Extreme Magic Vignette Sawing 2

ÿþExtreme Magic Vignette: Studio sawing (continued)





Genevieve introspection was cut short by the motion of the magician and his co-opted assistant lifting the upper box from the lower one. For a moment, Terry looked puzzled as to where they were going to put the detached part of Genevieve down. He steadied himself and raised his knee to support the front corner of the severed box. Releasing his hand, he put his thumb and finger to his lips and gave a shrill whistle that made Genevieve and Jenny wince. From the darkness of the back stage area rolled another low platform; this one had a glass topped table, similarly to the one Jennifer's upper half was not quite resting on. It was the work of moments to place Genevieve on the table and move both parts so that Jennifer could also confirm the genuineness of the parts sticking out of the two cramped boxes.



Once the stage-manager-prompted applause had died down, Terry took Jenny back to the middle of the performance area.



"OK, Jenny, what do you think happens next?" he asked.



Jenny was taken aback and took a while to think up an answer. "Um, I suppose, um, you put Jennifer and Genevieve back together and we go back to the audience."



"Well, that's exactly what I had planned."



Jenny's face showed a mix of relief and disappointed.



"But..."



Jenny's face added apprehensive to the mix.



"I would have done them the other way round, if I hadn't had an assistant. Because I would have needed the person who was going into the chair to be on the other end of saw for the small box sawing."



Relief re-asserted itself.



"So having an assistant meant that I could do the sawings in the order I did them."



Jenny smiled, feeling that she had done the magician a favour.



"Thank you for being my assistant this evening."



Jenny's smile broadened.



"Of course, that leaves me with a problem, which stems from the fact I don't usually have an assistant; well not a proper one, anyway."



Jenny added puzzlement to the mix of emotions flitting in turns across her visage. Some of the audience were also puzzled, but a few had a feeling where this line of dialogue was leading.



Hesitantly, Jenny asked, "Why is having an assistant a problem?"



"Well, Jenny, If you have an assistant, but mostly perform stuff with audience members, people begin to wonder what your assistant is for; so you are obliged to perform an illusion on her that is more extreme than you have on anyone else. So you see my dilemma."



The relief that had been there vanished instantly. "You mean you are going to do something to me?"



He nodded.



"But, I'm not a proper assistant, just a helper from the audience."



"You helped strap Jennifer into the chair?" She nodded. "You helped saw through Genevieve?" She nodded. "You've been backstage, no matter how briefly?" Again she nodded. "Then you are a proper magician's assistant as much as I am a proper magician. So why aren't you dressed like one?"



Jenny did a passable impression of a goldfish; how could he expect someone he had pulled from the audience to be in the right costume?



"Wait here!" Terry instructed.



Not having any idea what else to do, she did.



He returned with a circle of grey fabric with a roll of more fabric round the edge. He dropped it on the floor in front of her before taking her by the hand and guiding her to step onto it. "Hands up!" he called. She raised her hands above her head as he raise the rim of cloth around her to wrist level. After about three seconds of shaking fabric of the bag he had drawn up around Jenny, Terry lowered the rim and guided her back out.



The crowd responded spontaneously to the miracle they had just seen. Only the stage manager and the people in the studio gallery knew that the magician was doing unplanned stuff. While Terry took the costume change bag back to the wings, one of the floor crew turned one of the monitors towards Jenny so she could see how she was dressed now.



Jenny took in her change of costume and caught between the urge to turn about to show off the comstume and the desire to faint, because she had never been seen in such revealing costume, except at the beach. Neither impulse won out, so she there looking totally stunned, until the magician returned.



During that wait, with the help of the image on the screen and several glances down she took in the clothes that definately were not the clothes she had been wearing while she was being groomed to be Terry's assistant. Her white blouse and bra had disappeared, to be replaced by a pink bikini and a tight sleeveless pink bolero jacket that enhanced her cleavage to an extent, she assumed would usually require expensive and highly restictive lingerie. Her hair, which had flowed down to her shoulder blades was now mostly in a bun high on the back of her head, apart from the short ponytail that emerged from the bun. As she reached up to feel the bun and ponytail, to see if it was a wig that just happened to match her hair colour, she saw she had baggy sleeves from elbow to wrist, in a near tranparent material the same pink as her new top. Her fingers reached her hair and confirmed to her befuddled brain that there was nothing added to her head, but a pink ribbon around the base of the bun and a few hairgrips. Now she looked down, wondering what had become of her grey work skirt, her stockings, her shoes and, yes, even her knickers; it was at this point that she was seen to blush to almost become redder that her pink outfit. She saw she was clad from waist to knee in harem pants in the same sheer pink material as her sleeves, thankfully a swag of heavier pink cloth draped from the waist band not leaving her exposed. The final item of clothing was a pair of curly-toed slippers in the same pink.



As Terry came back, Jenny asked, "What happened to the usual little black dress or the red sequined number?"



Terry placed the board he was carrying on the floor where it stood on some four inch feet. "You may have noticed that I am sometimes a bit unconventential, so why would I want you in a boring old assistant's outfit. Besides, you look wonderful in that costume," several male members of the audience whistled their agreement, "and it won't get damaged by what I have planned."



This speech did not comfort Jenny, especially as while he was making it he had guided her ankles to a pair of cutouts in the edge of the board and fitted another stock section, thus trapping them with her slippers pointing under the board.



"Hey! What are you doing?"



"I am positioning you for your illusion, Jenny." A thought occurred to him. "That is unless Jennifer and Genevieve really think you should be let off." As he said this he took her hands and guided them to a pair of cut outs the other side of the board, a little under two feet from her ankles, and fitted another stock section. "I'll be right back."



Terry left the bent over Jenny and went to Jennifer and Genevieve. "Ladies, do you think I should perform some magic on your friend Jenny, over there?"



Jennifer was the first to speak. "She chose me to go first, and I've come to no harm; if you count being in two pieces as no harm. But she did volunteer me so I vote that she is a 'proper assistant' and should be in an illusion."



Genevieve spoke up too. "It's her fault I'm nearly naked and in seven pieces in two boxes. If she hadn't persuaded us that a magic show would be a nice thing to see, we would have gone to tomorrow's recording, which would have been much safer. I reckon you should do your worst."



Terry turned to the audience. "Do you want me to do some magic on Jenny?"



The overwhelming concensus was a yes.



The magician went back over to Jenny and sighed. "Well, at least I can try and make you a bit more comfortable."



From his next foray into the off stage area, he came dragging a trolley with a number of flat pieces of wood. The first one had a neck wide slot in the top. Terry positioned it so that Jenny's neck was in the slot, then attached the base to the board trapping her wrists and ankles. The next piece was attached to back of the base board and the previously attached board; this gave the construction some rigidity, allowing Jenny to rest her shoulders against the first panel. She felt less strained with a bit of support, but her worry increased as the magician inserted a smaller piece down the slot, ensure she could no longer raise her head.



The next panel added had a pair of shorter slots which while supporting her thighs left an embarassing amount of buttock on view. A roof was soon added to the box that enclosed Jenny.



"So how as you feeling, Jenny, my assistant?" asked Terry.



Conscious that she did not want her reply rendered as a series of high pitched beeps, she settled for, "It's not the most comfortable position. What are you going to do to me?"



"Well," replied the magician, "the position is very important to the magic; I'm sorry you are finding it a bit awkward, but maybe you should have thought of that before you helped saw your friends in half. As to what I'll be doing to you, you'll find out soon enough; and three seconds before it happens."



Terry took another panel and fitted it to the front of the box. There were still some sheets of wood on the trolley; many people wondered what they were for.



When the magician returned once more from the wings, Bob, the studio manager, was the first to spot what he was carrying. He rushed over to Terry and dragged him back into the back stage area, but not before many more people had seen that he object in his hands was a chainsaw with a very long blade. Jenny did not see this, but was further worried by the commotion.



Backstage, Bob was telling Terry that using a chainsaw on an unsuspecting member of the public was not something the studio could sanction. In turn, Terry reminded Bob and the staff in the gallery that their job was to record the magic and that it was his responsibility to do the magic and keep the participants safe.



Needless to say, this hiatus was edited from the show that was eventually broadcast.



Bob returned to his studio management duties, still worried for the safety of Jenny.



Terry made another entrance from the wings and, as he approached the boxed up Jenny, he ripped the saw into life. Jenny gave a scream that was lost under the noise of Terry gunning the chainsaw, then she felt an unaccountable calm; as if she had decided to enjoy the last moments of her life.



Without the preliminaries of using the saw to cut a piece of wood to prove, if there was any doubt, that the chainsaw was very real, he lined it up with the middle of Jenny's box and began sawing, sending up a cloud of saw dust and wood chips. Jenny screamed again, but not a scream of fear or desparation, but one of exhiliration.



The saw made short work of the box top and was soon making steady progress down the sides. Apart from a shower of wood chips and a slight pulling at the skin of her waist, Jenny felt nothing of the actual sawing through her midriff; she was even mildly glad that she could no longer see the monitor that had been turned her way after the costume change. As the saw finished the cut the box sagged a little, because the board trapping Jenny's hands and feet was no longer providing the rigidity of support.



The saw was extracted and placed, idling, on the floor in front of Jenny; she was simultaneously terrified to have her suspicions that she had heard a chainsaw confirmed and calmed by the lack of any red in the pale brown of the sawdust that clung to the blade.



Terry went to his trolley of panels and took the next, which he rested on the top of the box. With a bit of effort he parted the box by the thickness of the panel and lifted the sheet of wood to slot it into the gap thus created, where it settled a couple of inches.



"Jenny, I need you to lean your weight forward and backwards, so I can get the divider through."



Despite this, ordinarily, being a nonsensical request, Jenny leaned her weight against her shoulders in the front of the box and her upper thighs in the back of the box. The panel slipped down three inches, while the audience was treated to a look of bemused concentration on Jenny's face.



As the magician continued to slide the panel down between what Jenny had come realise were her two halves, she felt a rubbing in her belly that was pleasant like a massage, but eerie because it was internal. Soon the panel's edge emerged from the bottom board of the box and was touching the floor; after some adjustments it was attached to the back section of the box and formed a support for that section. Another panel was inserted to do the same duty for the front part. Terry briefly moved the two sections apart; the spectators applauded to see Jenny's head sticking out of one part with her hands through the base and her feet and buttocks visible in the other.



Jenny's sense of hope rose as she felt the box being clipped back together was soon dashed as Terry picked up the chainsaw again and oriented the blade so that it was horizontal. The implication was immediately obvious to all present.



"Hey," called out, Jenny, "what about the thing with with the parts settling on each other and not being able to get the dividers in?"



"You're a proper assistant. I'm sure you will manage."



"What?" squeaked Jenny, but no-one heard because the magician gunned the saw again and attacked the box worryingly close under Jenny's nose.



As the horizontal cut severed her arms she was glad that her upper torso was jammed in the top of the front half of the box, because otherwise she felt sure she would have fallen of her forearms and only been held up by her throat.



The sawing continued through the dividing panels and through her legs just above her knees; with her lower body also supported by the confining nature of the box, Jenny felt safe from falling off her knees, but she also felt that this risk was lower as things were in their usual order as far as gravity was concerned.



Terry switched off the saw and placed it beside the trolley. He took the first panel and inserted it into divide he had made in the front half of the box, it only reached the vertical divider. Jenny used the fact that she was squashed in to lift her arm stumps to allow the panel to pass. Thankfully the second panel in the front went under the first. A similar method was used to get the divider panels in the back part.



Another trip to the wings brought out another low platform with a pair of lower glass tables, just the same as the ones that held up the uppper halves of Jennifer and Genevieve.



The first received the box section containing Jenny's upper body turned so that her head was now through the upper face and facing the audience. The second soon displayed the upper rear section of the original box with Jenny's own rear visible through opening in the box and the sheer fabric of the harem pants.



Soon a further glass table was stocked with Jenny's boxed up legs and arms, once Terry had seperated the lower boxes once more, so that each of the four smaller boxes had one of Jenny's extremities facing the onlookers. Terry took the slipper from Jenny's feet to convince every one that they were real feet; they certainly react like real feet when he briefly tickled one, which prompted a shout from Jenny of, "Hey! Cut that out!"



Terry approached his divided assistant. "How do you feel?"



Jenny could not resist, although if she could have thought of somethng more original she would have said it. "I'm feeling quite proud of myself; I haven't gone to pieces," she smiled.



Terry groaned. "Folks, Please show your appreciation for Jennifer, Genevieve and especially my assistant, for the evening, Jenny."



As the applause subsided, Terry spoke again. "While I take the 'Three Jens' back stage as restore them to former wholeness, I would like you to watch a bit of filming I did the other day with some delightful ladies I met at a bowling alley. I am grateful to these ladies who are here in the front row tonight."