Annie LXIV: Sweet Dreams
(Chronological index: New World Order #11)
Denise stood on the list of day, time and GPS coordinates from the séance. She tapped a foot as she looked it over. Annie swung up to the table and walked over.
"What'cha thinkin' about, Denise?"
"These," she replied, waving at the events above the bottom. "I begin to think that we won't be restored until the very last one. If at all."
"You think that, huh?" the other sylph asked.
"Well, we've been there for gnomes and undines, but we've always been the bridesmaids to change." She crossed her arms and started to pace. "It's like we're someone's witnesses. Not participants."
"I notice that you got younger next to Mia," Annie pointed out. "We all did. Except for Pet."
Denise waved that aside. "We're not on a quest for youth," she said. "Loving husband is looking to restore wives. This," and she pointed at the last entry, "is probably where he'll get that. And stop looking"
"So what are you saying?" Annie lowered herself to sit on the page, patting a spot beside her.
"I'm saying... Well, we all wanted to be at the spots from the dream." She stepped over to sit beside her friend. "But I also want some stability. Getting up every day and going to work. Being dependable, being depended on."
Annie put an arm around Denise's shoulders. "And you don't get that in motels and airports."
"No."
"Do you want to go on ANY of the trips?"
"Sure," she replied. "My share. A third, not every." They sat quietly for a moment.
"So," Annie said, "you're looking for a polite way to tell Ray that he gets to be alone with each of his wives even more often than he is now."
"Yes," Denise said happily. "You've got it exactly!"
Annie smiled and leaned her head by the other sylph's. "Bullshit."
"What?"
"Out there in Utah. You got pissed because Pet and I still think of you as someone to be protected."
There was a long silence, then, "Maybe." Annie laughed.
"I'm sorry, Denise. I really am. But I've faced a rat. And killed it. I know I'm more accomplished in the wild. It's not that I don't think you're able, just not as...practiced as me.
"And Pet is also more accomplished at survival at our scale than you are." She lifted her head and looked back and forth theatrically. "And she really, really gets off on the idea of being your protector. Of taking care of you while you're small."
"I know all that," Denise said. "I just hate being protected by..."
"By people you're used to protecting," Annie said with a nod. "So if you're the only one there, you don't get marginalized."
There was another long silence, then, "Maybe."
-----
After Denise's speech in Jax, about seeking normalcy and a place to feel like she belonged, Ray took the 'stable lifestyle' excuse at face value.
Pet did as long as Ray was accepting it. But after they stopped discussing the matter she started to think about it.
She knocked on Denise's door about midnight. Denise got as far as a cough. Pet took that as permission to enter. She scurried across the floor and knelt by the bed.
"Denny? Are you breaking up with Ray? With us?"
Denise threw back the cover and invited Pet into a warm cuddle. She whispered in her ear. "You're my bestest friend since I can remember, Pet," she said. "I can't leave you any more than I can leave my feet."
"I'm like your foot?"
"The Pet bone's connected to the...toe bone," Denise sang.
Pet giggled. "Your toes are ticklish," she said.
"So are you," Denise pointed out. She brushed fingertips towards flannel-covered armpits. When Pet curled into a ball, Denise feinted towards lower ribs.
They were rolling across the floor tickling each other when Annie came home from her shift at Portion Control.
She heard the giggling and rushed upstairs. "NO LEVITY!" she shouted. "Some people have to get up in the morning and go to work!"
Ray finished escorting some investors as a favor for Sam and Amelia. As the other volunteers dragged their way to their rooms or their cars, he quick-marched home.
A double-tap at the sylph door alerted the wives to his return. If they were up they'd come over for a snuggle or two. Annie should be up still..
He heard the screaming as he opened the door. His first sylph, half undressed, ran across the floor of his half of the apartment. Two other figures in silk pajamas followed her, waving pillows.
Ray shook his head and walked around them.
-------------
Ray pulled into the parking lot and looked around. "This is it?" Annie asked.
"Yep." He opened the door and stepped out. Annie dug fingers into the weave of the carrier as he slung it up to the top of the car.
She stared at the sign over the campground. "There really is a Jellystone Park?"
"Yep," Ray said. "And-"
"If you try to do your Yogi Bear imitation," Annie growled, "I'll pee in your nose."
"I guess someone's spending the night in their cage," he said.
"You think I meant during your sleep?" she replied. She spun around on the ark. "Kinda flat."
"What did you expect?"
"Mountains. We're in the Rockies, right?"
"We're in the middle of the Great Lakes," he said. He turned a bit and pointed. "In fact, Lake Ontario would be thataway."
"Like I could catch you if you're wrong," she snorted. "Well, head on to the motel."
"Uh...."
---------
If you didn't drive a camper or pack a tent, there were accommodations available at Yogi's park. Colorful eight sided tents with bunk beds were scattered across the grassy fields.
"It looks like a Yurt!" Annie said. "Like Mongol hordes, Attila the Fun yurts!"
"That's what they call them," Ray said. He opened the door and slipped inside. There was a couch, a table and a pair of bunk beds.
"Tell me again why we can't stay in a motel?" Annie asked.
"The coordinates are here," he replied. "If we're not paying customers, we'd be trespassing."
"Okay," she said. He put the carrier down. She jumped down to the table. "But that'd be a Canadian misdemeanor." Two more jumps took her from table to chair to floor. "You gotta double it and add thirty to be a real crime." She wandered over to the sofa to look around beneath it.
-----
Ray walked over to the swimming pool with a robe on and a towel over his shoulder. Annie wore a tight one-piece and sat on his other shoulder. "Now don't get too far away from me," she ordered.
"I won't," he promised.
"I'd really hate to die in Canada."
"We're close to the border," he said. "Maybe an American hawk would carry you back to her nest in New York."
"We can only hope," she said.
There were a few families at the pool when they arrived. Annie scanned but didn't see any sylphs or sylph carriers.
A few eyes followed as he stepped into the pool then stood still so she could dive off his shoulder.
They swam along the edge, her between him and the side. "Oh, hey!" she said. She pointed up to the diving board. "That reminds me. Can I tell Pet about your-"
"No," he growled.
"Then when?"
"When I can tell her what you did to get me to see Urban Cowboy." She gave a little 'eep' and dove out of sight.
She got as deep as his sternum before his hands octopussed around her and raised her up. The sylph sputtered and twisted in his hand. He raised her to his face.
"I'll take that as an agreement to silence?"
"Cross my heart and hope to shrink again!" she swore. He nodded and lowered his hand. She pushed away and swam off. He kept pace.
They drove out to a restaurant for dinner. Annie suspected that Ray was trying to make up to her for the camping. She didn't make an overt comment, simply took the fine dining experience as her due.
When he ordered food with her preferences in mind, she was sure he was acknowledging her dominance in their relationship. Again, though, she merely deigned to let him bow, scrape and offer her the choicest tidbits off of his plate.
After they returned to the campsite, she cuddled in his shirt as he sat on the porch and watched the sunset. Cozy and sated, she decided to let him know she forgave him for their 'roughing it.'
"Wuv you," she murmured.
"I know," he said. He cupped a hand over her and tipped his head to kiss hers.
She purred and curled up tighter in his shirt.
------
An older guest had the next yurt over. He wandered by in the morning and greeted Ray. When he noticed the sylph he offered her a warm good-morning, too. There was something about his voice, she thought...
"You sound like a sylph owner!" she called back.
"I am," he nodded. "Though it was more of a partnership than anything else."
"Oh, we know what you mean," Annie replied. "Where's your sylph?"
"She died," he said.
"Oh, so sorry," Ray said.
"Come tell us about her," Annie invited. He took a seat on the other side of the wooden table.
Sheila had been a coworker on the Day. His eyes and voice glowed warmly as he described finding her and hammering out their relationship.
And he mentioned the dream.
"Met an old weird guy in the indoor Mall," he said. "Had a shop of odd things. Sold my Sheila a black rock. Obsidian...something. Said it would help bring us closer together."
He never noticed that neither of his listeners were breathing.
"Had a weird dream that night. That I'd shrunk as small as Sheila. We ran around the house like that. She showed me what it was like to be a sylph, what aggravated her, what I could do better.
"Heh," he laughed, wheezing like a slightly distressed accordion. "I just chased her ass. Still, woke up the next day, fixed up the house the way she wanted."
He winked at Ray and the tiny brunette on his shoulder. "Still chased her ass, if you know what I mean."
They nodded dully. "You don't seem offended," he noted. He winked once more. "Didn't think you would be." He stood up and started to walk off again. "Good memories," he said. "Thanks for listening."
When he was a good distance from them, Annie started tugging on Ray's collar. "Call Denise," she said. "NOW!"
"I'm dialing!" he assured her.
--------
That night, they sat by the table, staring at their sleeping bag. "I'd, uh..." Ray started to say. "The Day Time Group indicates midnight. I was going to stay up for it..."
"But you think it might be a dream we're here for?"
"Well, after that guy's story..." he said, waving towards the front of the yurt.
"The weird nameless old guy with a story about a weird nameless old guy?" Annie asked. "That the one?"
"So you saw him, too," he said.
"Well... We can try sleeping. And see if Grandpa Walt shows up, yelling about us getting outside in time for whatever is supposed to happen."
He nodded but made no move to stand. "What are you afraid of?" Annie asked her husband. "Being my size?"
Ray shook his head. "It's just... This is like being in a ghost story. And knowing it's a ghost story. You know?"
He looked down at his shoulder. Annie shook her head. "Raymond Foster, I've been thirty years small enough to fit inside your fist. I've seen weird things and normal things from a weird angle.
"I've seen magic and miracle and I've seen you turn down sex. I think, Ray, the least you can do is lay down go sleepy time and close your eyes to see what happens. 'Kay?"
"Okay," he said with a smile.
-------------
He stood in the mall. The same one he'd nearly lost his wife and Pet in. The halls were empty. The lights were on but no one was shopping. As far as he could see in either direction there were no people, not even security guards.
"Huh," he grunted. "Jaguars must be playing." He lifted a foot to start walking.
"HEY!" something squeaked. He looked down. Annie stumbled back from the toe of his shoe. "I thought we were supposed to be the same size!"
"We are the same size," he said as he knelt to pick her up. "I'm the same size I've been for 20 years. And you're the same..." He stopped talking at her vulgar gesture of dismissal.
"I wonder if anyone else is here?" he asked instead. After a moment's thought he started walking towards the kiosk Denise and Pet had hidden under.
"That's weird," Annie said. He looked down at his hand. She was pointing to the stores.
Colorful...things occupied the front windows. Not quite goods and no mannequins. Asymmetrical shapes floated, glowing in neon colors.
"What the hell?" he muttered.
"It's one of those alien movies!" she replied. "Beings that don't quite understand humans have recreated a human-like environment. At least, as close as they can manage."
Ray walked past a place that was usually a video-game store. Long sticks in six colors slid back and forth like a graphic arts student's 3D experiment.
"I hope we don't have to use the toilets in this human like environment," he said. He felt his wife shudder in his hand.
No one was at the fateful spot that Denise had sylphed, nor under the kiosk. He traveled far enough to make sure there was no bedding section in the spot Sears should be.
"I'm not going to the food court," he said.
"Oh! What about the fake little old lady store!"
"Good idea." He headed there. He slowed as they got close. "It looks....normal," he said.
Annie stretched over his thumb to look. It appeared to match Pet and Denise's description. Piles and piles of colorful stuff with no arrangement visible. Stuff hung from the ceiling and leaned on the walls and leaned on other junk.
"That's normal?" Annie asked.
Ray turned at the hip to point his cupped hands at the food court.
A tidal wave stood frozen on the floor, froth stretching up to ceiling and spattering on the tiles. Cardboard boxes were visible in the water and blinking lights illuminated the company logos printed on them.
He turned back to the store.
"Yep," he said. "It looks normal."
"I forego any further criticisms of your assessment," Annie said. She waved him forward.
The little old lady that had run the place stood in the exact middle of the floorspace. She watched the two approach.
"Pain," she said. Ray stopped.
"Is that a complaint or a threat?" Annie asked.
"Much pain," the lady said. "Pain in I."
"Your eye?" Annie asked.
"They both look okay," Ray said.
"Maybe it's like the Horta?" Annie suggested.
"Not hurt I," Ray said with a nod. "And no one could say if it was a promise or a plea."
"PAIN!" the woman shrieked. Ray flinched, fingers wrapping around Annie's legs to hold her safely.
"SORRY!" Annie shouted back.
"Stop pain," the woman said, pointing at the sylph.
"Love to. How?"
"Or...did she create sylphs...to stop the pain?" Ray suggested.
"Still leaving it on my shoulders," Annie said sarcastically. "Well, me and a few billion sylphs. And undines. And gnomes."
"What can we do?" Ray asked. The wrinkled face broke into a brilliant smile. Light shone from the teeth like they were electric.
Annie raised a hand against the glare. Ray pulled her in close.
Then he was in the sleeping bag, dragging her across his pillow. She woke and stared in his eyes.
After a moment, he sat up and looked around. "We need to do some research," he said.
"Aha!" Annie said. "To the library!" She paused and placed a hand on his wrist. "Breakfast first, though, right?"
"I was thinking more of room service," he said, opening the bag and slipping his legs to the floor. "And wireless internet."
"There's no room service here," she protested. He winked. "Oooh," she said. "We're done roughing it?" He nodded. She clapped her hands.
------------
He picked up the last raspberry and lay back on the sheets. Annie opened her mouth as he lowered the fruit towards her. Then he crushed it, juice dripping down onto her bare body.
She giggled as he licked her clean. "Oh, I needed that," she sighed.
"Okay. Next camping trip, I'll pack food."
"Not what I meant," she snarled. He kissed her belly, though, and she forgave him everything. Even crimes he hadn't committed yet.
"Break over?" he asked when he finally raised his head.
"Yes, Ray," she said. "I'm warm, sated in three hungers and indoors. Let's see what there is to see."
He smiled and reached for a robe.
"It appears," he said a little bit later, "that there are more than a few people having our experience."
There were so many reports that dream interpretation sites were referring to it as a class of dream: The Sympathy Sylphing.
Owners of sylphs repeatedly reported meeting a wrinkled little man in a strange little store. The strange old woman was under represented in the general literature. There were reports during a three month period around the time of Denise and Pet's experience, but not before or after.
Dream interpreters figured it was an anomaly associated with Hillary Clinton's presidential bid. No one but Pet and Denise had heard anything about sex curses.
Anyway, after meeting him and commenting on the story stereotype, they went home and shared a dream with their pet.
Most reported an increase in the owner/pet bond, or at the very least a willingness to make the sylph's life more comfortable.
"So, differences," Annie said. She paced back and forth on the keyboard. "You didn't shrink in the dream. The old lady was a lady. And the old lady didn't make sense."
"Well, no one else met the old lady in the dream," Ray pointed out. "They were all running around the home or the office."
"And this dream didn't seem to increase the owner/pet bond," Annie finished.
"It didn't?" Ray replied in mock shock. Annie glanced from him to the bed and the raspberry stained sheet.
"I don't think there's much need for improving our relationship, lover." She noticed his chest swell out the tiniest bit. "Yes, Ray, you're a stud. Annie happy."
"You're not too bad yourself, woman," he said. "But you know that."
"I surely do," she nodded. "Okay, so our dream was different. And what does that mean?"
"Deliah," he said. "Her theory? Alien as in not-man intellect trying to communicate. To stop the pain."
"But whose pain?"
"Gaia. Earth mother goddess or self-aware biosphere. She offers rewards for cleaning up pollution."
"But why didn't she offer that first?" Annie asked. "Why sylphs, then undines?"
"Well," Ray drawled. She looked up to see his expression. He thought she didn't see his hand sneaking up behind her. "Undines need to be loved sylphs. Maybe we had to forge those relationships first."
"Prove you're worthy of the gift, then the gift." She nodded, looking to the far wall. "If you're going to snatch me up the air for a cuddle," she said, "to underscore the 'loved sylph' idea..." She saw his hand flinch and draw back.
Annie sighed and raised her arms. "You have permission to do so." He laughed and obeyed.
------------
Ray had a window seat on the way back. A mother with four children had the rest of the row. Twin boys sat between the Fosters and the aisle.
Annie had an audience.
She got her licks in quickly. The ten year olds stared as she ordered her 'owner' around almost continuously.
He smiled and cooperated. Adjusted the air, adjusted the window shade, read to her from the inflight magazine, cupped her in his hands because the air was too cold...
They looked a little shaky as the plane started to rumble down the runway. Their mother was busy with the baby and the toddler on the other side.
Annie winked at Ray and pretended to be scared. Very scared. The previously dominant woman practically collapsed in his hands while the engines whined.
He calmed her fictitious fears for the audience's benefit, speaking loudly and clearly about how it was normal, it was safe, about how many planes took off and landed each day without anyone getting hurt.
In the air, she relaxed and asked to go into the soundproofed carrier. He set her down and smiled. They both knew what she was abandoning him to.
After years of family reunions, though, he had practiced answers to most of the questions the boys fired at him
Sylph care and sylph training kept their minds off the flight and their mom freed for tinier children. If their interest flagged, tales of naughty pet behavior brought out giggles then more questions.
He brought his wife out again for the landing. She went into her fear dance once more, he kept her calm, and she suffered one careful pat on the head from each of the boys.
Then they were home. Dream speculation kept them up for hours, though no answers were identified.
Ray finally tucked them into the special pocket on the end of his pillow and they drifted to sleep.
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