made eye contact with Denise and Pet. Annie twisted, trying to see where he was looking and what their expressions were.

"Annie," Denise finally said. "You're doing it wrong."

"What? I said please!"

"No, no," Pet said. "Watch me." She took Annie's chin between two fingers and pointed the other sylph's face at her own. Then she turned up to Ray. "Ray, dear? I think we should visit Mia for a little bit. If no one has an objection or a pressing engagement."

"Of course, Pet," Ray replied. "If that's what you think we should do, and no one has a good objection, we'll do it."

Annie's eyes teared up a bit, just like her partners' had a few moment before.

"You're not a pet anymore," Denise said. "Not to him. Not to us. You don't have to plead. You can lead."

"Especially since we all like Mia," Ray said. He leaned down to kiss Annie's head.

------

Ray was brining the turkey when the sylph ran into the kitchen. The bird was soaking in a solution of flavorants, salt and ice. He was turning it from breast-down to legs down at that moment.

Water dripped from the cavity as he held it over the 5-gallon drum. Tiny footsteps sounded across the floor from behind him. He felt tiny hands grab at his sock.

"Who's crawling up my leg?" he said in a playful voice. He spared a glance down. Amelia looked up at him with wide eyes.

"Hide me!" she pleaded. Then she glanced towards the door to the dining room and ducked under his pant leg. Ray stood there, draining the bird.

Annie skipped into the kitchen and around the bucket to where he could see her. She smiled up at him and he smiled back.

"Seen Amelia, Ray?" Little drops of brine landed around her feet and she took a few steps back. A whole peppercorn rolled past her feet.

"No," he said, ignoring the sensation of his sock being dragged down to his shoe.

"Well, I wanna thank her."

"Didn't you already thank her?"

"I thanked her for being a friend," Annie explained. "Now I wanna thank her for being a striking media-darling example and role model for sylphs everywhere."

"Okay. I think she would like hearing that." The bird stopped dripping so he flipped it and gently lowered it into the water. Then he held it in place as the air bubbled out of the drained cavity.

"I hope so," Annie said with a smile.

"You're not going to knock her down again, though, are you?" he asked.

"She almost got away!"

"Annie!" He stopped and took a breath. "Annie, I really am glad that you have such a big list of things to be thankful for today. I am.

"And we all appreciate hearing it through the day, rather than delaying the food while you give a long, long speech." She smiled and nodded.

"But you can't offer thanks the way you play Tuffball," he said urgently. The sylphs' invented game was similar to volleyball. Except where it was like soccer. And except that it allowed tackling.

Annie's smile dimmed just the littlest bit. "But, Ray, you guys... You made me feel so... Happy. I want everyone to be that happy! I can't make everyone part of a wonderful family, but I can tell them how much I love them. How much they mean to me. And how glad I am that they're on the planet. And in my life. And I want to show them how sincere I...." She stopped.

Her smile turned wry. "I sound like Pet, don't I?"

"Well, happiness is in the public domain," he assured her. "She doesn't have a copyright on feeling bubbly." He stepped carefully to the sink and more carefully washed his hands of raw fowl. Then he replaced the bucket lid.

Finally he lifted his wife to his lips and kissed her gently. She moaned as she melted against his chin. "I'm thankful for you, too," he said.

"Mmmmm, hmmmmmm," she hummed happily.

He rubbed her hair and set her down on the floor. She smiled and skipped away. When she was a few feet away from him, she turned and ran quietly to his foot.

"THANKS!" she shouted at his ankle, then ran off. Ray sat down and took a moment disentangling Amelia from his sock.

-------

Phone call rules were relaxed on Thanksgiving Day, as long as they were calls to friends and relatives.

The humans cooked while the sylphs set the table. Ray took charge of the bird and the sisters made the rolls and side dishes.

They gathered when everything was ready. Amelia offered a blessing with a critical eye aimed at Annie. That sylph, however, said the loudest Amen.

Thanks were offered from youngest to lowest, the Anthony's tradition. That meant Pet went first.

"Well, I, uh..." She gazed at Ray, Denise and Annie. Then she started to cry. Her smile said they were tears of happiness, which surprised no one.

"One down," Annie said, hugging her sister into a tight embrace.

The others were a bit better prepared, Annie had discharged her thanks through the day, and Amelia went last.

"I, uh, well. I'm thankful that we're together. Family and friends. I'm thankful for people that accept sylphs as humans and trying to advance our cause. Our mutual cause," she added, nodding to Sam.

"I'm thankful for the very powerful possibilities of your search, guys. I'm thankful to have seen, with my own dreams, that there's something there to find.

"And I'm thankful that Annie ran out of thanks to ambush me with."

"Thanks a lot," Annie snarled. Then smiled as everyone burst out laughing. "No pun intended," she giggled.

"I think that's food," Melissa said.

"Amen," Ray said, standing up with knife, fork and platter.

They started passing plates, platters, bowls and pitchers. Servings were already broken down for tiny hands, drinks were in appropriate pitchers and little velvet ropes surrounded the carving station.

They set to with a will, with about eight different conversations going on.

-----------

Ray pulled off the freeway and aimed for the Center. Samantha sighed in the passenger seat and pat him on the shoulder.

"This was great, Ray. Fosters. I needed it."

"We needed it," Amelia agreed from the deck of the carrier. She reached out. Sam plucked her up and held her close.

"Yes. Now, there's a week of work to catch up on, so this week'll be hell."

"Or," Denise said, "your very capable staff took care of what they had to. And in the future you'll know what you can delegate and who to."

"Hmmm," Sam murmured. "A thought. So. You guys are off to Florida?"

"Tampa," Ray said. "Mia and her family are expecting us. We've just got time to pack."\

He pulled into the garage. Waiting staff pulled Amelia and Sam's luggage out and whisked it away.

Samantha paused at the door, cuddling Amelia and looking at the Foster girls. They stood on the weather deck and looked back.

"Would it be allowed for me to kiss Ray thanks?" she asked.

"If you kiss us, too," Pet said. The other two smiled and nodded.



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