Annie XCI: Tannenbaum

(Chronological index: Affianced)

"Okay," Annie announced suddenly. "We've got to get Christmas organized." She turned off the TV and jumped from the big chair to the end table. There was a pad of paper and a pencil lead.

Pet followed her, glancing over to the sofa where their owners, Ray and Denise, sat talking in low voices. They weren't really saying much of anything in her opinion, other than 'I love you' in eleventy-hundred ways.

But she didn't want to interrupt that. It made her feel warm and kind of cuddled inside, knowing that much love was over there.

So she knelt down by Annie and asked her question in a whisper. "That's like weeks and weeks and weeks away, though, right?"

"Yeah, so we can hardly wait," Annie said in her normal voice. "Do you guys usually have a tree?"

"Yes!" Pet's face lit up with her smile. "Chuck and Carolyn and Carla and Denise put it up and Buttercup and I make sure there's plenty of free space underneath it for presents!"

"No, I mean, your own tree? At Denise's and your place?" Pet's smile got a little bit wider. Ray and Annie never forgot that it was her house, too.

Annie sometimes forgot this house was Ray's, but Pet never felt marginalized around them.

"No, we have a wreath. But the tree is at Chuck and Carolyn and Buttercup's house."

Annie stared at the blonde for a moment, then decided it was a good thing. "Okay. That means, blended household, there are no future problems with two sets of Christmas ornaments."

"You guys get a tree?" Pet asked. She'd forgotten to whisper by now. Annie's confidence was starting to rub off on the other sylph.

"Oh, Master gets us the most BEAUTIFUL tree," Annie promised her. "But we'll have to get one twice as tall this year. Then we'll have to get you some ornaments, too." She scribbled furiously on the paper sheet.

"Me?" Pet asked. "I get ornaments? For the tree?"

"You already have some," Denise pointed out. "That star with your name on it? And the egg with your picture inside?"

"Oh," she said. She didn't seem enthused.

"Well," Ray said, "we'll probably spend part of Christmas with my folks, part at your folks' place, and some of the day here. So, Pet, if you have ornaments that go on that tree, they can stay where Buttercup can see them."

"And we'll see them when-" Denise started to add.

"Lunch," Annie announced. Denise's eyebrows rose. "I've got the schedule penciled in."

"Why lunch in Brunswick?" Ray asked.

"What's the schedule?" Denise asked.

"Breakfast here, where everyone can see the gifts we got each other," Annie read and explained. The others nodded, half smiles on everyone's faces.

"Drive up to Georgia for lunch and the presents under THAT tree," she went on.

"Back down to Mom and Dad's for those presents by dinner."

"Why that order?" Ray pressed.

"It'll be a long day of celebrating and two meals cooked by loving mothers," Annie said in a lecturing tone. "Mothers with something to prove to the new family members, I might point out. Then the shortest drive home would be across part of Jacksonville, not over a state line.

"Shorter, safer, and quicker to get leftovers into the fridge."

The others accepted the logic, though truly, Carolyn traditionally cooked a ham for Christmas dinner and Annie didn't like ham.

Not as much as she liked Gwen's four-cheese, two meat, seven layer depth-charge lasagna tradition, anyway.

She'd spend Christmas alone in a birdcage if she had to, for that meal.

"Now," Ray asked, "did you say a tree twice as tall?"

"Yep," Annie nodded. "Twice as much surface area to decorate," she said, nodding her head towards Pet. The younger sylph saw and smiled.

"Actually," Ray said. As soon as he opened his mouth, Annie dropped the pencil lead and started running across the table.

"Assuming an ideal Christmas Tree conical shape." She threw herself into the air and leapt from the table to the arm of the sofa. Denise and Pet stared at her furious expression and frantic movements.

"The wider base would increase the surface area-" Annie jumped to his shoulder and scrambled to grab his ear. Lifting herself by a death-grip on the lobe, she shouted into the shell.

"NO! ALGEBRA!" she screamed.

"Geometry," he corrected with a wince. She screamed wordlessly and shoved her knees into the back of his jaw.

"Yes, Annie," he said, calmly collecting her and holding her to his chart. "It'll be bigger, we'll need more decoration." Denise stroked the back of the tiny head where it stuck out between his fingers.

Pet bit her lip, staring at the threesome. "Come on over, Pet," Denise invited. Ray scooted down a scootch and extended his leg.

The toe of his shoe just barely rested on the edge of the chair. Pet ran to jump on his shin, then scrambled across his leg. Denise lifted her off of his thigh and the four cuddled for a bit.

-------

With Christmas dinner scheduled in Jax, Carolyn insisted on Thanksgiving in Brunswick.

Annie gauged the threat of a Thanksgiving Ham to be low-order and happily accepted for her and her master. Pet cheered an agreement.

She was almost hurt that Carolyn glanced upwards to see if a human validated the sylph's statement. Then she realized it was Denise's approval the woman wanted, not Lurch's, so that was okay.

Buttercup assumed the duties of hostess. She was poised and elegant all through dinner, though Carla revealed that she'd been a little nutsy-fagin before Ray had walked up to the door.

Chuck said grace, glancing fearfully at Annie through the prayer. The sylph behaved though, out of respect for her hostess, the family, the holiday and most especially for the smell of sweet potato casserole.

Ray's meaningless threats of vengeance for any faux pas were hardly in her mind. He couldn't really put all the chocolate in the world out of her reach. Dad was too soft a touch.

-----

They got the tree on a weekend at the place they usually went. Pet's eyes were wide as Ray escorted Denise onto the lot, sylphs in both of her hands.

"Raynnie!" the attendant shouted. "I've got JUST the tree for.... Oh, who's this?"

Introductions were quickly made then they saw what he'd saved for them.

"Oh," Denise and Pet said together, not very happily.

It was a twisted tree. The long trunk bending visibly before reaching the branches. The branches of one entire side were naked, dry and brittle. It looked like a hoop skirt in a high wind, everything in the center was exposed.

The 'ideal conical shape' was more of a fuzzy pot-bellied stove.

Annie clapped and Ray nodded. He handed over the money and they carried it to the cutting station. Denise followed slowly, sharing a look with her pet.

"A little more than usual," Ray told the man with the chainsaw. "We're doubling the decorators so we need..." There was only a slight pause as he fought with his tendency to being pedantic against his indulgence of his sylph. "Twice as much surface area."

"So, twice as tall?" Ray just winced and nodded. The chainsaw started... And cut off the top foot and a half of the tree.

Without the gnarly base, the remnant did look like a perfect Christmas Tree replica.

"A sylph tree!" Pet squealed happily.

Once that was in the custom-built stand, the acquisition of decorations became a priority.

"But decorations won't fit on the tree!" Pet protested. "It'll fall over!"

"Regular decorations, yeah," Annie said. She clapped as Ray brought a box in out of the garage. The fishing organizer held what looked like little toys.

Little decorations!

"Did you raid a Barbie Christmas Tree?" Denise asked.

"No," Ray said. "I took Annie shopping, she picked out every one special."

"Some are for decorating presents with," the sylph explained, pointing at a colorful teddy bear in a Santa suit. "A few cake decorations, some advent calendar prizes, one Cracker Jack toy."

She waved imperiously and Ray lifted the tray to reveal the space beneath it. Annie lifted out a plastic sandwich bag. Inside was a ribbon. It was white, with Navy blue snowflakes every few inches. On the back side, it was blue, with snow-white stars.

"This is the garland."

"Pretty," Pet breathed.

"But it's not long enough for the new tree," Annie said.

"I guess we're going to have to get something for the rest of the tree," Denise said.

"Can we go now?" Pet asked immediately. "Please?"

"Okay," Denise said. She glanced at her fiancé. He smiled and waved permission.

"Annie has to come!" Pet said quickly. "To know if it's alright!"

"Works for me," Ray said.

"Giving you a chance to do all your shopping without anyone watching," Annie pointed out to Master with a smile.

"Oh, there's weeks left before the last minute," he said airily. "I just want time alone with the internet."

"Hit him?" Annie asked Denise.

"NO!" Pet protested.

"Pet," Annie explained, "he's saying there's a chance he might forget to buy us presents before Christmas."

"Oh." She thought about that. "Not too hard, then."

---------

Every thing that got her attention in the craft store got Annie's approval. Or she tried to.

"Pet," Annie said every single time, "whatever you want to put on the tree, it won't be wrong."

"Really?"

"Really! It's your tree, too, and we trust you."

"Okay." She nodded and Denise put the dollhouse teddy bear into the cart. "Oh!" she said, eyes landing on something else. "The candy cane! Is that okay?"

"Pet, whatever you want," Annie replied patiently. Far more patience that Lurch ever got, Denise noted with a smile.

Annie looked up suspiciously the instant teeth showed. Denise's smile just got wider.

The couple spent time apart on Christmas Eve, each at their parents house. Chuck made eggnog. Victor made hot chocolate.

They met at Ray and Annie's place much later. There were more gifts placed under the tree, or under the table the tree was on. Stockings were hung. Kisses and good wishes made the rounds and everyone trooped off to bed.

Annie woke about two in the morning, wondering what had woken her up. She looked over to see if Pet had heard whatever it was.

Pet wasn’t there.

Annie rose, grabbed her robe and crawled down the ladder to the table.

It didn’t look like Pet was curled up in Denise's arms so she went to the floor. Out the door and down the hall, she found Pet on the table next to the tree.

She was staring at it when Annie made it to the top of the table. She sat by her friend and waited silently.

"Annie?"

"Yes, Pet?"

"Why do you celebrate Christmas?"

"Everyone celebrates Christmas, Pet. Well, most everyone. Everyone in this house anyway. Not the-"

Pet turned to look at her friend. "No, Annie. You don't celebrate your birthday. Why Christmas? You don't believe in Jesus? Why celebrate HIS birthday?"

"Birthday's are about me," Annie said. "Me, me, me. Or, since I sylphed, it's about the Old Annie. She doesn't exist anymore."

She nodded at the tree. "Christmas, today's Christmas, is about family. I love my family."

"You lost your family," Pet pointed out. Not to be cruel, but just trying to follow the logic.

"I lost a family," Annie agreed. "I lost myself." She wrapped an arm around Pet's shoulder. "I got a new identity, and a new family. And it keeps getting better and better."

Pet turned and wrapped her arms around the other sylph. They hugged tightly. Then Pet started to sob. Annie stroked her back as long as she could stand it.

"Okay, what? What's worth the waterworks? You don't even know, yet, if you didn't get the water skis you asked for."

Pet mumbled. Annie pried her loose and pushed her to half an arm's length away. "What did you say?"

"It's real," she whispered. "It's really real."

"Santa?" Annie asked, confused.

"The family. We're becoming a family. A real family." Pet started to cry again.

"Idiot," Annie snarled. "We've been a family since Denise came to get her car back." Pet cried and yanked Annie into a hug. "Seriously, you should be used to it by now. Back off or you'll scare Santa away!

"Help! Help! Drama!"

But no one came to rescue her...



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