Annie LXXXVI: Permanent Changes

(Chronological index: Lasting Changes 2)

Ray thought the girls looked more than a little weird, going to the mall wearing his clothing.

Annie assured him that people who were reasonably comfortable being naked in public didn't care about mens-cut jeans and t's.

The first stop was clothes, of course. Ray suggested Denise and Pet take Annie into a dressing room, while he went to comic book store down the hall.

Annie twisted his earlobe just enough to get his attention.

"Someone is going to ask, do I look good in this," she hissed at his ear. "And the person they want to look good for had better be sitting patiently outside, ready to tell them how good they look."

"Of course," he said.

"If you behave," she said in slightly softer tones, "maybe we'll let you run around in the mall alone, later."

"Because fashion stores don't have lollypops?"

"That's right. Now. Sit on the bench. Do NOT offer to help people change clothes, do not knock on dressing rooms, do not go anywhere or help anyone zip up."

"Yes, ma'am," he said with a nod.

Pet giggled as she held out her hand for Annie. Ray eased away from the outstretched limb. "I dunno," he said. "Annie has bruises from the last time you held her. Sylphs are delicate-"

"I will tie your nose hairs together," Annie said. She grabbed his hair and leaned forward. "Pet's not mad at me anymore. And she has to learn how to be gentle."

"I'll be gentle," she promised. "Even if I'm mad, I promise to be gentle!"

"I know you will, Pet." Ray leaned forward and kissed her cheek. She took Annie and started to walk around the store.

Denise was draping several things over her arm. A sales lady looked on with an odd expression. Denise looked from Pet in Ray's clothes, down to her own covering and the pile.

"It's okay," she assured the woman. "We lost our luggage. The guy with the checkbook, all HIS stuff made it through safely."

Annie and Denise helped Pet find at least two outfits that stopped Ray's breathing. Denise picked two more for herself that had similar superpowers.

Pet kept hesitating to try new things. Annie kept urging her on.

Finally they had several bags of garments. Ray compared the cubic footage to the now-undersized rental car.

"I think it'll fit," he said.

"I have confidence in your grasp of spatial relationships," Annie said from Pet's hands. "Now, your assignments are to get that stuff stowed, then go find two suitcases for Pet and Denise and their stuff."

"Where do we wait?" Pet asked.

"Pet, part of the way your new size works," Annie explained, "you can go do things alone."

"I don't want to be alone, though."

"Oh, it's okay," Annie assured her. "I'll be there with you."

"Oh. Okay, I can be alone as long as I'm not the only one there." Pet blinked as Denise and Ray laughed.

"Okay," Annie went on. "New giants get to spend an hour wandering around being giants. I'll keep Pet out of trouble. Denise has things she's missed for a few years and doesn't want to have to explain."

The redhead nodded, eyes on the distant horizon. "So, I propose that Ray gets two suitcases and stuffs the car, then goes to the food court and waits for us to come find him. In an hour."

"I'll swing through the book store," he said as he shouldered his burden like an obedient pack mule with thumbs. "So I'll have something to read. Take your time." He turned towards the exit by the car. "Everyone has money?"

Denise showed the credit card she'd used to buy the clothes. Annie tapped Pet's shoulder. She fished another card out of her pocket. Ray nodded, kissed everyone awkwardly and staggered off.

Pet and Denise had a closer kiss and hug, Annie got a pat on the head and Denise walked off.

Pet stood in the hallway of the mall, looking left and right in awe.

"Left turn," Annie said.

"Why?"

"Do you trust me?" Annie asked. "I mean, aside from forcing you to change sizes. You enjoyed kissing Ray, didn't you?"

"It was nice," Pet agreed.

"Then trust me. Turn to your left."



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Mall stores were amazing. Mannequins had different stances and amazingly different expressions.

Writing was everywhere. All too many modern sylphs couldn't read so bright lights and pictures were the basis of their advertising.

And most of the sylph stores had aimed at the human owners, anyway. Now anyone that wasn't serving a customer looked at HER. Hoped SHE would step in, ask for goods or services, offer HER money.

"Like the attention?" Annie guessed. Pet nodded. "Forgive me, yet?"

"I don't know," Pet admitted. "Ask me after tonight."

"Oh, that's the easiest- Here! I knew I saw this place on the map! Here!"

Pet stood outside of a pet store. "Irony?"

"Shut up. Go inside."

"Hang on," Pet said absently. She tried to read all the posters on the windows. "Sylphs are on sale for 75% and 50% and 25% off? That's more than 100%, isn't it?"

"No, there's a line through the numbers," Annie pointed out. "They were 25% off, then 50, then 75."

"Why are they in a hurry?" Pet asked.

"If they don't sell them by the time the Amendment is ratified," Annie explained, "then they'll never make any money on them. But no one wants to buy them, because if the Amendment passes, they lose the cost of buying them. NOW can we go inside?"

"Okay." Pet drifted through the door. A saleswoman looked up and smiled. When she saw the sylph on the customer's shoulder, the smile widened.

"Looking for a friend for your little friend?" she asked hopefully.

"I don’t know," Pet started to say.

"My friend, here," Annie explained loudly, "has never had a pet. She wants to see a puppy. And a kitty." Pet gasped. Annie kept talking. "And then we want to talk to your sylphs."

"They, uh, they're on sale," the clerk said, turning towards the front window. "We have three-"

"Yeah, yeah," Annie said. "Last item on the agenda. "Can she hold a puppy?"

"Sure." Back by the dog cages were little rooms set aside. Annie demanded a puppy, terrier if possible. Then had Pet sit on the floor. She stayed on the bench, close to her friend.

The puppy was a Labrador. All four limbs and tail were wiggling as it smelled Pet. She flinched a bit as the creature crawled towards her and tried to get up into her lap.

"Don't be afraid of it," Annie said calmly.

"Doggie," Pet said softly.

"Pet his head." Annie watched her friend overcome a lifetime of cautious respect for relatively domesticated pets that lived among the humans.

This beast was playful, but even a playful puppy could be lethal in the vicinity of a sylph.

Slowly, she came to understand, to feel, that his slobber-driven assault on her pants and arm and leg weren't hurting her. She pat his head, pet his back, then slowly lifted him.

He kissed her cheerfully and she started to giggle. Annie wiped her eyes and smiled.

After a few minutes Pet was even sorry to see the puppy get taken away. Another clerk deposited a kitten. It sat and stared up at Pet. Pet cringed and drew back.

It stalked forward. "Eep."

"Don't be afraid of the kitten," Annie said. Pet shuddered. More lifetime conditioning, and a terrible fright at Carla's home, drove her into the corner.

The kitten crept carefully closer.

"Oh, Pet! Come on! You hugged a goddamned hippo! Pet kitty!"

She finally tried it, but she didn't like it. The kitten liked her, though. It pressed at her lap a few times then settled in to sleep.

"What do I do?" she asked.

"Well, you're doomed now, it's claimed you as its prey."

"Eep!"

"Oh, come ON!" She jumped to Pet's shoulder and stroked the big, quivering cheek. "It's okay. You don't have to like cats. I just...I wanted you to have the chance. To hold one, to see it wasn't frightening. Nothing to be scared of."

The purring monster in her lap kept Pet from moving for a full minute. The sales lady finally bent down to scoop up the slavering beast and rescue fair princess.

"To the sylphs!" Annie shouted.

Pet leaned on the edge of the enclosure and lowered Annie to the shredded foam.

The three sylphs in the enclosure stared at one or the other or tried to keep both in view.

"What....what do you want?" a young woman asked. The two males stepped in front of her protectively.

"What do I want?" Annie asked. "Hmmm. Well. I have a holding company in my name with slots for fifteen sylphs. Either to be owned by the company, or after the Amendment, to be co-owners until they can buy out their contract."

"What?" the man on the right asked. Annie winked at him.

"Real simple. You guys want to live in Uhuru? Have you heard about Uhuru?"

"They play CNN during the night," the woman said, nodding towards a TV high on the wall. Right now it was showing a DVD about hamster care.

"Okay, then. Well, my friends are rich and we own property near the deva complex. If you want to live there, get jobs in the University, or maybe working directly for the deva or...or whatever, we'll buy you."

"And then we'll owe you?" the man on the right asked suspiciously.

"I could get my friend to buy you anyway," Annie said.

"Not if they don’t want me to," Pet said. They had forgotten about her. Her voice shocked them a bit. "Sorry. I just... I was a sylph. If you don't want to come with us, I understand."

She reached down for Annie. That sylph was having a hard time keeping a straight face. It was as if they'd rehearsed this. "Come on, Annie. Maybe someone'll buy them. Or if the Amendment fails, someone'll want a pet or a Passion Cake decoration."

Her hands were gentle on Annie's waist and she lifted her up.

"Wait," the woman and one man said. "Please...?"



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The food court was in the basement of the mall, a depression below the main floor located at the center of the mall.

The two levels above it had holes so people could look down on it from way up high.

Pet got to the railing on the first floor and looked down to find Ray. Annie found him quickly and verified he was alone.

She'd been terrified that Denise would be there with him, alone. Alone and canoodling. She didn't really think he'd play favorites between his two wives, but there was a risk he'd fall back in old habits.

And Pet would be marginalized by those habits. She'd be devastated, Denise would feel guilty and Annie would be up to her hips in Ray's chest cavity, stabbing and digging and stabbing some more.

But he was alone. As Pet finally found him and started for the stairs, Annie saw Denise. She was on the second floor, looking down at Pet.

Waiting. Allowing Pet to be the first one tall wife to get back to Ray.

This was going to work out, Annie thought to herself.

Ray's smile shone as he recognized his wife's approach. It faltered a bit when he saw the pet store carrier. Annie could read his face like a jumbo-tron.

'Oh, good lord, she's bought kitty,' was first. Then he realized she would still be fearful of a cat. Then he sagged at the thought of taking care of a puppy. All the things pooped on or chewed up or both.

Then he saw the little hands on the plastic mesh. He was confused about Pet's need for pet sylphs. Then he realized they were not going to be kept. And that Annie or Pet was doing their thing to free a few more sylphs. Passing it forward, as it were. He smiled again, sincere and happy.

All between seeing Pet by the Burger King and her passing the end of the Wendy's counter.

He stood to help her to a chair beside him, kissing her and taking Annie in hand for another kiss.

Some people around them muttered but Ray either didn't hear them or didn't care. Annie wriggled in his grip and smiled back at him.

"Who are these?"

"Annie Enterprises Employee's Six, Seven and Eight," she said.

"Huh," Ray said. "She doesn’t look Eightish. Adopted?"

"Don't tease them," Pet said. Her voice was lower than he'd have expected, even with the fact she no longer squeaked like a chew toy when she was angry.

"Never again," he promised. He leaned down to look in the disposable cage. "Anyone want part of a hamburger?"

"Yes, please," Six said. Ray nodded.

"One value menu hamburger," he said. "What do you want?" Pet sat quietly. "Pet? You get a whole meal, now."

"OH! Well... Um... I..."

"Bacon double cheese," Annie stage-whispered. Pet nodded. Ray stood and aimed for the nearest food counter. Annie jumped from his grip to land on the table.



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Ray made something of a production in unwrapping the burger. Pet watched his every move, eyes wide. He cut off pieces with a plastic fork and made them available to the new sylphs and Annie.

She took slivers off by hand and dipped them in the ketchup cup. The watching sylphs followed her every move, eyes wide, then copied her.

Sounds of amazement and enjoyment came from the interior as kibble-raised sylphs got real food.

Well, Annie thought, real soy and real filler and real cheap cheese product and grease and bread. But hell, even fake human food beat the kibble with a stick.

Denise tapped Ray on the shoulder and got some cash to buy her own burger. Pet watched her walk off, then saw that Ray was starting to unwrap his own meal. She paused, trying to decide who to watch do what.

"There will be time, Pet," he said, "to learn how to buy your own meal." He smiled and she stared.

He had read her like a scroll. He knew what she was thinking! Just like he always knew what Annie was thinking! They were connected!

It wasn't just how Ray dealt with his favorite sylphs, it was how Ray knew his favorite PEOPLE inside and out!

She hopped up to kiss him, overbalancing on the end of the table's plastic bench. Just before she sprawled on the floor, he grabbed her arm and kept her from landing.

"You okay?" he asked. She nodded, carefully getting herself back up onto her seat.

"So, anyway, remember how Denise had to learn how to use her sylph body right after the change?"

"Oh, yeah, the mass and muscle and reflexes all changed and she-"

Ray's eyes were flexing back and forth. She glanced down. Three sylphs had stopped eating and stared at her curiously.

"Just think about that," Ray said.

"Okay," she agreed.

Denise brought back a salad. She made her own production of getting everything just right, putting a fork through a bit of lettuce, some carrot, dressing, half a cherry tomato and some other things.

Her reaction to the first bite looked almost like she had achieved sexual release. Pet blushed.

Then Denny did the same thing once more and offered it to Pet. "Take it. One big bite. It's blue cheese, your favorite."

"I'm already eating a burger, Denny," Pet protested.

"A kids' meal," Ray said. "You're going to have plenty of room to take a bite or two. You have to learn to take smaller portions than you're used to, but this should be okay."

"Oh." She opened her mouth. Denny fed her a bite of salad. "Oh. OOOOOH!" The flavors... She understood Annie's most repeated bitch about life as a sylph.

The sylph mouth could never take one bite that had lettuce and tomato and crouton and...and...and... The textures were varied, the flavors, so many, many flavors. All over her mouth and tongue and cheeks.

"Oh, my GOD!" she said. "THAT is why you people eat salads!"

"We people," Denise corrected.

"Salads, sandwiches, pizzas," Annie said nostalgically. "Complicated soufflés, chili, jambalaya..."

"Jambalaya strikes me as a sylph-friendly dish," Ray said. "Everything steeps for so long it's all the same flavor. And it's cooked to where it's all the same texture."

"Sure," Annie replied, "if you only eat cafeteria jambalaya, on Naw Leans night, when a cook that's spent three nights in Louisiana in his life has the pot and the spoon.

"You never took me to Mardi Gras night at the Culinary school. I bet Deliah could have educated your palate."

The new sylphs stared at the dominant, secure, even arrogant figure tearing the giant a new asshole.

Pet and Denise just looked on with happy smiles. Some things in life were too permanent to change.

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