Threshold

Annie took careful notes at Freshman orientation. As Ray's personal conscience and memory, she took her duties seriously.

If she didn't remember when the cafeteria was opened, she might starve.

There was other stuff. Phone numbers, policies, places to go for this or that. She wrote it all down. With her handwriting, one page of the pocket notebook held a lot of data.

Ray was already thinking far ahead. About the course work, about the campus, about the redhead on a direct line between him and the dean of students.

"Honestly, master," she muttered. "Have you heard anything about school for the last ten minutes?"

"Mmm-hmm," he said with a nod.

"Master? Did you hear that they have a sylph repatriation program? I can go back to Brunei!"

"Mmm-hmm."

"Master, will you promise to give me a pound of chocolate every Sunday that you don't go to church?"

"Not a chance in Hell," he said softly.

After the tours and the paperwork, they filtered back to the dorm room. Annie stood up in his pocket and called out navigational landmarks.

"I know where I'm going, Annie," he said.

"Sure you do. As long as you have me!"

Ray entered the room and sat Annie down on the edge of his desk. She kicked her feet and looked up at him expectantly. He looked down with a similar expression.

"Okay."

"Okay."

"Now what?"

"What now?"

He shook his head. "We're all moved in, classes don't start until tomorrow, what should we do with the rest of the day?"

"I think we need to go to an adult bookstore," she replied instantly. Her owner blushed just as quickly.

"You mean a used bookstore?" he asked. Annie liked to read used books. The spines were often already broken and would lay flat. Reading wasn't a wrestling match with cardboard.

"No," she said. "I wanna see the inside of an adult bookstore."

"Why?"

"Why not?" she fired back. She rolled to her feet and started to pace his blotter. "You're 18. I'm...over 21. I'm curious."

She spun around to pace back towards him. "You're living alone, now, just like an adult. No one's going to search you for plain brown bags when we get home."

"I dunno..." he hesitated.

"Look, you don't have to BUY anything. Just let me look around." He rubbed his chin. "You know you're curious."

"Well.... Okay." He held out his hand. Now she paused. "What?"

"Well, where can we get me a pair of dark sunglasses, first?"

"Annie..." he sighed.

"I just don't want to be recognized if the Press sees you escort me into a porn store."

The hand started to lift up and away. "Never mind," he said.

"Wait!" She scampered. "I can wrap a scarf around my head! It'll be fine!"

-----------

The adult bookstore closest to the university was bigger than the Waldenbooks they frequented back home. From the parking lot they could see that it offered print, video, peep shows, marital aids and 'novelties.'

"What are novelties?" Annie asked. The pocket rose and fell as Ray shrugged.

He tried to look nonchalant. Like a regular customer. No pervert, but not a newbie, not a...virgin, as it were.

Annie rode through his four attempts to adopt the perfect posture. "Just... Pretend you're going to a Rocky Horror showing," she advised. After a moment's thought she added, "Pretend you're the one taking a virgin to his first Rocky Horror showing."

"Ah." He relaxed. She could sort of tell from his expression, mostly from the lessened trembling coming off of his chest.

He looked pretty convincing in the reflection, she thought. The blacked-out windows loomed ahead but he hardly hesitated. He even held the door for someone coming out.

A middle aged man in a raincoat, it was too clichéd to be believed. The sylph giggled. The man glanced down and saw the tiny woman. He blanched then started running.

Ray bent down as Annie tried to stifle her laughter. "Sir? You dropped your... Your copy of Aunt Susy Saw 'Em Suck! Sir?"

With her laughter under control, Annie was able to stand in time to see the car peel out of the parking lot. "Oh. Did I do that?" she asked.

"His inner demons did that," Ray said. He shook his head. People's reactions to sylphs ranged from the overly familiar to panic-driven flight. "What do we do with his dropped book?"

"Maybe the clerk knows who he is and can hold it for him?" she suggested.

"Yeah. He looked like a regular," Ray mused. Annie burst out laughing again. "Shut up."

He walked on in, writing the opening sentence. 'Excuse me, but one of your customers dropped this in the-'

A young woman behind the counter offered a welcoming smile. "Hello, and welcome to Amazing Stuff. How can I help you?"

"I... I... Parking... Customer... Ran.. Ran away..." Ray stammered. He held out the paperback like he was offering a steak to a gator.

"Our return policy is clearly stated, sir," she said, pointing to a plaque on the back of the register.

"Whoever just left?" Annie called out. "He dropped this in the parking lot."

"Well, hello there!" the woman smiled. She reached out to gently relieve Ray of his burden. "Mr. G, huh? Well, he'll be back." She sketched a quick note and stuck it between the pages, then put the book behind the counter. "Now, what about you two?"

Ray stared.

"First time customer?" the woman guessed. "Not expecting to see a woman in a porn shop, much less knowing what you purchased?"

Ray swallowed and nodded. She nodded back and glanced down at the sylph in his pocket. "But you did bring a date."

Annie bit her lip to, for once, avoid laughing at her owner.

"Actually," Annie said after a moment, "I brought him."

"DID you now?" she asked in apparent glee.

Ray nodded. "She wanted to see what an adult bookstore was like."

"Okay, I'm Gaye, no jokes please, and we're very nonjudgmental. Take your time, see what's here, see what interests you."

She turned to gesture at the store. "The magazines are on racks around the wall. Smut starts here, pretty mainstream, Playboy and Penthouse. It goes through... um... less mainstream interests as you go along."

Gaye pointed to the other side of the entrance. "By the time you get over here, it's all gay." Ray flinched, eyes snapping back to the clerk. "Not me. I mean, it's all homosexual male interests." She winked at the sylph. "And maybe yours."

"Hotcha!" Annie replied. "But the chances of him buying me anything like that..."

"Got it," Gaye nodded. "And the tables are all sorts of products. Again, the front two rows are mainstream, the next row is fetish, and the row after that is split between micro and mixed. Back room for the peep shows and there's a token machine just inside the door."

"Okay," Ray said. He was nodding nervously and shuffling away from the woman. She was leaning over a display case to talk to them and he'd finally noticed the dildos just inches below her elbow. "Okay, thanks, we'll, uh, we'll be looking around..."

"I wanna ask her something!" Annie protested. He spun away from the counter to remonstrate his pet, then realized how insulting that looked from Gaye's point of view and swung back.

Annie held tight through the turns so she wasn't spun all the way out of the pocket. She was pushed until her waist was bent over the pocket's lip. Which left her looking almost straight down.

"Oh, Holy Mother of Pearl!" she squealed in delight. "I could SADDLE that one and ride it!"

"Hush!" Ray hissed.

"That one has two ends!" she cried in happy discovery. "Why would one need two ends? So you could... What? I don't get it?"

"That’s for lesbians," Gaye said. "If you need me to draw you a picture..."

"No!" Ray exclaimed.

"That one has three heads!" Annie shouted.

"Where?" Ray asked. He shook his head. "Never mind. Did you have a question?"

"I sure do now!" Annie chortled. "Why would three be necessary? It's not even physically possible! Is it?"

Gaye smiled and held up a paperback. The two shoppers gazed at the cover for a few seconds. "Eugh...." they said in chorus.

"Freshmen," Gaye said, shaking her head but smiling. "Question?"

"Novelties?" Annie asked.

"Wind up peckers, inflatable sheep, penis-ended straws, plastic boob-shaped beer can lids," she rattled off.

"Oh. Thanks," Ray said, backing away. Annie kicked his chest through his shirt.

"Pin the boobs on the cheerleader game, pin the cock on the hunk game, flavored lubricant, chastity belt lockpick set..."

"Okay," Annie said. "We get the idea."

"Yeah, thanks," Ray repeated. He turned once more to start browsing.

"Are you," Annie said, "going to pretend you know what micro and mixed means?"

"We'll figure that out when we get there," he said quietly.

"Sylph," Gaye called out anyway. There were no other customers in the store and the Muzak was turned down low. "Micro is sylphs in sexualized situations. Mixed is sylphs and humans." She waited a beat. "Together," she finished in a scandalous tone.

"Eh," Ray said with too much candor.

"Not shocked, huh?" Gaye said with a smile.

"Ooooops," Annie added. "We should have both found sunglasses."

Ray walked slowly down the aisles, starting at the front and working his way back. He was going slowly so Annie could also see what was on the shelves and tables.

She also knew he was leaving the sylph stuff for last to encourage her good behavior. So she didn't comment out loud or cackle at the merchandise.

If she wanted to see something closer, she tugged on his shirt. He was pretty good at figuring out what had caught her eye and bent down accordingly. The few times he was wrong, she just shifted her weight to drive him to the object she wanted.

The magazines were probably the strangest discovery, for both of them. Playboy, they knew. The leather fetish stuff they'd heard of, as well as the bondage.

The fact that there were at least four titles dedicated to pregnant women as objects of sexual fascination made Ray come to a complete halt. They both stared.

Ray had been checking the mags as he came past the tables, but now he started to move along the racks. The subjects got less and less mainstream, the covers more and more unusual.

"What do you suppose the attraction is there?" Ray whispered, pointing at one slender magazine.

The cover was in black and white and appeared to be photocopied. It reminded them more of fanzines at a Star Trek convention than anything else. There was no picture, but lots of words in snappy type.

Ray picked it up to check the contents. A rather ham-fisted effort at photo editing was inside, the torso of a person with odd proportions placed on a Shetland pony's neck to make a centaur.

Oddly, the person part was clearly female while the horse was rather aggressively male.

"Ah," Annie said. "Amputee dwarf she-male fantasy porn."

"Ampu..." Ray started to ask. "Ah. That arm's cut off. I thought it was behind her." He gently placed the zine back where he'd found it. "Well. That was educational."

"You wanted to know what was here," Annie said. "I may have to pour bleach in my brain. Thanks for bringing me, Ray."

"YOU wanted to know what was here!" he hissed. "I just hope my nightmares wake you up, too."

"Are you kidding?" she snorted. "Your good dreams keep me awake."

"Whatever," Ray said. He moved a step and realized they'd made it to the gay section.

He spun around so fast his pet nearly cried out. But she was still hoping for a look at the micro stuff.

Master stepped away from the magazine rack and looked around, deciding what to peruse next. 'Micro,' Annie tried to send telepathically. Asking for it would make him pick something else, just to show her who was boss.

So she ordered silently. 'Micro-micro- micro- micro- micro- micro.'

"Micro?" he asked.

"Huh, what?" she replied. "Wait, already? What, are you in a hurry to leave?"

"It's not as interesting as I thought it would be," he said.

"You're not interested in naked women?" she asked suspiciously.

"I'm still a little uncomfortable," he said. "Maybe after I have more experience with women-"

"Or any," she muttered.

"-I'll think differently." He took a deep breath. "But I am curious about what people do with sylphs. Let's go see."

"Forced," Annie said, walking from one video case to another, "is probably the most used word on these things."

There was more video in the micro section than any of the others. There were more tapes of the humans-on-humans than the whole of the micro section, but far more titles there.

Ray suspected it was because you didn't need to pay the actors and the movie set could be made on a desk or an ironing board.

He picked on up and read. "He was gay, she was a virgin, but they were forced to make it look good for their sex-hungry owners."

"Forced to perform, forced to satisfy, forced to convince, forced to love," Annie said with a shake of her head. "Nothing about 'pets get together while their master is out' or 'school mascots meet in the ventilation.' No sylph leans between the cage bars and asks, 'how you doin'?'

"Forced, forced, forced. What is it about the defenseless sylph that brings out the slave-driver in humans?"

"Nothing demonstrates the power imbalance faster than coerced sex," Ray said. "Probably especially for sylphs."

She turned up to look at him questioningly. "How so? I mean, how especially?"

"Well, you see Marilyn Chambers sucking a dick," he explained, "you know that she either wants to suck the dick or she's getting a good enough contract to suck a dick she doesn't want."

"True," Annie acknowledged. She wandered over to the edge of the videos to see what else was available.

"But you see two sylphs going at it, it's far more likely that they not only never agreed to do it, they probably weren't asked. Some guy somewhere said, 'you two, hot and sweaty for the camera,' and there they are.

"The viewer that buys this knows that extra element of force is there, no matter what's portrayed on the screen."

"So, you're saying the micro demographic is for pond scum?" she asked sweetly.

"You notice I'm not buying this stuff. And you might remember I stopped Helen."

"I do remember, and I still thank you for that," she said sincerely. "Ooh! Playing cards!" She jumped down a shelf to stand by a stack of 'life sized naked sylph playing cards.'

"Or, Penthouse wanna-be's reduced to card size?" Ray asked.

"Oh, no, I don't think so," Annie said. She tapped the back of the case. Three example cards were displayed. One woman masturbated with the blunt end of a sewing needle, another sprawled across a pile of mashed potatoes and the third was bound, gagged and hanging from a Christmas Tree branch.

There was also a deck of male sylphs and a third showing sylph couples performing various sexual acts in a wide range of positions and settings. Bird's nests and glove boxes and bread drawers, at the very least.

Annie looked at the back of the male deck, prepared to whine and beg as she'd never whined before. The only card previewed portrayed a sylph on his back in a woman's high-heeled shoe, jerking off while licking the interior.

"Aaaaaaaaaaaand, we're back to the brain bleach," she said. She shuddered and Ray picked her up.

The 'mixed' table was smaller than the micro table. A fact Ray remarked on and Annie dutifully laughed at. "Yes, sir, the micro isn't the smallest table. Maybe if there was a selection of Mork and Mindy porn? That would be the smallest table."

Ray squinted for a second, thinking hard. "It was pronounced 'nah-noo,' not 'nano.' But that was quick, I'll give you points for speed."

"And porn is a no-no," she added. "So there's a segue."

"Two points," he granted. Then he stepped closer to read the big warning sign on the mixed table. "Warning," he said out loud.

"That's now you know it's a warning," she said.

"Thanks. We are warned that the production of these materials is illegal in twenty four states. And the mere possession of the is illegal in twelve of those twenty."

"Are Georgia or Florida listed, Master? I mean, should we be edging towards the exit in fear of a raid?"

"The states are helpfully listed alphabetically," he reported. "and there is a gap between Delaware and Indiana."

"Whew!" she said, wiping her brow. "That was a close one!"

"Indeed. So. What's here?"

"Not much," she said. "I wonder why? Porn really uses the power of taboo. If it's illegal in so many places, you'd think the industry would be hard pressed to keep up with the demand."

"The industry goes by fads," he said with all the authority of a subject matter expert. Annie, however, had been in the barbershop when he read the single Newsweek article on the porn industry. "I'm sure they're all responding to Mount Saint Helens' explosion to make volcano porn."

"Ah," she replied.

The moved to the content. It was, if anything, more depressing than the micro table.

"Bored on a Friday Night, Tom finds a sylph stealing from his pantry. His punishment..."

"The blind date is going nowhere until they find they both own sylphs. Forcing their pets together..."

"It's Harry's turn to host the sylph owner's party and he needs a theme. That's when his Inquisition coffee table book falls open on the..."

"There are no amenities on Star Base Alpha, and on resources to house prostitutes. But NASA sends a care package of sylphs. Naked, defenseless sylphs..."

"I swear," Annie protested, "no one ever looks at a cute little sylph and says 'let your hair down, darling.' What the hell is wrong with you people?"

"You wear your hair down, Annie."

"I mean, make your pet comfortable. Do a favor, get a favor."

"I have complimented you on your hair style. The way it coils on your shoulders."

"Forget the hair, master. I just, it never, you know? Like...people? With people?"

"Is it because I never call you darling?" Ray asked. Annie stomped her foot on the VHS case. "Sorry, sweetheart, I'm just trying to-"

"RRRRRRRR!" she growled.

He held out his hand, curved the way she liked him to hold her. Back and butt support, fingers stepped, thumb up like the safety bar on a rollercoaster.

She sniffed haughtily and turned her back, allowing him to sweep her up.

Rather than drop her in his pocket or turn to carry her elsewhere, he lifted her up to his face. He looked deeply into her eyes.

"You know, you've always been a fox," he said. "Ever since I figured out what a fox was."

"Thank you," she said. "I was a fox before that, too."

"I know. And if I created sylph porn, I'd probably make it more along the lines of a successful date."

"You and me?" she asked softly.

"You and a Thomas Magnum sylph," he said.

"Oh, be still my beating heart," she said. "But Tom Selleck didn't sylph."

"...or a look-a-like," he said with a shrug. Then he did slip her into his pocket. "I'm just not sure I could watch, even through the view finder."

"Prude," she snarled. "Your immaturity in the face of whoopee smoochies is going to stand in the way of my eventual dance on a passion cake with my soul mate."

"No passion cakes," he said. "I promised Dad."

"Huh," she said. "I made the same promise to Mom."

--------

Thomas introduced himself as he moved in. "Late start from home," he explained. "Did I miss anything?"

"Orientation," Ray said. "Not much else."

A violent rattle sounded from the birdcage on Ray's desk. Annie squealed and swung through the door. An overwound walking pecker bounced excitedly around the cage interior like something angry.

Annie crouched at the base of the desk lamp and watched it. Both men watched the scene until all movement stopped and she started back into her cage.

"Nothing important, anyway," Ray amended.



Back to the Index