Pets 2: Pani's Story (11 page)

Although it had initially rested on tires when parked, shortly after they glided from the driveway, with a mechanical whine the tires had rotated up into the underside of the streamlined vehicle, leaving them to glide air-borne onto the twin rails that ran like Earth roads just about everywhere here. Unlike human cars, however, this one did its traveling at speeds determined to give her heart failure. Judy had flown in planes that didn’t move this fast. And then they were on the main road with hundreds of other cars, every one of them moving just as fast as she and Papa were.

“Oh my God!” she shrieked, throwing up her tightly bound hands to shield her face as the vehicle whipped around a corner just a hair’s-breadth from colliding with two larger, commercial-freight-sized trailers.

Chuckling, Papa reached over to pat her head but she jerked away. Her bellowed, “Are you insane?!” became a scream midway through ‘you’ when the rails ahead suddenly formed a vertical hill that launched them straight up into the atmosphere before leveling out perhaps a quarter of a mile above the neighborhood of houses and trees that they diverted around. Larger city-sized buildings in the distance became increasingly larger and significantly less distant in way too short of a time. She was only just wondering whether she might be able to handle the inevitable descent without throwing up when the vehicle again diverted from the main rail onto a descending pair that, in near rollercoaster fashion, sling-shot them into a sharp sideways, down-turning loop.

“Shh, shh,” Papa tried to soothe but, certain she was about to die—and horribly—Judy was not about to be shushed. She grabbed at the door, her high-pitched teakettle screams filling the car as they hurtled towards the ground at breakneck speed.

“Pani,” Papa admonished.

“This is not okay!” she shouted, her eyes huge in her much-too-pale face.

“Omigodomigod!” She erupted into a whole new scream as the vehicle shot into another sideways loop and then suddenly they were slowing, rounding around the backside of a huge building as they rapidly reduced speed, eventually coming to a smooth stop in a crowded parking lot. Like a rollercoaster car, the vehicle vented a hiss of air pressure before the wheels were let down and they glided softly into a parking space.

Shaking, Judy held herself absolutely still, as if the slightest movement from her might launch them back into motion again.

48

Papa unbuckled himself first and then got out of the car. He came around to her side to unfasten her, tsking and shaking his head, giving her a ‘Now don’t you feel silly,’ look.

Panting, she held out her hands so he could take the restraining sleeve off her. The second she was free, she was going to choke the life right out of him. “We’ll see who feels silly then,” she warned darkly.

Whether it was the look on her face or her tone that he noticed first, he resolved the matter with a not-so-gentle tap to the end of her nose. “Be good, Pani.”

“Yeah, yeah.” She rubbed her nose. “Be good, Pani.” Afraid she’d get flicked again for not being sincere, she cast her evil glares to the floor of the car while he finished unbuckling her from the child’s seat.

As he lifted her from the car to stand beside him, her legs were so shaky that she had to lean against the car to keep from collapsing. She only meant to take a few practice steps, just to steady her knees again, only to have the back of her dress suddenly grabbed as Papa hauled her sharply back to his side.

“No!” he snapped, leveling a single hard swat to the direct center of her ruffle-pantied seat.

Her hips jolted outward under the impact, and she almost fell but for his hold on the scruff of her dress.

That half second of startlement as she caught her backside with both hands died almost immediately under a rise of indignant fury. “Stop smacking me!” she shouted, stamping her foot in a useless fit of pique and glaring furiously up at him.

He was not impressed. He was also a better glarer than she was, and returned the look with equal displeasure. Judy looked away first, sulkily rubbing although it didn’t hurt anywhere near as intensely as she knew swats from his hand could.

Using her braid like a leash, Papa shut the car door and they started walking together.

Unable to see over the top of the surrounding vehicles, as she reached the tail of the car, Papa drew her up to a sharp stop just as another car shot past them on its way back out of the parking lot. The gust of wind that followed, as well as her own startled jump backwards, knocked her into his legs. She stepped all over his feet and would have fallen, her flailing hands squeaking as they slid without purchase down the smooth side of their neighboring vehicle. Papa caught her under one arm, effortlessly propping her back onto her own feet with a smug, ‘I told you so’

shake of his head.

Another car passed before Papa gave her an ‘all clear’ pat on the head, and they quickly crossed the open parking lot towards the building. The bright red letters of the sign hanging high above the entrance doors weren’t anything that Judy could read. However, the cartoonishly human face that punctuated the end of it let her know exactly where he’d taken her. This was the happy human pet store.

“Oh, you have got to be kidding.” Judy balked just shy of the sliding glass doors, digging in her feet, pretty sure she was not going to like what she saw on the other side of the threshold.

But when the entry doors parted, Papa tugged at her braid and into the store they went.

It was obvious Papa had never been here before. While he paused just inside to get his bearings, Judy took stock of the parade of shopping giants and their leashed pets already wandering the oversized aisles. For the first time, Judy realized exactly what the old man meant 49

when he’d tried to warn her: life with Papa really could be much, much worse. Of all the shoppers that she could see, twelve of them were leading human pets on leashes that attached either at the neck or waist. One was actually being led about by the hips via a chastity belt-style harness and one very tall, willowy and stunningly beautiful dark-skinned woman—dressed only in a black leather harness decorated by dozens upon dozens of thinly looped chains—by the rings that pierced the nipples of her full and naked breasts.

“Oh my God,” Judy said, taking an involuntary step back when that woman strutted past on heels at least four inches high. Glancing up, she met Papa’s equally startled gaze. She frowned first, folding her arms protectively over her small breasts. “Don’t even think about it.” He smirked, all but rolling his eyes as he shook his head in obvious agreement. Clicking his tongue against his teeth, he tugged gently at her braid and steered her towards the check-out counter. While he paused to talk with the sales attendant, she looked around the store. High up on the far wall to the very back, she saw stark metal cages of varying sizes and complexities lined along a shelf side-by-side with little houses no doubt meant for prolonged outside use.

More immediately towards the front of the store, toys, clothes and diapers dotted the end caps of aisles devoted to food, leashes, collars and—the hairs rose along the back of her neck—a wide assortment of bondage-type restraints. Even more disturbingly, the aisle right next to that one was devoted to disciplinary implements of every shape and size, which was next to what looked to be the first aid aisle. Considering what she could see of some of those disciplinary items, she didn’t doubt for a second that first aid would be needed afterward.

Sidling closer to Papa, she absently petted his leg, trying to think of how she might possibly keep him out of that aisle.

The entrance doors swished open behind them and a tall man in a beige service suit came slowly into store, leading his elderly and obviously blind owner. With a cane in one weathered hand, she rested the other on his broad shoulder. Even bent as she was, she still towered over her human companion by a good foot. The tip of her cane tapped and swished across the tile floor as he led her first to a row of shopping carts. With her cane in the basket and her arthritic hands resting upon the handle, she clicked to show that she was ready and, taking hold of the end of the cart, he began to steer her into the store.

As Judy stood considering the likelihood of her ever feeling that protective towards her captor, her eyes briefly met the man’s. Something telling must have shown on her face because he led the old woman on a wide berth around her. Judy watched them disappear into the food aisle, while two lanes further left, another couple emerged out of books and magazines with their middle-aged human female walking between them. Dressed up every bit as baby-doll cute as Judy was herself, when that other female spotted her, she grinned and raised her hand to wave.

Sheer reflex had Judy echoing the greeting, although she didn’t smile. And then a sudden, light caress along the length of her second braid—the one not in Papa’s hand—jerked Judy around. The giant woman that Judy hadn’t realized had walked up behind her—Judy quickly sidestepped to put Papa securely between them—withdrew her hand. She also had a human in tow, a massive and utterly naked male who stared directly at Judy without smiling or blinking.

He was huge. Nowhere near as big as Papa, but muscular and fit, and with eyes and hair every bit as dark as his owner’s, except that his were cool, almost openly hostile as he stared at her.

50

“Hi,” Judy said, the greeting just popping out of her mouth she was so startled, both by his nearness and the strange intensity of his unwavering stare.

He said nothing in return, and when Judy felt a tug at her braid, she let Papa sidestep her another arm’s length of distance away.

The tall giant neatly followed, neatly blocking Papa’s path as she reached out to stroke Judy’s cheek.

Judy jerked back and almost slapped the tall woman’s hand aside, but for the brooding, dark-eyed male standing so stoically at the end of her leash. His voice hardly more than a growl, he said, “She’s going to buy you for me.”

Judy started all over again, an icy fist clawing at her gut as she quickly glanced from Papa back to him.

It almost came as a relief when she felt Papa’s gentle tug at the end of her braid. When he directed her away from the tall woman and her brooding companion, Judy cheerfully went. As he led her away, she couldn’t help glancing back once over her shoulder, but having paid for their purchases, they had already left the store.

Steered by her hair, Judy followed Papa into the human food aisle. Past two refrigeration units full of ‘high quality’ meats and vegetables, they paused in front of a long row of shelves stacked a head higher than he was tall with huge bags of dried kibble. There was a wide selection and each variety had a picture of a happy human smiling back at her. There were tall humans, short humans, active humans jumping hurtles and chasing balls and plump humans that, according to the size-reduction squiggles that flanked them, used to be much plumper. There were humans with sparkling teeth, old humans with no teeth and all along the uppermost shelves—Judy took an involuntary step back—children. Real children. She saw bags of food for breast-feeding mothers with newborn babies, to food for infants just big enough to crawl and toddlers dressed only in diapers and chest halters, all the way up to food for lanky, grinning teenagers. From the freezers at the head of the aisle all the way down to the end, all Judy could see were bags and bags and kibble-food bags of smiling, happy, captive humans.

While Papa pulled a can of powdered formula from the top shelf to glance over the nutritional data, all Judy could do was stare, the photo-quality pictures on that rainbow array of bags beginning to blur together. She wasn’t stunned; she was horrified. So much so that, when Papa finally pushed two cans at her, she simply took them and let herself be dragged, stumbling along beside him she was so utterly, completely horrified, into the next aisle over.

When he stopped in front of a display of leashes, Judy took one look at a whole different array of smiling humans on the purchase labels and tried to keep walking. His hold on her hair didn’t let her get far.

Damn.

Refusing to watch as he picked out this newest instrument of subjugation, she put her back to him and glared straight ahead, past the collars and halters and what looked to be electrified fencing.

“Hi!”

Judy jumped, startled by that near shout of a chirpy greeting. She turned around, bumping into Papa as she stepped back far enough for a male and his perky human companion to pass.

51

She was dressed in frilly, baby-doll blue dress, with lace-ruffled ankle socks and shiny white, single-buckle shoes.

“I’m Lisa,” she said, her broad smile not quite masking the hint of desperation that Judy glimpsed in her wide blue eyes. She tried to wave as she was led past Judy without stopping, although she did reach out at the very last second and latch onto Judy’s hand before she was dragged out of range. “I’m from Brooklyn, and my name is Lisa. I’m Lisa!” After two quick pumps, their hands separated when Lisa reached the end of her leash and then was pulled beyond it.

“Do you speak English?” she called out, walking backwards just to keep Judy in her sight, her eyes growing decidedly watery. “Do you understand me? I come from Brooklyn, I’ve been here six months, and I’m Lisa!”

Unable to make her mouth work, Judy stared until the other woman’s owner had turned past the end cap before she finally managed, “Judy. Lisa, I’m Judy!” Lisa vanished behind the end cap as well, but from the other aisle she heard a breathy sob, followed by a faint, “Hi, Judy.”

Papa patted the top of her head and, having picked out a leash, they moved halfway down the aisle to stand in front of collars. When he began to dangle a selection before her as if seeking her input on which she’d like to wear, Judy turned away, watching muted and depressed all over again as the service man led his blind owner past the far end of the aisle. He barely glanced at her before they both were gone from view.

Another light tug at her braid and everything began to blur together. Forcing her feet to move, she followed him back to the front of the store. They made one brief stop in front of a machine which, after a brief grinding pause, spat out a shiny golden medallion engraved to look like a pacifier for her collar. Somehow she had become this strange conglomeration of Bad Baby and Bad Fido all rolled into one and yet, hovering upon that finely sharpened edge of depression, Judy was having a hard time summoning up enough emotion to care.