"So you want me to get in that?" Shannon asked me.

In front of her was a set of three boxes: two stacked on top of each other and the third one sitting on the floor next to the other two. The bottom two boxes were about three feet tall, and the top box was slightly taller. Overall, it was tall enough for Shannon to fit in, though not in one piece.

I looked at her and nodded.

Shannon shot me a confused look and replied, "How do you expect me to get in that?"

"Simple, really. You open the two boxes from behind and just walk in."

Again, Shannon stood there staring at the set-up, perplexed. "But I can't just do that, I'd get..."

I interrupted her. "Exactly. Did you forget I said this was a magic act?" She glared at me, and I realized I left that part out of the discussion. Oops. I chuckled nervously, trying to cover up my blunder.

Shannon and I have been friends since childhood. Even now, we are neighbors and regularly check up on each other. Back in the day, we used to go out all the time and cause shenanigans. We made a life out of being crazy. But this was just about the craziest thing either of us had ever done.

I was never 100% into magic, but this particular trick really caught my attention. Purportedly, one could build the set-up in under an hour with common household materials (particularly boxes) and use it to cut themselves in half. It was essentially a "poor man's sawing" but the apparent ease of assembly was appealing enough for me to give it a try.

Sure enough, I managed to complete construction in under an hour (as was promised), and without hesitation I phoned Shannon and asked her to check it out. However, I did not specifically mention the set-up in order to keep the suspense. After all, we haven't tried anything truly bold in a couple years.

I explained all the details to Shannon, who, although excited at the prospect, voiced some concern about the crude nature of the set-up. "What if it falls down while I'm in it?"

Although this was thought-provoking, I reassure her. "Don't worry, this shouldn't come down by itself."

Shannon took a few seconds to process this, and made her decision. "I go in around the back, right?"

I nodded again in response, and Shannon made her way toward the set-up. It took a few minutes for her to find her way in, until I heard a faint "Ready!" from inside the box.

"Okay, so. Right now nobody can see you so you have to open the front flaps of the box. There's no point in doing a magic act if you can't see the magic."

Shannon opened the front flap, her vibrant blue tank top forming a decent complement to the color of the box. I told her she also needed to open the flap of the bottom box so the viewer could see her legs with respect to her torso, considering that was rather critical to the act's success. However, her black leggings didn't really blend in that well with the interior shadows. I shrugged that off; it's not like I was filming it, this was just a test run.

Now came the moment of truth. "Alright, now slide the top box over to the..." I looked down at my hands to make sure I was giving the right directions. "...left. Onto the box next to you." That box was empty, and its front flap was open to show just that.

Shannon moved her box over onto the other box, and I stood there and watched as her top and bottom halves separated cleanly. "Oh my god, it's working," I thought.

"Colin, I swear something feels off."

I thought about making a smart-ass remark like "Gee I wonder why," but I decided against it. Instead, it was time for the piece de resistance. "Lastly, I need you to reach up, grab the roof of the box, and lift yourself up."

Shannon did just that, showing her torso was completely separated from her lower half. In that moment, I felt a total rush of excitement. My work had paid off, and I raised my fists to the sky and shouted "SUCCESS! IT WORKED!"

I grabbed my phone, took a picture of Shannon (still hanging from the roof of the box, with the empty box beneath her) and showed it to her. "You really need to see how you look right now." I saw her eyes widen in disbelief as she sat herself back down.

"Oh my god! Is that really...wow, just wow." Shannon started feeling overcome with fervid emotion. To say she didn't believe what happened would be an understatement. That emotion gave way to excitement as well.

That wasn't the whole act, though. There was still one last part. "Okay, now for the finale. Slide that box back over to the right over top of your lower half."

Shannon did just that. I told her to reach for the roof of the box again, and she did so as well, illustrating that her two halves were still separated. I took another picture and was about to end the performance, before Shannon asked me something I didn't expect.

"Mind if I try something...different?"

This question intrigued me, but before I could respond, I saw Shannon start to crawl out of the upper box, her torso still detached from her legs. I froze. She climbed down and sat herself on the floor in front of me.

My mind started racing. I never saw anything like this before, nor did I even think this was possible. The fact that she accomplished this was a feat in itself, and I saw it as something that could revolutionize the sawing genre. On the other hand, I had to make sure that the halving could be reversed first; if it was permanent, then we have a major problem on our hands.

Of course I couldn't bring myself to say anything other than "I...uh...um...uh...uh..."

Shannon, meanwhile, acted as if this was completely normal. "What, never seen a girl do something like THAT before?" I swear she is still the most feisty girl I've ever met.

I pulled myself together, looked down at her and gave a bit of a smirk. "Damn, I really should've seen this coming. You're still full of surprises." I decided to get one more picture of Shannon in this raw state, and she even lifted her torso up as if to emphasize the "I'm cut in half and I feel fine" part.

Afterwards, Shannon climbed back up into the top box and was ready to get out. She tried pushing the back flaps open, but they wouldn't budge. She tried punching them open, kicking them open, almost everything she could to open the flaps, but it seemed as if they were sealed shut. It turns out she was forgetting something rather simple.

"Uh, Shannon, I think you need to close the front flaps first." After all, no version of this trick shows the performer actually entering the box.

Shannon, looking slightly embarrassed and in a bit of a rush, closed only the top flap and tried again. Still nothing.

I chuckled a bit. "Both flaps."

She opened the top flap again, now totally embarrassed, and proceeded to close both flaps. That did the trick. She was out in one piece like nothing even happened.

"Well, that was an experience wasn't it?" Shannon asked me, worn out by her futile escape attempts.

"Absolutely, we should try this again sometime." I'm not entirely sure if Shannon seemed excited or exhausted at the thought of another run.

Regardless, we bid each other farewell for the afternoon and went back to our daily lives, though it took a while for that adrenaline rush to wear off.