The First Time

a Hollie & Paul tale
by JMD


“Oh my god! You did it! You actually freakin’ did it!”

At the first sounds of panic in Hollie’s voice, Paul began to question his actions, even though it had seemed like a good idea at the time.

-----

Paul had first noticed Hollie in the little off-campus bar and grill where she’d been working as a waitress. And while she was certainly a beauty, it was the graceful way she had of maneuvering herself around the tightly packed tables that first caught his eye. She seemed to have an almost supernatural ability to avoid collisions and trip-ups while carrying even the fullest tray of drinks. From that first sighting, he knew that she was the one he’d been looking for.

He soon found himself a regular customer of the place. Not that the food was that great or anything. In fact, seeing Hollie was pretty much the only reason he came back. Whenever he could, he’d sit in her section so that she’d wait on him. Over time, they’d developed an easy repartee, talking mostly about current events or the latest goings on around campus.

He learned that she was in her second year of college, though she was still trying to decide what she wanted to do with herself, a fact that really didn’t sit well with her folks, since they were footing most of the bill for her education. “The rest I make by letting guys like you stare at my ass,” she’d told him light-heartedly.

It took him almost a month to ask her out. He was really surprised when she’d accepted, since he’d seen her gently turn down other offers. That first date went well, and more followed. And the more he saw her, the more he knew that she was the one.

Soon, he was ready to pop the question.

The day he decided to do it, he picked Hollie up at her dorm, telling her there was something he wanted her to see. Hollie looked rather dubious as he’d drove up to the old warehouse outside of town. “Trust me,” he simply replied to her unasked question. She nodded, but still seemed unsure as he stepped aside to let her go in first.

A second later, he almost ran over her as she stopped dead in her tracks at what she found inside. “Wow!” she exclaimed, her voice echoing off the warehouse walls. “Look at all this stuff. What is this place?”

“It’s where my family stores all the stuff they don’t use in their acts anymore,” he replied.

“Acts?” Even as she asked, she spotted a bunch of old marquee posters leaning against one wall. “Oh my god! You’re related to David Lance?”

“He’s my dad.”

“Get out!” she shouted again. “God, I love him. He does the most amazing stuff. Once, I saw him use a steam press to flatten this girl into a cardboard cutout. It was unreal.” As she talked, she was moving among the various cabinets, boxes, and other apparatus in the big open space. “How’d he do that?” she asked, looking back over her shoulder.

Paul just cocked an eyebrow at her in reply.

“Oh, right,” Hollie said, somewhat embarrassed. “A magician never reveals his tricks.”

“Something like that, yeah.”

“Yeah,” she nodded. “Sorry about that. That was…” She stopped short as her eyes caught something off to one side. “Uh, is that a coffin?” she asked, pointing in that direction.

“A coffin?” he repeated, caught off guard by the question. He turned to look where she was pointing. A moment later, he had to smile. He could see how she’d make the mistake. The simple rectangular-shaped box did look like a coffin, especially next to all the brightly colored cabinets around it. “Oh, that’s just my great-grandfather’s sawing box,” he told her.

“Great-grandfather?”

“Yep, Wallace the Great,” he said, not without a bit of pride. “He was the first in the family to do magic on a stage. Unfortunately, this is the only prop of his we’ve got left.”

“So, why have you got it stored here?” she questioned.

“Sentimental value, mostly.”

“No,” she said with barely contained frustration. “I mean why hide it away in this musky old warehouse. This is a true antique with real historical importance. It should be in a museum somewhere.” As she spoke, she was lightly running her hands over the surface of the box.

And just like that, the plan was formed.

“You want to try it out?” Paul asked.

Hollie’s eyes practically popped out of her head. “Are you serious?”

“Sure,” he told her. “Why not?”

“You actually know how to do this?” she asked, instantly realizing it was a stupid question. “Of course you do. You probably learned how to saw a lady in half before you could tie your shoes.”

“Um, I think I might have been just a bit older than that,” he joked. “So, how about it?”

He waited patiently for Hollie to make up her mind. “Oh, hell,” she finally said. “How often will I get a chance like this? Let’s do it.”

Paul let the question go unanswered, simply saying, “That’s the spirit.”

“So, what do I need to do?”

“For starters,” he instructed, working the latch on the box, “you need to get in. There should be a step over by the door. Go grab it, would you?”

As she went to do as he asked, he opened the lid on the box, leaning it against the wall behind it. Moving to either end, he removed the stocks from their slides. He was setting them down on a nearby shelf when Hollie returned with the step. He took it and placed it on the floor in front of the box.

“Ready?” he asked, holding out his hand to her.

With a nervous smile, she took his hand and let him help her up the step. Carefully, she lifted one foot, and then the other over the side of the box. “Now what?” she asked.

“Lie down,” he answered, pointing to one end of the box. He helped her balance as she sat down in the box, turning her so that her head was at the right end. “Scoot this way a bit,” he told her, guiding her until her feet were just outside the opened end of the box. Reaching around, he took the foot stock off the shelf and placed it into its slide.

“I thought you used fake feet,” she questioned, as she watched him locked the stock into place.

“Nope,” he said, turning to get the other stock off the shelf. “That’s just something we tell people to throw them off track.”

“Oh,” she nodded, though she didn’t look too sure about it.

“Lie back,” he ordered, lightly pushing her shoulder down. “Put your hands up by your head.” She did as he asked and he slipped the stock into the slides. He slid it into place, leaving her head and hands outside the box. “Comfy?” he asked.

“Honestly,” she confessed, “not really.”

“Yeah,” he admitted, locking the stock down. “These early tricks weren’t really designed with comfort in mind, I’m afraid. I’ll try to make this quick.” He closed the lid and locked it, as well. “There. Can you move?”

Hollie made a show of trying. “I can squirm a bit, but that’s all.”

“Good,” he said. He turned and picked up the saw from the shelf. It was one of those single handled models with a long serrated blade. Paul placed the teeth against the corner of the box where Hollie’s waist should have been. “Ready?”

Hollie looked nervous. He knew that she was questioning his methods. They weren’t anything like what she’d always been led to believe about how this trick was done. “I don’t know,” she admitted. “Maybe…”

“I’d never hurt you, Hollie,” he said, looking directly into her eyes. “Trust me.”

He waited for her to decide. Though he hoped she wouldn’t, if she had told him to stop at that point, he would have without an argument.

Finally, she gave out a heavy sigh. “Okay,” she told him, “but make it quick before I change my mind.”

“Your wish is my command,” he smiled. And with quick back and forth motions he began to saw through the box. If he had been doing it on a stage for an audience, he would have drawn it out more to add to the suspense. That’s how his great-grandfather would have done it back in his day. But since Hollie was obviously so nervous, he felt he should get it over with as soon as possible.

He heard her draw in a breath as she felt the saw come in contact with her waist, and he hesitated. Turning to her, he waited for her to tell him to stop. But she just closed her eyes and bit her lip, which he took as a sign to continue.

A few moments later, the saw was at the bottom of the box. He drew it from the cut and laid it on top of the box. “Ta-dah!”

She opened her eyes and looked down at the box before turning to look at him. “That’s it? I thought you were supposed to take me apart?”

“That came later,” he explained, placing the saw back on the shelf. “Early audiences weren’t as sophisticated as they are today. To them, it was enough just to run a saw through a box with a lady in it.”

As he spoke, he unlatched the lid and opened it. Coming around, he quickly unlocked the head stock and removed it. She immediately reached up to the sides of the box to pull herself up so she could look down at her body. She let out a long sigh.

“Disappointed?” he asked.

“A little,” she admitted. “I guess I was just expecting more. Still,” she went on, as he moved around to the other end of the box, “it was fun. You know, I swear I could actually feel that saw going through me. I thought for a second that you’d actually cut me in half.”

Paul took hold of her feet, which were still locked in the stocks, “You mean, like this.”

He gave her feet a quick jerk, pulling them a few inches through the stocks. Inside the box, Hollie’s waist followed her legs. Her upper body, supported by her arms on the side of the box, did not. A clearly visible gap appeared between the now separated halves of her body.

And that was when the screaming started.

-----

“Oh my god! You did it! You actually freakin’ did it!”

Okay, so maybe scaring the shit out of her wasn’t the best way to go. “Now, Hollie…”

“Don’t you ‘Now, Hollie’ me, you bastard!,” she shouted, cutting him off. “Look at me! I’m in two pieces here!”

“I know,” he simply replied.

“Of course you know!” she yelled. “You did it, you asshole. You freakin’ cut me in half.”

“But…”

“I can’t believe this!” she went on, not letting him put up any kind of defense. “I thought you were a nice guy! I though you could be trusted! And now look at me! I’m…”

She suddenly stopped as she looked back down at the place where she was divided. A confused expression came to her face. Paul relaxed just a bit, hoping that she’d finally figured out that something wasn’t quite right.

“There’s no blood,” she said after a few moments. Her voice was much quieter than it had been just a few seconds ago.

“No,” Paul said softly.

“There’s no blood!” she repeated, her voice rising slightly.

“There’s no blood,” he confirmed.

“Why is there no blood?” she asked. She reached down with one hand to feel the area of her waist that had been separated from her hips.

“Magic.”

She snapped her eyes up to look at him. He just shrugged in return. She cocked her head, her eyes narrowing as she considered what he’d said. Without a word, she returned her attention to her waist, feeling around the area that she couldn’t see. He watched her eyes widen as, instead of the open body cavity that she’d expected to find there, she felt only smooth undamaged skin. She pulled herself up a little more and took a closer look at her bottom half, seeing the unblemished area of light pink filling the open top of her jeans.

With a resigned sigh, she turned back to him. “Okay,” she said, sounding a lot calmer. “It’s pretty obvious that there’s a whole lot of stuff going on here that I don’t know about.”

“Some, yeah,” he told her.

“Right,” she nodded, lying back down into the box. “So, how about you put me back together…” She stopped and jerked herself back up in panic. “You can put me back together, right?”

He couldn’t help but grin. “Seamlessly.”

Letting out the breath she’d been holding, she went back down. “Okay, put me back together, and we’ll talk.”

Getting Hollie back in one piece was a simple operation. A few minutes later, she was out of the box. She took a moment to lift up the hem of her blouse to make sure everything was back to normal before sitting on the step. “Okay,” she said slowly, “it would be stupid for me to question whether magic was real or not at this point, so let’s bypass that explanation.”

“Okay,” he agreed.

“Doesn’t mean I don’t have questions, though.”

“Okay,” he said again.

“Can anyone do it?” she asked.

“To varying degrees, yes,” he told her. “But it takes a lot of training and a lot more…” He paused as he looked for the right expression. “…um, willingness to believe.”

“Explain.”

“Okay,” he said, pulling up a storage crate to sit next to her. “Basically, what you think of as magic is just simple mind over matter. You picture in your mind the effect you want and you make it happen. But … and here’s the important part … you have to believe that it will happen, or you get nothing.”

“That seems way too easy,” she scoffed. “I mean, if it was as simple as that, it would be happening every day.”

“You’re right,” he nodded. “That’s where the training comes in. Accessing the part of the brain that allows a person to perform magic isn’t easy. It can take years to learn to do it properly.”

Her eyes narrowed a bit, but there was more playfulness in them than malice. “Well, obviously, you didn’t have a problem with it.”

“True,” he acknowledged, “but I had an advantage.”

“How so?”

“I was born into it,” he said. “My family’s been magicians for four generations now. Like you said, I’ve been learning magic since I could tie my shoes.”

She gave that some thought. “Okay, I can see that.” She leaned back against the sawing box. “It’s just hard to believe that this is real. I mean, how long have people been able to do this kind of thing?”

“Almost from the beginning of mankind,” he answered. “Think about it. The Greek Myths. Arthurian legend. History’s full of stories about people using magic.”

“Yeah,” she admitted, “but those are just stories.”

“Are they?”

She just stared at him for a minute. “Okay,” she put forth, “then answer me this. If magic was so prevalent in ancient times, why isn’t it still that way today?”

“Ever heard of Salem, Massachusetts?”

“Oh.”

“Yeah, thought you might have,” he said, his voice somber. “After the Trials, magic users decided it might be a good idea to start keeping a lower profile. There was a time, when magic was barely seen at all. Even today, we don’t do much of it openly.”

“All things considered, I can understand why.”

He nodded. “Magic shows have become the main way we exercise our abilities now. Of course, early magicians were real cautious with what they did, sticking mostly to simple things that were easily passed off as tricks. Over time, though, we’ve gotten more elaborate.”

“Like steam pressing girls into cardboard?” Hollie said with a wink.

Paul laughed. “That’s actually pretty tame. You should see some of the stuff my sister Corrie does in her act.”

Hollie’s eyes widened as her imagination ran wild. A moment later, her expression turned serious. “So, why are you showing me all this?” she asked. “I mean, aren’t you taking a big risk telling me all your secrets?”

He smiled softly. “No,” he told her gently. “No, I don’t think I am.”

Hollie turned away to hide the blush she felt on her cheeks.

“Besides,” he continued, “if you’re going to be my assistant, you’ll have to know, won’t you?”

Her head snapped back up. “What? Assistant?”

“Yes,” he replied. “I’ve decided it’s time for me to get into the business and, if you’re willing, I’d like you to be my assistant.”

Hollie couldn’t say anything for a bit. Finally, she simply asked, “Why?”

“Why?” Paul repeated.

“Yeah,” she said. “Why? Why me?”

“Well, that’s a stupid question.” She started to protest, but he cut her off. “Hollie, you’re perfect assistant material. You’re beautiful. You’re graceful. And you have a natural ease with an audience.”

“I’ve never been in front of an audience in my life,” she corrected him.

“Maybe not on a stage,” he nodded, “but there are all kinds of audiences. I’ve watched you in the bar. What you would be doing for me isn’t that different.”

“I don’t think so.”

“You don’t?” She nodded. “Okay, let’s go through it, shall we? You’ll be taking orders from me, taking care of all my needs. At times, you’ll have to interact with complete strangers from the audience. In the course of the show, you’ll have to move into and out of some very tight spaces with ease.” He paused for a moment before adding, “And I can guarantee that every guy in the place is still going to be staring at your ass the whole time.”

Her eyes narrowed at the comment. He just winked in return. “You’re serious about this?”

“Very,” he told her.

She took a deep breath and looked around the warehouse. “I suppose we would be using some of these props, huh?”

“Maybe,” he agreed, “but I’ve got a few ideas of my own I’m hoping to work up. So, what do you say?”

She thought about it for another few moments. Then, she nodded. “Yeah,” she said, confirming her decision. “If nothing else, it’ll get my folks off my back about picking a major. When do we start?”

“Well, we still have to work up an act,” he answered, “so we probably won’t be on stage for a few months yet. But the sooner we get started, the better.”

She nodded. “In that case, I just have one more question.”

“Shoot.”

She pointed to one corner of the warehouse. “What does that do?”

He turned to look in that direction. Standing in the corner was a large circular cylinder topped with a two-roller wringer. He smiled and turned back to her. “It washes clothes,” he told her. “That’s just my grandmother’s old washing machine.”

“Oh,” she said, obviously disappointed.

“Why?” he asked, his curiosity piqued.

“It’s nothing,” she said, a slight blush coming to her cheeks. “I just had this idea...”

And just like that, Paul knew that this was the start of a beautiful partnership.