Annie XLVIII: Guests

(Chronological index: Summer before Ray starts college)

Ray was making a peanut butter sandwich for an afternoon snack when Dad came home.

He had a large sylph carrier in his hands. Ray picked up Annie and his plate to make room on the counter. They stared at the carrier.

"Long story," Dad said. He pat the box and went up to his bedroom to change out of his work clothes.

Three tiny faces looked out and around the kitchen. They smiled when they saw Annie and waved.

Annie and her owner both waved back in a bit of a daze.

Mom came home as Ray was cutting the sandwich to little tiny bites and Annie serving through the holes. The sylph women still inside made appreciative noises.

The side of the carrier facing the door had a banner painted on it, boasting that it held the hottest desktop strippers on the entire East Coast.

"Strippers?" she asked. Ray's eyes bulged. Annie took a step back from the carrier.

"Hey! That's us!" someone inside said.

"I had nothing to do with this," Ray promised his mother.

"He didn't," Annie vouched. "Dad brought it in and said 'Long Story.' Then he went to change."

"Short, long," Mom shrugged. "It had just better be a damned good one."

-----

Dad had everyone together when he told the story. The strippers were out of the carrier but still confined. The gallon jug they made sun tea in was in the center of the table.

The girls seemed not to mind it and lounged or looked around the room.

Annie stayed near Ray and watched them.

"Let's see," Dad said. "It was Porter's birthday today. His fortieth. And Cathy thought it was significant enough to need some significant celebration."

"Cathy hired them?" Mom asked. She noticed her son staring at the scantily clad women. She reached over to close his mouth and turn it towards his father. "Pay attention to the speaker, Ray."

"Yes, ma'am." He turned obediently. He probably even thought his mom couldn't see where his eyes were focused.

"No," Dad was saying. "Cathy is long on ideas, short on actual experience. She couldn't hire a hoo- A stripper if her life depended on it. So she got Wes to do it.

"Wes has a weird sense of humor so instead of getting a regular stripper with the money we contributed he got the trio, here.

"They have a take-home policy?" Mom asked. Dad made a 'wait' gesture. She took a deep breath. Dad spoke a little faster.

"So, anyway, this guy, Finder, he shows up with the girls. Um. Ray, Annie, Gwen, these are the girls: Jaclyn, Rosie and Jill. Girls, this is my family, Gwen, Ray and Annie."

The girls said hi. Gwen nodded. Annie waved again.

"Finder brings the girls to the lobby and Cathy was going to bring them back but she chickened out and sent Ted. We all get into the conference table and they had a cake and they put the women on it and they started-"

"They did what strippers do, right?" Mom asked. Dad nodded. "Then skip to the part about how they came home with you."

"Well, they were really good-"

"Thanks!"

"No problem, I thought you were-"

"AHEM!"

"Anyway, Parker loved it, and Jason loved it, but a little too much and he started to have a heart attack."

"Oooh!"

"Yeah, he sank down to the floor and we called for an ambulance. And they called the safety office to alert them. They thought we were calling them first, so they called an ambulance.

And we called security to make sure they let the ambulance into the plant, and they misunderstood and THEY called an ambulance.

"So our supervisor, Jeff, he doesn't hear anything about strippers or a heart attack until about a dozen paramedics burst into Building 43 and ask where all the victims are.

"Then they find Cathy and follow her. Finder's been trying to get the girls back in his cage and take them out but Frieda insists that the hour isn’t up and they should stop the clock until Jason's either on a gurney or in a body bag.

"Jason hears that and his heartbeat goes all to hell and the paramedics ask everyone to leave. But they're in front of the door. Jeff's on the other side of this big sprawl of Jason and ten or twelve medical boxes and bags. He's shouting at us that the company won't be sued if Jason dies.

"Then fingers start to get pointed. Someone says if anyone's at fault for the heart attack it's whoever hired the strippers. Someone else points a finger at Ted for bringing them in, he blames Cathy, she tells him... Well, terse things.

"Then Finder decides he's had enough and lunges for the girls. Frieda shouts something about the hour, Cathy shouts something about material witness, Porter says there's still some icing left-"

"Icing?" Ray asked. "What does icing have to do with-?"

"I"ll tell you later," Dad promised.

Mom and Annie both said, "Ahem?"

"Maybe," Dad corrected. He leaned back in his chair. "So where were we? Well, there was a physical altercation and when it was over Cathy was sitting against the window with a black eye, Peter was bleeding and Finder was unconscious under the table with half a cake jammed up his nose.

"The six or seven paramedics that couldn't reach Jason had something to do, then. They mob the pimp and-"

"Hey!" Rosie shouted.

"Sorry," Dad said. "Your agent."

"Damned straight," Jill said.

"They mob the agent. The cops show up then." He paused when he noticed his wife grinding her teeth.

"So, anyway, later Jeff takes me aside and says someone has to take care of the strippers for the weekend, until permanent arrangements can be worked out. And he thinks it should be me because everyone else is in custody or intensive care, and I own a sylph."

"Hey!" Ray and Annie said together.

"In his eyes," Dad explained. They withdrew their objections.

"And TADA!" Jaclyn shouted. "Nice place you have, Mrs. Gwen."

"Um...thank you, um...."

"Jaclyn," the sylph said.

"Thank you, Jaclyn."

"Okay, um, well, what were you going to do with them?"

Dad shrugged. "Remember that this wasn't my idea." Mom nodded. "Well, I don't want to risk them running away."

"We wouldn't!" Jill promised. Dad shook his head.

"If you don't, you don't. But if you do, I get sued by your owner."

"Oh, yeah," Jaclyn said. "That's just what he'd do." The others nodded.

"And I don't want...anyone hurt." Everybody turned to look at Annie.

"I swear to the god that shrank me," Rosie said, "we would never hurt another sylph."

"Unless Finder told us to," Jaclyn added. "And that costs extra." Annie shuddered and took another step back towards Ray's hand.

"And speaking of cost, we haven’t hired you for anything here," Mom said. "And I don't want this Finder person coming back saying we owe him for a strip show or icing dance or a passion cake."

"What's a passion cake?" Ray asked. The girls tittered. Annie rolled her eyes and the parents laughed. "What?" he asked, projecting innocence.

"You waited a beat too long to ask the question," Dad said.

"Yeah," Mom agreed. "You obviously thought up the need to ask the question to pretend ignorance." He blushed and looked down.

"Don't worry, Miss Gwen," Jill said. "We'll consider everyone in the house off limits." The others nodded. The humans looked at each other.

"Clothes," Annie said suddenly. "I can loan them some shirts, shorts... Anything to look less salacious."

"And a washrag?" Jaclyn said hopefully.

"I can give you guys a bath," Ray volunteered.

"The hell you can!" Mom said.

"You wanna do it?" Dad asked. Mom shook her head. "Then, seriously, do you want me to do it?" Mom's eyes widened. "Because either they spend the weekend slightly sticky from the icing or they get washed.

"And if we're not going to let them run free, someone has to supervise them."

"In the interests of a happy marriage," Ray said, "I think I must do it."

"In the interest of not drowning in your drool," Annie replied, "I'll do it."

"You can't do it!"

"You wear a blindfold, I'll direct you and supervise from your shoulder."

"I like the blindfold," Mom said. "Just make sure there are no attempts to read Braille."

Jaclyn laughed and crossed her arms over her breasts. The others laughed a beat later as they got the joke.

Ray protested. "What's wrong with nudity? I've lived with a nude Annie for five years!"

"Thanks so much for reminding me," Annie snarled.

" But you don't think of Annie that way," Mom said. "I don't want you soaping up three naked strippers. So I don't want you watching three naked strippers soap up. It will lead places I don't want you going. At least until you're far away and I can pretend you're still innocent."

"Ha!" Annie laughed. She quieted instantly as Mom's gaze descended to focus on the little sylph. "Cough cough," she said, pounding her chest. "Cough."

-----

Up in Ray's room, the girls stood in the jar and watched as Annie clipped a shoelace to her laundry bag.

She picked up six of her seven t-shirts and held them up to the side of the jar. The pet strippers were quite surprised to get choices.

"Finder always picks out our clothes," Rosie said.

"When we wear clothes," Jill added. They picked the colors they wanted and Annie put those in the mesh.

"I only have four pair of shorts," she said apologetically. "And I'm wearing one, so..."

"They'll be fine," Jaclyn assured her.

"Alright, then," she said. "Ray? Did you find a blindfold?"

"I can put this knitted cap on," he said. He donned it and stretched it down over his eyes. Annie looked at him speculatively.

"Can you see well enough to get to the bathroom? I don't want you tumbling down the stairs while you carry us."

"Oh, I can see well enough," he said. "There's no danger of....." The sylphs all laughed. "Whoops."

He ended up wrapping an old T-shirt around his head, then kneeling while Annie inspected.

His casual compliance with his pet's orders impressed the sylphs to no end. "Oh, it's only cause he knows I'll tell Mom," she said modestly. But their respect did thrill her inside.

Ray very carefully lifted Annie to his shoulder and groped for the jar. The waiting sylphs guided his efforts, giggling and teasing just a little. Annie saw no harm in that and let it go.

He put the jar down on the sink counter and felt for the tub's faucet. Annie made sure the water was an acceptable temperature, then told him when to turn it off.

The girls had stripped in the jar and piled their delicates. Knowledge that this was happening made Ray bounce into walls even more then the blindfold did.

"Don't worry, kid," Jaclyn called. "When you tell this story at school, you can make it come out any way you want."

"Not with Annie on my shoulder," he said.

"Eh," Annie shrugged. "Tell it how you want. As long as there's no part of the story with 'and then little Annie turned to the blonde and said I've always been curious,' I won't bitch."

She tied one end of the shoelace into a loop and lowered it into the jar. The girls grabbed it. Ray lifted them out and lowered them into the bath.

"Oh, it's so WARM!" Jaclyn cheered.

"We only get hot water when we bathe with Finder," Jill said. Under her foot, Annie could feel Ray's pulse race even faster.

"Well, take your time," Annie said. "Be comfortable and all that." She started to tap her foot in time to the giant's pulse.

When they were good and clean, and complaining about how they were shriveled, and Raymond had scooped up their lingerie out of the jar, Annie had him let the water out.

They guided his efforts to lower washcloths to them. All three girls giggling and saying, 'Left,' and 'Lower' and 'No, no, no! MY lower!'

Annie thought Raymond was going to need a lay down afterwards. They dried themselves, then Annie had him lower the bag of clothes, then allowed him to remove the blindfold.

Her shirts and shorts were rather tight on the stripper's voluptuous bodies. "I figure looking at them is a reward for your cooperation, Raymond," Annie said. He nodded dully.

Then he placed them into the jar. Annie did notice he took twice as long to pick them up and let them down as it usually took him to handle her. But she forbore comment.

She giggled, but no comment.

---------

Dad and Raymond found and made up the old hamster cage at Annie's direction. Soft cloths were folded over new sponges and one bean bag alligator.

The water bottle leaked by so they had to have a Dixie cup instead. "Someone will have to check that regularly," Dad mused. Raymond volunteered so fast he nearly knocked Annie over.

They put it on the table for dinner. The strippers were so taken with sharing the family's meal that two started to cry.

"We get...birdseed," Rosie explained.

"I used to," Annie said. "Some TV expert said it was good for sylphs. Then some other TV expert said that was a load of sizist hooey."

Mom's suspicion of the strippers started to crumble about then. She made sure they had plenty to eat and even gave each one a marshmallow to tide them through the night.

Raymond carried the cage carefully to the spare bedroom and set it down on the dresser. Annie slid down his arm to... to...

"To make sure they're okay," her owner suggested, "without a giant near by that might limit their frankness."

"Yeah, good one!" Annie said. She flashed a thumbs up, he winked and left, leaving the door open just a crack.

"He really likes you," Rosie observed.

"They all do," Jaclyn said with a sigh.

"What?" she asked. "Doesn't Finder like you guys?"

"He likes what he can get with us," Jill said.

"How did you guys..." Annie's voice trailed off. The women in the cage smiled and traded looks.

"What's a good girl like you doing on a passion cake?" Jill asked.

"Well...yeah?" She sat up straight and held her hands out. "If you don't mind my asking, of course."

"Annie," Rosie said, "we strip for giants on command. We have no privacy."

"But we appreciate the thought," Jaclyn said quickly. "Don't we, guys?" The others nodded.

"Well, I shrank on The Day," Rosie said. "I was giving this guy a lap dance and I felt all...woozy."

"You were already a stripper?" Annie asked.

"Back then, I'd have insisted I was an exotic dancer. But...yeah. Anyway, next thing I knew I was straddling his lap, and it kept getting bigger and bigger. This guy starts freaking and scrambling to get away from me.

"I roll down his pant leg, where Finder grabs me and stuffs me down his shorts. I wake up in his trailer. He holds up a Polaroid, tells me to grab my ankles and smile for the camera."

"His business plan hasn't really changed since then," Jill said with a small smile.

"I, on the other hand, did not shrink on the day." Annie turned to face Jaclyn through the bars. "I was working at a pet store. About two weeks after the Sylph Act passed. I was..."

The other two giggled when she paused. Annie leaned forward. "I was making up the display rack for the sylphs we were going to start selling." She shook her head. "Suddenly I'm straddling the rail around the stack of cages, screaming for help.

"Jed, my boss, lifts me carefully up, brushes my panties off my shoulder, and puts me in a cage!"

"That sucks," Annie said.

"Damned straight! I wasn't even supposed to be there that day!"

The others laughed. A beat later, Annie joined them. Jaclyn smiled and shrugged. "I was the first one to go on sale at the Regency Petco. And the first one Finder paid money for."

"He needed a redhead to fill out the set," Jill explained.

"So you were his third?" Annie asked.

"Fourth," Jaclyn said.

"The first Jaclyn ran away," Rosie said. "And Finder had just had business cards printed with three tiny mud-flap figures."

"Did she....make it..?" Annie started to ask. The others shook their heads.

"We don't talk about One Jaclyn," Jill said.

So they talked about other things. Annie got an earful.

She'd suspected life in the pet store would suck. She'd only thought about the customers, though. Not the employees who had time on their hands after the store closed. As long as they left no permanent marks, most employers were pretty indulging.

She was surprised to find that none of the three were lesbians. But when they landed in the icing there just wasn't anyone asking their preferences.

Some of the services Finder made available to his high roller clients made her skin crawl. Some nearly made her vomit.

"How do you stand it?" Annie whispered.

"Finder's willing to do...things..to motivate his pets," Rosie said.

That's when they stopped talking about the trio's life and turned to Annie's.

She complained about Raymond, of course. Or she started to. Halfway through her first 'he nearly killed me' story, she reached his apology.

And stopped. The deep, wistful sighs from the cage struck her like a hammer.

Raymond had been insensitive, sure. But he'd been twelve. He'd been inquisitive, but never picked up a toothpick and... She shuddered and tried not to think about Rosie's initiation.

He'd been horny...but he'd stopped Helen's rape party. He'd saved her from... Gordy, that was it. Master had rescued her. And beaten the crap out of those assholes.

She blushed deeply. Lucky for her, the soiled doves in the cage probably couldn't see her through the deepening gloom. She wondered what time it was? It'd be a long climb to bed if Raymond had already gone up... She should probably-

A hand snaked through the bars and gently touched her wrist. A voice, Rosie, asked her gently. "Annie? Tell us about Ray."

"Raymond," she said automatically. "Mom says he's Raymond until he moves out. But he put Ray on all his college forms."

"Then tell us about Raymond," Jill said just as quietly.

"I've got to be..."

There was a knock on the door. After a moment's hesitation, Raymond opened the door. "Annie?"

"Raymond?"

The light was on in the hall. She saw he held something in his hand. "Annie I was about to go upstairs."

"Right, right," she said, grabbing a bar of the cage to climb to her feet. "I'll just say goodnight to-"

"Actually," he said. "If you want to stay here a bit longer..." He put her bedding down on the table.

"I know you don't get to talk to too many sylphs that aren't assholes," he said.

"Not many," she said quietly.

"So, you know, if you want to come upstairs, that's fine. But if you want to hang out..."

Her first response caught in her throat. She was coming to realize she really was lucky. For a sylph, anyway.

Then she remembered she'd sworn never to reveal growing feelings for her captor years before.

"You just were hoping the girls sleep in the nude, weren't you? And needed an excuse to tuck everyone into bed!"

The caged sylphs tittered as Raymond blustered and swore innocence. While moving to stand where his shadow didn't block light from illuminating the cage.

Annie figured he was sincere but wasn't about to let him off.

He retreated after a few minutes of abuse, avowing his respect of all beautiful sylphs and counting the current gathering of beauties at four.

Then the door was nearly closed, the hall light off and they were alone.

Four deep sighs interrupted a group chuckle.

Annie dragged her bed closer to the cage and curled up in her blanket. "He made me an entire pan of brownies once..."

-----------

Finder's injuries were not too severe. The hospital released him after 24 hours of observation. Where the police picked him up.

The various claims and counter claims and assaults of the birthday party brought LEO scrutiny to all the players. And Finder had a few warrants outstanding in a state that had a very robust extradition treaty with Florida.

As far as Dad could tell on Monday, his feet MAY have touched ground twice before he was on a plane headed north.

No charges were filed in Florida that would interfere with the prosecution awaiting him up there. His attorney went about liquidating Finder's assets to pay for his legal fees and those his former client was about to start owing.

His search for the sylphs started with Cathy and made it to Porter. Porter had been very impressed with their act and offered a decent sum for the whole set.

Annie was surprised that they didn't react to the news with glee.

"Well... Porter seemed a nice guy at the party," Rosie said. She twisted on her feet as Annie and Raymond watched.

"But all the guys seem nice at the start of a gig," Jill finished.

"We just don't know what Porter's like," Jaclyn explained.

"Dad says he's-" Raymond stopped as Jill and Rosie raised their hands.

"Your dad's never been inside Porter's bedroom, inside Porter's boxers," Jill pointed out. Raymond nodded. Annie winced.

Dad announced that a car had pulled up in the driveway. Rosie stood and stripped off Annie's shirt. The rest took off their clothes and handed them out to the young sylph.

"Thanks for everything," Jaclyn said. She blew a kiss up to Raymond. Annie kicked his elbow. He shut his mouth and said it was all his pleasure.

Dad escorted Porter in. He seemed strangely subdued as he looked down on his new pets.

"Hi," he said. "I'm, uh, Bill Porter. I'm, uh..."

"Our new owner," Jill finished. "It's okay. You can say it."

"I dunno," he replied. "It's kinda new to me."

"You saw us naked and you bought us when you had a chance," Rosie said. She shrugged. "Better than being in a cell block with our old owner, Master."

"Yeah, well, about the nude..." He reached into a jacket pocket. Out came six blister packs of sylph outfits. "You don't have to nude for a living any more." He slid the packs between the bars, into the cage one at a time. "I mean, I have a steady job."

He looked around. "Was there a carrier?"

"Take the cage," Dad said. "The carrier's a bit...dingy."

Once the girls could breathe again, they offered profuse thanks to both men. Then they ripped into the packs for pants, skirts, blouses.

"With real buttons!" Rosie squealed.

They were still trading and trying things on as the door shut behind Parker.

Raymond stepped to the window sill and held Annie. She watched the human smile as he carefully placed the cage in the passenger seat and belted it in.

"I think they're going to be okay," Dad said. "What do you think, Raymond?"

"He thinks he'll never see them naked, again," Annie said. "And dat make him vewwy saaaaaad."

"Shut up," Raymond said.

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