Annie XCII: Cooking

(Chronological index: Right after meeting Cherry and finishing her physical therapy.)

There was a strange period of adjustments for everyone.

Willy's people had moved in, out behind the back yard. They didn't want to intrude on the giants. More to the point, Willy didn't want his group dependent on the giants.

But there were some visits during stormy weather, and the borrowing of tools, until they had shelters fashioned.

And Buttercup moved in. Her dollhouse, home for over twenty years, was packed up with the rest of the household belongings and shipped to Arizona.

She shared the sylph drawer with Pet and Annie, or the sylph carrier, or the sylph shelf.

She also shared Denise, and to a lesser degree Ray.

Denise and Pet had grown up with her and Annie and Ray had come to know her since the wedding. Or since the dating.

But every day, someone did something different. Something she wasn't used to. Something that drove home the fact that the four people here were a family.

She was the new addition.

"It's not anything you do on purpose," she tried to explain to Pet. "You guys just developed relationships without me."

"You think we hate you?" Pet wailed.

"No, no!" Buttercup assured her.

"I got it," Annie said. She was sitting in the corner of the carrier, across from the mother and daughter. "Pet, remember the show Supersylph?"

"Yeah," Pet answered. She was hesitant, hoping to be cheered up, but not sure if the effort would be worth her while. Not yet.

"Well, halfway through the first season, Ladderlad found out Supersylph's secret identity, right?" Pet nodded. "That changed everything. But it wasn't worse, was it?"

"N-n-no."

"And it wasn't better."

"No."

"That's all Buttercup is saying. Things are different. You've grown as a person, and grown into this family."

"Okay." Pet thought about it for a moment and decided to be happy about growth.

Buttercup smiled and hugged her daughter. She avoided thinking about yet another change. Another woman was comforting her daughter now. But she avoided thinking about it.

Some time after that, Annie suggested that Ray take Buttercup to work with him.

"What? Why?"he asked. He immediately turned to where Buttercup sat on the sylph plate. "Not that I have anything against taking you to work, Buttercup. It's just the suggestion surprised me."

"I understand, Ray," Buttercup said.

"She needs to get out of the house once in a while. Like the rest of us. And you guys could use some one on one time, right?"

"I guess," he shrugged.

"Such enthusiasm," Denise muttered.

"Oh, you're right. I like you Buttercup. It's not a lack of enthusiasm. Just still trying to catch up with Annie. Again. I just never thought our relationship needed work."

"You don't HAVE a relationship!" Annie said with a little stomp of her foot. "She's Denise's other pet. Or Pet's mom. You should get to know her. She's a cool lady."

"Do we have to talk about her in third person?" he asked. "She's right there."

"You'd rather that y'all talk about you in second person?" Annie replied. "You might like the challenge, but it'll drive you insane faster than anything else you or you did."

Buttercup laughed. Annie turned to smile but saw that the woman was looking at Pet. That sylph looked like she was trying to do math in her head, figuring out which you was who.

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

Ray invited Buttercup to come to work with him the next day. She pretended to consider her busy social schedule. She did note that he waited patiently for an answer, then nodded.

"Cool!" Pet clapped. "I can't wait to show you the slide on his desk."

"Pet?" Annie asked. "Buttercup is going to be alone with Ray for a day."

"Yeah?"

"Alone without me."

"Well, duh, that's what alone means."

"And alone without you."

"Oh."

Buttercup wrapped her daughter in a hug. "I'll miss you, but Annie seems to think we need it."

"Oh, yeah, well... I guess alone is...alone," Pet said as she hugged back. Buttercup saw Annie gesture towards Denise.

"Pet," Denise called, "would you like to come to work with me tomorrow? It'll make the day go quicker if you're not just sitting here, waiting for everyone to come home."

"Yes!" Pet said excitedly. She broke the hug and ran to her owner. That wasn't new, she'd been deeply in love with Denise since they were little.

Buttercup smiled at the finger-hug they shared. She aimed the smile over at Annie, too. The brunette shrugged, pretending not to know why she'd get a happy look from the other sylph.

--------

Ray had a slide on the back of his desk. Plastic tubing that had been customized to drop through a cable-run in the desk.

Buttercup tried it once. It led to a cozy little cave in the back of his drawer, decked out with comfortable cushions and a few pieces of candy.

Mostly she hung out on top of his desk not being Annie.

That's who most of the company's workers assumed she was. "Hey, Annie, trying blonde for a day?" Ray would have to explain.

The people in his department knew him and his family a bit better. "Hey, Pet, dressed kinda conservatively today?" Ray explained.

But the people in his task group saw the two sylphs regularly and paid attention. Some even guessed who she was, just from paying attention to his Annie stories.

That made her day.

Ray noticed a lift in her step after his boss welcomed her to the office. "What?"

"Oh... I just... I dunno."

He carefully collected her in his cupped hands and held her over the keyboard. "Talk to me, Buttercup."

"It's... Well, evidently you and Annie and Pet mention me when you're here."

"You're part of our lives," he shrugged. "Now you're part of our daily lives."

"Yeah, yeah. You love me, you loved me, all that." She waved vaguely. "But... I've been feeling kind of like an intruder." She held up a palm to stop any protest. "I know I'm not. But, okay, maybe more like a guest?

"I haven't felt like I belong in the house, you know?"

He nodded, taking her seriously. "That's how Pet felt right after we moved in together." He thought. "What can I do to help you feel like you fit in?"

She could see his sincerity. And from what she'd seen, he'd take her concerns to heart just like if she was a real person.

SO she just leaned back a bit in his hand and stroked a finger. "You're doing it, Ray. You're already doing it."

On the way home, Ray suddenly turned the car. Buttercup grabbed onto the carrier until he parked. When the engine was off, she asked, "Where are we?"

"Piggly Wiggly," he said. "I just realized I still need to get something for dinner. What should I cook?"

She smiled wistfully. "I know what I'd cook, if I could." There was a moment or two of silence. She looked up. He was waiting patiently.

----------

"Minions assemble!" Ray shouted as he opened the back door. The bellow was lost, however, swept up in a cacophony. Someone had the TV volume turned up to Richter Scale.

Buttercup screamed and covered her ears. Ray instantly dropped the shopping bags to the floor, swept up a giant coffee mug and put the sylph under it.

It attenuated the sound, but only marginally. The counter vibrated her butt with the beat of some song.

She curled up and waited. There was a sudden silence that was almost a physical thing. And into that Annie shoved a lance of complaint.

"I was listening to that!"

"Gainesville was listening to that!"

"It's the only good thing about being abandoned at home! I get full control of the TV! No one else likes MTV so I- Hey! HEY! I'm not done with you!"

"There's use and there's abuse! You're grounded, little lady."

"Grounded!? That's a laugh! I never go anywhere!"

"And you're not going to go anywhere if you keep up this attitude." Light and air came back as Ray carefully lifted the mug. Buttercup smiled up at his pocket but it was empty.

"Give me back the remote! Pet and Denise aren't home and you're tone deaf!" Buttercup looked around for the source of the noise. The sylph wasn't all the way down on the floor...

She stepped to the edge of the counter as Ray leaned down for the bags. That's when she saw the other sylph.

Ray had her stuffed in a pocket of his jeans, the long slender one below the hammer loop on his painter's pants.

Buttercup had never understood the style, but Ray loved them. There were places to put everything and still leave his shirt pockets for passengers.

Right now Annie was trapped, too high up to jump and in the wrong pocket to kick at his balls.

"Did you forget the musical tastes of one 'classy lady' you spoke highly of last night?" Ray asked.

"Ooops!" Annie covered her mouth with both hands. "Oh, no, Buttercup. Where is she?"

"Hi, Annie!"

"Oh! Oh, hi! I... Oh, this sounds horrible, but I forgot you'd be coming home with Lurch today."

"It's okay, Annie. Just a bit of a surprise. No eardrums broken."

"Oh, thank you!" Annie called up as Ray walked past the other sylph.

"What did you say?" Buttercup shouted back, hand to her ear.

"I said I'm sorr- Oh. Oh, you got me! Vicious woman."

Ray was putting ingredients on the counter when Denise walked in. "Pet wants to know why the TV remote is in the window sill?"

"Because if I threw it towards the river, I might hit one of Willy's people."

"Y'okay," Denise said, shaking her head. She put Pet down on the counter next to Buttercup. Ray shifted Annie to join them.

"Oh! Oh! How was your day?" Pet asked her mother. "Did you go on the slide? I love the slide. Did Ray show you the footsie sock for the slide? Did he show you the water fountain? He let me drink straight from the faucet!"

"She'll tell you all about it after dinner, Pet," Ray said. "But first, she has to make it."

"You have to make it," Annie corrected.

"No, Annie, I'm making dinner tonight," Buttercup assured her.

"What?" Denise and Pet asked together.

"Cool," Annie said.

"Okay, obviously, I need everyone's help. Um... Ray, if you can tenderize the chicken? Denise, we need someone to open the can of cranberry sauce."

"Whole berries!" Denise exclaimed as she opened the bag Ray pointed her to. "Eating fancy tonight."

"I am informed," Ray said, "that only the vulgar eat the jelly."

"I didn't say that," Buttercup protested. "I said it was classiER."

"We definitely need more class around here," Annie pointed out.

"What do we do?" Pet asked. "What do we do?"

"Well, we need to crush some whole wheat crackers. I guess if Denise puts some in the mortar..."

"We can do that," Annie said. Denise moved the Aztec-styled stone mortar to the table and set it beside the box of crackers. The three sylphs were moved away from the raw chicken hammering and began their own project.

They pushed the box over and tore the waxed paper bag inside. Each took a stack of crackers over. Pet climbed up on the lip and they tossed the crackers up to her to drop in the bowl.

When Buttercup estimated they had enough ("I don't know! I haven't made this since the last time I was bigger than a cookie sheet!"), they all stood on the lip.

All three pushed against the pestle and ground down on the crackers. They didn't quite powder the contents, but they did 'pretty well' in Buttercup's opinion.

Ray and Denise waited for Buttercup to inspect the flattened chicken. She paused at the edge of the cutting board. "I don't want to get raw chicken on anything."

"Uh huh!" Buttercup turned to see Annie removing her skirt. Pet began stripping a moment later. Denise held a hand out for their clothes.

Buttercup paused. She'd been naked more than a few times since she'd sylphed. She'd been naked where Pet and Denise could see her. She'd been naked when Annie and Ray could see her.

But not since moving in... "Too intimate?" Annie asked. She wasn't teasing, either, Buttercup could see. The brunette shrugged. "Maybe just down to panties? Or panties and bra?"

"We can put clothes back on," Pet assured her.

"Maybe make rain slickers out of sandwich bags?" Ray suggested.

"I think we have some of those Glad-" Denise was saying.

"Oh, stop it!" Buttercup shouted. "Honestly. It's just nudity." She stripped off her shirt and undid the bra. Denise moved her hand back. "I'm a sylph. Sylphs are nudists. It's no big deal."

She finished stripping and took a deep breath. When she turned around, Ray was looking from her to Pet to Annie. "It can be a big deal," he said. "If you want it to be."

"Thank you, Ray," she said. "But no."

"Okay," he shrugged.

"Ray," Denise said with a smile, "will always support a woman's right to be nude in his presence."

"Please," Buttercup snorted. "I've been in the house forty seven seconds, so I know he only has eyes for you." She clapped her hands. "Okay. So. Drama done. Let's see the chicken breasts."

Pet was suitably impressed with Ray's skills at pounding dead flesh. Annie pointed out a few thick spots. Denise made a production out of judging each one, then the rest of the breasts.

She finally considered it satisfactory and waved for Denise. The giant worked the cranberry sauce into place on each breast. Another production involved spreading that adequately.

Ray felt a need to point out that if they'd gotten the canned jelly, individual slices could be shaped to maximize cranberry coverage of the breasts.

"Annie?"

"Yes, Buttercup?"

"Take care of my light work, will you?"

The other sylph spun instantly on her owner. "Listen, you! You shuts up your trap or you don't get any!"

"Yes, Annie."

"Light work hauled, ma'am."

She sent Denise to melting some butter while Ray folded then rolled the breasts. A whole cranberry squirted out of the first one.

With an eye towards making this a whole-family process, Buttercup entered a huddle with the other sylphs. It was determined that Ray had to start the roll all over again.

In the end, Buttercup guided Ray's efforts much like an airline worker guiding planes. Annie and Pet walked along the sides, keeping the berries where they belonged.

Then Ray held the roll in place as Buttercup set her workers to spearing the chicken with skewers. They started with all three working one skewer. They found, though, that as long as you didn't hesitate, one sylph could get the thing all the way in and through.

"But," Annie pointed out, picking up the next skewer, "It's more fun to work as a team."

"I like that!" Pet said. So they shouted Iwo Jima and stabbed mightily, trying to avoid piercing Ray's thumbs.

Then Ray stacked three cook books up so that the three sylphs could adjust the oven temperature to the chef's satisfaction.

She subcontracted arranging the rolls on the cookie sheet to Pet. She took great delight in giving directions to Ray. He took great delight in trying to follow them.

The fact that Pet used 'left' and 'right' pretty much at random was almost as confusing as her measurements. "A skootch to the left. Now a smitch. Just a ribble. STOP! Okay, a ribble back to the left. The other left. Now a vickle.

"What are you doing! Vickle's are rotational, not linear! Vickle the other way! NOT SO MUCH TORQUE!"

Everyone froze. "At least, that's what Al said on Tool Time," Pet explained.

After a moment, people started moving again. The chickens were placed on the cookie sheet with care. Then the butter and a few herbs were mixed with the crumbs.

Three sylphs shoveled that over the chicken. Finally it was put into the stove. Denise set the table while Ray steamed some veggies.

Pet and Annie barked orders to their humans as Buttercup watched over everything.

When everything was ready, Buttercup asked Pet to say Grace. Ray and Annie held hands and suffered through it graciously.

And they ate.

Everyone complimented the chef, who magnanimously said 'I Couldn't Have Done It Without You' four times.

And they all froze once more as she burst into tears.

Looks past from face to face, crossing the scale gap without hesitation. Buttercup could feel the silent conversation going on around her, but couldn't bear to look up and join it.



Gentle hands touched her. She grabbed them and found herself holding Pet and Annie. They looked at her with sympathy, a little worry, but no judgment.



She felt that she was being silly. And cried some more.



The other sylphs hugged her tight, then squeezed. She was about to complain, but realized it was Denise picking them all up.



The human walked a ways, farther than Buttercup would have expected. She'd expected to be carried to the sofa. When she felt the pumping rise in altitude, she realized they were going upstairs.



Oh, she was being put to bed. Well, maybe a night's sleep would be good, too. IF she could ever stop bawling.



But the sylph drawer wasn't opened. The sylphs were deposited on a pillow in the middle of the bed. Ray and Denise lay on their sides across from each other.



They found places of Buttercup's skin where Annie wasn't being supportive and Pet wasn't glomped on. There weren't many, but they did manage to touch her with a fingertip each.



And everyone waited.



"Oh, I feel so stupid," she finally managed to say.



"No, Buttercup!" Pet protested. "You're not stupid. I'm the stupid one!"



"No, you're not!" Denise said.



At that same moment, Annie and Ray both said, "The Hell!"



Buttercup laughed, one bark between the softening sobs. That seemed to break the back of the crying jag. She started to recover speech, breathing and eyesight.



She kissed Pet on the forehead. "They're right, dear. You're not stupid. You're bright. And cheerful. Loving and loyal and beautiful and wonderful.



"Your father would be very proud of you." Pet beamed at the compliment, though her eyes darkened as her mother teared up again.



"What's wrong, Buttercup?" Denise asked.



"Her father. He... I was making chicken rollups the night he died. They were his favorite." She sniffled, fighting tears.



"Oh, go ahead and cry if you want to," Annie said. She wiped her face on her sleeve. "I think Lurch is about to, now."



"Yes," Ray said gravely. "I'm so sad." His finger pressed against Buttercup's shoulder in support. She saw his thumb swing around to stroke Annie's back, too.



"It's silly," Buttercup protested. "He's been dead for twenty years. He's... He's... I've gotten over it."



"But not over him," Denise said. She pressed a little bit, too. "It's okay."



Pet was tearing up. She'd never known her father. Never had a reason to know details like a favorite dish that her mother could no longer make.



Now Buttercup was sad she'd made everyone sad. But she missed him so very much.



Annie sat up and looked around. There was that weight, the feeling of another conversation.



"Buttercup?" she finally asked. "Would you...tell us about him?"



"Oh, yes, please, mommy?" Pet begged.



Buttercup smiled through the tears. "Well, if I must."



"You must! You must!" the choir chorused.



"I met him at an ice cream store..."



"Ooh, I know this part!" Pet said happily.

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