Shopping with Fred

Early Friday evening Quinn and Lisa each received a text from Fred. "Meet me @ 5 maples 9 2morow morning outside costa. I o u a dress" it said. They were both reminded how acting as the assistant in an illusion supervised by Fred had caused the destruction of a favourite garment at Kyle's party. Each thought that this offer came at an opportune moment, because they were going to the recording of a magic show at the studios in the next town the following Thursday and wanted to look their sexy best in the hope of being called to volunteer for something.

Shortly before nine o'clock outside the Costa Coffee outlet in the Five Maples mall, Quinn and Lisa spotted each other and simultaneously greet each other with a cry of, "What are you doing here?" They soon discovered that they had received the same text; it seemed Fred was planning to kill two, proverbial, birds with one stone.

As nine o'clock arrived they spotted Fred coming down the escalator from the car park entrance, carrying a medium sized suitcase. They met him at the bottom of the escalator. He dragged them into Costa for a coffee and a cake. He said, "I haven't had breakfast; I was too busy with the last minutes arrangements for this morning. And I'm going to need the energy to keep up with you two."

Quinn took the bait. "What kind of last minute arrangements? As long as your credit card has enough available balance, what other preparations are necessary?"

"I thought that a shopping trip might get a bit boring for me; delightful as it might be to watch you two modelling stuff you were thinking of having me buy. So I thought I might make it a bit of a competition," suggested Fred.

Lisa said, "Competitive shopping? I like the sound of that. But how does it work in practice?"

"Well," began Fred, "instead of shopping for yourself, you'll be shopping for each other and the one whose purchase is liked by the other the best gets to take part in the illusion I brought with me."

Lisa and Quinn began to babble in their excitement at the prospect of being in an illusion and wanting Fred to explain how this was possible.

"To answer your questions simply; I had to get in touch with 'Arthur the Archmage' to arrange to pay him for the repairs to his kit; and that wasn't cheap, let me tell you, but worth it. He wanted to know how the damage had been done; some malarkey about needing to know so that his repairman could repair it in the correct way. When I got the video back from Ann, I showed it to him and he said that I had a natural magical talent and he said he would teach me the more technical stuff, so I 'don't make some of the mistakes that turn natural talents into serial killers'; yes, those were his exact words, but I think he was exaggerating. I guess I proved myself in the last couple of weeks, because he's let me borrow a couple of magic tricks."

"Which tricks are those?" asked Lisa.

"The first trick is this suitcase, which I brought along to make the competition run more smoothly and the other one is a surprise and the prize for the winner."

Quinn was the first to wonder how a magical illusion could help in a shopping contest, "Ok, so what are the rules of this challenge?"

"I'm glad you asked," answered Fred. "You each have one hour to buy a dress and where appropriate some underwear to go with and you may not confer. So, to start off you'll need to write down your measurements so that the other can get a dress that is the right size; it's such a hassle if I have to turn up again if it needs exchanging because it was the wrong size. The reason I brought this was to enforce the 'no conferring' rule." He patted the suitcase. "We'll need to go somewhere a little more private, of course."

Coffees and cakes consumed they followed Fred until he found the recessed entrance to an unoccupied unit. He placed the case on the floor. "Here'll do. Who wants to go first?"

Even before Lisa had had a chance to consider the question, Quinn was saying, "Me! Me! Me!"

"Great enthusiasm, Quinn. Step into my office." He opened the suitcase and pulled out a ring that unfurled, showing itself to be the top of a tube of fabric that had been packed into the case. Fred pointed and Quinn stepped into the tube. "See you in an hour," he said as he drew the grey cloth tube up Quinn's body. Once Quinn was out of sight, he dropped the ring and stuffed it and the fabric tube back into the suitcase as if it was empty."

"Where did Quinn go?" Lisa asked.

"I vanished her so you can't confer; these are her measurements. Now off you go; you've only got an hour." He paused, then said, "No, come to think of it, I'll come along to the first shop and show you a few tricks that might help you. Don't worry that you'll be cheating, because I'll show Quinn the same tricks when it's her turn."

Fred followed Lisa to a dress shop and for a minute or two Lisa looked through the racks. She selected something. "So what trick have you got to help me?"

Let's take this to the changing rooms and I'll show you. They pushed through to the changing rooms, where the member of staff supervising them eyed Fred and Lisa suspiciously as the both went into one of the cubicles.

"Hold the outfit up to the mirror and say after me, 'Mirror, mirror, on the wall, will this dress suit Quinn at all?'" instructed Fred.

Lisa held up the dress and repeated the rhyme. It took her a moment to notice the change in the image in the mirror. Where there had been just the dress on its hanger, in the mirror, there was now an image of Quinn wearing the dress.

"Now turn it a bit so you can see her wearing it from another angle!" said Fred.

Lisa turned the dress a bit and the image of Quinn rotated, as if on a turntable, to match the angle that Lisa had turned the real frock.

"Now note the expression on her face. That expresses her opinion of the dress."

Quinn's image expressed a deep disgust. "I didn't think this was something Quinn would like, but it's good to have it confirmed. So what's to stop me just dragging dozens of dresses in here and trying each until I find one that the mirror shows she is happy with?"

"That would be a complete cheat. But the trick will only work six more times; so use them wisely. I'll see you in an hour outside Costa again, then we can go and pay for your selection and give Quinn her turn."

Before Lisa could say anything more, Fred was gone. She checked her watch, nine thirty, and she had some serious shopping to do.

At ten thirty, Lisa found Fred where she and Quinn had originally met. "On time, but only just," commented Fred. "Let's go and buy what you chose for Quinn and then we can let her have her turn.

Lisa dragged Fred straight to the counter, where the lady at the till recognised her and brought out a branded bag with a sticky label seal. Fred offered up his credit card and the purchase was formalised. Fred took charge of the bag and headed for a changing cubicle. He placed his case on the floor. "Now it's time to get Quinn back to have her turn."

"You're not getting me in there," said Lisa pointedly.

Realising that trying to persuade Lisa into the case was a lost battle, he said, "I need to get Quinn back somehow. Oh yes, I need a mannequin. I'll be back in a jiffy."

Before Lisa had time to turn round twice, Fred was back carrying a shop dummy dressed in a blouse and skirt. He asked Lisa to undress the dummy, while he opened the case and pulled out the short skirt and T-shirt Quinn had been wearing. Fred looked at Lisa who was dressed in a similar outfit. "I notice that you and Quinn are wearing similar outfits; how come you are so casually dressed to buy a dress?"

"I guess we planned on trying on a lot of outfits, so something that comes off easily makes a lot of sense, didn't you think?" replied Lisa.

"Now we dress the mannequin, or is that the man-a-Quinn, in Quinn's stuff." It did not take them long to get the clothes on the dummy. "Now I take a photo."

Fred stepped out of the cubicle and raised his phone. He took video rather than a photo. "Now pose with the dummy and smile." Fred leant forward and pulled the modesty curtain into place and then opened it up again. While the curtain was closed there was a cut-off squeak from Lisa.

Now inside the cubicle was Quinn in her T-shirt and skirt, posing with a mannequin dressed in Lisa's gear. Fred stepped back into the cubicle and began dis-arming the dummy so that he could remove the T-shirt and skirt.

Meanwhile, a slightly confused Quinn was asking, "What happened? And why are we here? Where's Lisa? And why is this model decked in her stuff?"

While Fred redressed the dummy in its former attire, he told Quinn that he had vanished her to enforce the 'No conferring' rule and that he had needed to use the dummy, because Lisa had refused to step into the case. He dropped Lisa's clothes into the case. "It's a bit over an hour later, what with showing Lisa a trick to help her make her selection and the time it took to make the actual purchase. And now it's your turn."

Reminded that she was in a clothes shopping contest, Quinn said, "Can I take a look at what she bought me?" She indicated the bag dangling from Fred's elbow.

"Of course not. That wouldn't be fair. You get to see what she got for you, when she sees what you've got for her."

It took very little time to show Quinn the trick with the mirror and outfit, its benefits and limitations. Then they arranged a rendezvous point and Fred left Quinn to hunt for a killer dress for Lisa.

An hour later, Fred followed Quinn to the boutique where she had found the dress that she hoped would knock Lisa's socks off. Soon the dress was bought and Fred was wondering where to get to Lisa back. He settled on the changing room at the back of the shop; placing the case on the floor of the changing room, he opened it and held the tube of fabric up before lowering it down Lisa's body. Lisa stepped out of the case as soon as she could, once she realised where she was.

"I guess you've done your shopping too, Quinn," said Lisa.

"Yes, you won't believe what I found; it's so you."

Lisa turned to Fred and said, "Ok, Fred, hand over the dresses, so we can try them on so I can prove to Quinn, I bought a better dress for her than she bought for me."

"In the interests of fairness, you are going to get into your dresses simultaneously and be revealed at exactly the same time. And I will judge by your first reactions who is best pleased by the other's purchase," said Fred. "But you'll need to be somewhere where you can get the instant impact of your new outfits. And I know just the place. Follow me!"

Not wanting to lose sight of their purchases, they followed Fred to a small dance studio that had set up business next to a fitness studio. He walked straight in. "The proprietor is a friend of mine. She said I could use it anytime, as long as there weren't any classes happening. So I dropped off the prize illusion first thing and the next class isn't scheduled for over an hour. So, go on in, while I switch off the alarm system.

The studio was pretty much what they expected; a well-lit space, with white walls, except the wall that was entirely mirror. In a corner near the mirror was a sound system and a small table with a couple wireless microphone packs; these were obviously the property of the dance studio. In a back corner were a couple of hooped fabric tubes propped against the wall and a large-ish box shaped thing under a cloth.

Fred came in carrying a camera on a tripod, which a set up next to the mirror.

"What's that for?" asked Lisa.

"This will record your reactions so I can judge who reacted the best, if it isn't totally obvious. And I shall be recording the illusion that I shall be doing with the winner, so you can see what I do and so I can take it to Arthur, my mentor, to get a critique of my performance. So, on with the first part. Lisa, Quinn, go and grab one of those hoops each and set them up and stand in them!"

They scurried to fetch a hoop each and laid them on the floor and stood in them. Fred came forward with the bags containing the purchases and placed them on the floor in front of the hoops occupied by the intended recipient.

"You're going to do this by magic aren't you?" asked Lisa.

"Of course! How else?" enquired Fred. "That way I can guarantee that you can't peek until you are both ready; I'm trying to keep this fair, you know."

"So, how do we know you won't just vanish our clothes and laugh as we try to cover ourselves?" Quinn was a little suspicious of Fred's motives.

"For a start Lisa would probably kill me if I tried it." Lisa nodded to confirm he was right; she was of the opinion that offered nudity was ok with the right people, but taken nudity was an assault, no matter how it was achieved.

"I thought I might be able to get you to do a striptease, Quinn, but the trigger phrase to get you into the hypnotic trance seems to have gone," admitted Fred. Seeing Lisa grin, he added, "I guess you had something to do with that, Lisa." She nodded again. "If I get too cavalier with the way I treat you two, you won't want to play again and we'd all miss out a lot of fun. So, I'm trying to control some of my more impulsive impulses."

"Good enough! Right, Quinn?" said Lisa.

Quinn nodded that she accepted that the situation was within her comfort zone and more magical fun with Fred was something she would look forward to. She also believed that her comfort zone reached places that Lisa would not go within a mile of.

"I'll start the camera, then when I say you'll raise the hoops above your heads and then when I give the word drop them and check out the mirror." Fred was already at the camera and making sure it saw both the ladies clearly. "Ok lift your hoops and drop them when I say!"

Quinn's hoop went up smoothly, but Lisa's went up slightly twisted and it took about ten seconds to adjust it. Quinn lowered her hoop to see what the delay was and raised it again when Lisa's was ready.

"When I say 'Go' drop your hoops and react honestly to what you see in the mirror. Three... two... one... Go!"

There was a muted clatter as the rings hit the polished parquet floor, followed by an unanticipated several seconds of silence as they both looked at the dresses they were wearing.

Quinn stared. Her light blue T-shirt and darker blue skirt had been replaced. At first sight she thought she was wearing a high-necked lace mini-dress with strips of black material underneath across her chest, belly and hips, but then she realised that these stripes were panels in the dress. She smoothed the back of the figure hugging skirt part that ended barely inches below her buttocks. The back seemed to be the same vinyl material of the modesty strips at the front. The sleeves reached a little passed her elbows and had matching vinyl stripes. She know there was nothing under the dress, but thought that perhaps she would wear some panties if she was going to spend long in public, in case the dress rode up.

Meanwhile, Lisa was ogling herself in her new sexy mini dress, barely longer than Quinn's. The cowl neckline plunged almost to her navel, exposing tantalising amounts of cleavage. The bodice of the dress was made of a course mesh that did not conceal any of Lisa's torso; her modesty was preserved by a black triangle bra top. The cinched skirted bottom was black too and concealed a bikini bottom to match the top.

The silence was broken when they both said as one, "Wow! This looks fantastic. Where did you get it? And do they have in other colours?" Then they burst into laughter as they realised that the first question was redundant, because the names and logos were on the bags in front of them. They spent a further few seconds admiring the enhancing effect of the dresses on their bodies.

It was Lisa who remembered that this was a competition first. "Ok, Fred. Who won?"

"It certainly isn't clear from just watching; I'll need to check the camera." He went to the camera and fiddled with the controls. "Even going frame by frame, I can't tell who was the more impressed. Lisa opened her mouth to about three frames earlier than you Quinn, but I can't tell if that was because you were more stunned or she felt a greater urge to express verbally how impressed she was."

That took a moment to sink in then Quinn said, "I guess that makes it a draw, then?" It took her a further second to trace through the consequences of this declaration. "And I reckon that means we both get to try out your surprise illusion." Her look challenged Fred to try and back out, while hoping he did not.

"I hadn't thought of using you both in the illusion, but it's do-able." He seemed to brighten up. Whether this was because he had been saved from making a decision that might have been seen to favour one or other of his assistant friends or the prospect of having them both in the illusion, who can tell?

"Whatever it is, this illusion, I'm not doing it in a brand new dress," said Lisa. "I remember what happened to the last dress I wore in one of Fred's illusions. It got shredded. And Quinn's got cut to ribbons. So where are the clothes we came in in?"

Fred nodded at the still sealed bags in front of each of them.

"Are we going to use the hoops again, or are there some changing rooms here?" asked Quinn.

Fred looked at his watch, then said, "We'd better use the hoops, because we haven't got all day and the first class is due in here in about forty minutes."

Quinn and Lisa lift their hoops, but Lisa also gave Fred a sharp look that told Fred that he should lay off stereotyping all women as incapable of changing in a timely manner. With a "Three, two, one, go!" and a clatter of dropped rings, Lisa and Quinn wear both wearing their shopping outfits of T-shirt and knee- to mid-thigh-length skirts.

Fred stepped forward and moved the dress bags back towards the mirror and asked the girls to return the hoops and bring forward the mystery illusion. The cloth-covered box was on small wheels and as they scooted it to a position in front of the mirror, Fred was restarting the camera.

"It's now time to reveal what the surprise prize illusion is. Unveil it on the count of three. One... Two... Three... Go!" The smoothness of the unveiling was somewhat impair by the fact that Lisa started on 'Three' and Quinn went on 'Go'. The shiny cloth that had been draped over the prop ended up in a twisted bundle against the back wall. But neither Quinn nor Lisa were paying any attention to that.

"It's a cub-zag of sorts," observed Lisa. "I guess the tubes are inside, right?" Before Fred could say anything, Lisa had flicked open the door catches and opened the door, confirming her assumption. It did not take her and Quinn long to remove the octagonal tubes from the inside of the box and also extract the pair of blades that were behind them.

Quinn and Lisa looked at the illusion and tried to work out what was not right about this thing; it resembled the illusion Lisa had named, but there were things about it that registered as odd, without making themselves obvious.

Quinn was the first to spot something. "Hey! There's four hand holes in this thing. Two in the front and two in the back."

"Great observation, Quinn," said Fred. "You'll also notice that the back has a set of doors. That's so that it can be used either way round, depending on the needs of the show or the preferences of the assistant."

"And what about the tube holes?" asked Lisa. "Those aren't the usual curtains or hang-on patches. It looks like one of those things in camera or a science fiction door."

"Yes, that's so that some clumsy assistant doesn't open the curtain or dislodge the cover at the wrong moment and spoil the effect. They work like this." He pulled a remote from his pocket and pressed a button and the octagonal hole in the upper front of the box irised open. Another nudge of the button and the hole contracted to nothing.

"Why would you have a clumsy assistant? Don't you chose your assistant?" questioned Quinn.

"Well normally, of course. Like you two; neither of you have a clumsy bone in their entire body. But there are situations where you don't have as much control over who assists. Like, if I decide I want to go professional, I'm going to end up on talk shows and they'll want me to perform magic on the presenter. Some of things magicians say about presenters in private you don't want to hear. That's also why the box is a bit bigger than you are, probably, expecting; presenters are notoriously bad at getting into boxes with any grace whatsoever."

"Aren't you getting ahead of yourself, Fred?" asked Lisa. "You're talking about an illusion ready for touring the day-time talk shows, but you've only just landed a spot as a magician's apprentice."

"Actually, this is Arthur's; but a guy can dream can't he?"

Quinn spotted something else. "What's with the four tubes? Doesn't a normal one only have two? And it looks like they're all too short."

"Oh that!" said Fred. "That was an idea of mine. I thought if the magician and his second assistant put the tubes in from either side, it'd look more dramatic; like the assistant in the box is being attacked from both sides at once. There is a mechanism to hold the ends together when they meet. I was going to try the effect using the competition loser as second assistant, but that's not going to happen now, because you'll both be in the box. But luckily I designed the tube to extend for a single magician version." He took up the largest tube and fiddled with a catch and gave it a shake. It extended to long enough reach the front to back length of the box.

"Did I hear you right? You want us to get in there together?" asked Lisa.

"Yes, of course!" confirmed Fred. "I don't want to settle any arguments about who goes first." Quinn and Lisa eyed each other and decided that neither was volunteering to go second. "This would be compounded by the fact we only really have the time to do it once, before I'll need to clear out so that Angie can have her space back."

That settled it, they were sharing this illusion, because neither trusted Fred enough to accept a rain-check.

"How do you want us in there?" asked Quinn.

"I don't mind. However's more comfortable for you. Kneeling back-to-back, one in the other's lap or squatting in the corners with heads on each other's shoulders; it's all the same to me. I just want you to be able to put both hands through different hand holes; four hands, four holes it would be a waste not to use them." Both ladies were heading for the illusion's front door. "It might be easier if one of you went in the back door; seeing as it's there. This isn't meant to be a two girls in a box contortion act, you know?"

Soon Quinn and Lisa were sat in the box with their backs pressed against opposite sides, each with their knees up to their chests and the feet tucked in beside the bottom of the other occupant.

Fred looked into the cabinet and looked a bit disappointed. Lisa picked up on this and asked, "What's up? Aren't we in the box right?"

"Well, I had hoped you'd be more, erm, interlocked; rather than just sitting next to each other facing different ways."

Quinn popped out of the back door and having pulled on Lisa's nearest foot, re-entered the cabinet, placed her foot between Lisa's ankles and slid it forward until Lisa was nearly sitting on it. Then finished get back into the box and all but sat on Lisa's foot. Quinn leaned forward against Lisa's calf and reached for the hand holes at the hinge sides of the doors. As Quinn pulled the upper doors shut, Lisa leaned forward and caught hold of the catch-side hand holes. Lisa and Quinn were almost cheek to cheek.

Fred busied himself by fastening the upper door catches and then closing the lower doors and fastening their catches. "You girls alright in there?" asked Fred.

Quinn grunted some form of sound to indicate she was ok, but Lisa managed to say, "It's not exactly the Ritz, but we'll survive, so long as you don't take too long." Quinn sounded her agreement with Lisa's sentiment.

Now that the doors were firmly latched the box's two tenants shuffled about a bit to find positions that were going to be easier on them.

"Right, ladies, here comes the first blade," announced Fred.

They heard Fred locate the blade in the cabinet wall behind Quinn and suddenly the blade was through them; it went across, bisecting the volume of the box, almost too fast to feel. It was swiftly followed by the second blade, just underneath it.

Quinn tried to look around and found that all she could see in the dimness was Lisa's upper torso (chest, head and arms) the other side a row of four knees.

"Don't the blades usually go in the front?" asked Lisa. "And isn't there usually only the one, because the open top of the bit that goes to the side is covered by some roller-blind arrangement."

"You're right about the way things usually are, Lisa. But there are technical reasons for it to be done this way, which I won't go into at the moment. Are you ready for the first tube?"

"Kind of," said Quinn, "But what are we expecting?"

"Sorry, haven't a clue, but here comes." The front upper aperture irised open and the tube came at them. It seemed to pass through them and out the back aperture which opened just in time.

Both Lisa and Quinn blinked and tried to work out what was going on. Across their knees, through their upper chests, up the backs of their necks and from the base of their skulls through to the tops of their heads felt like a cut; the same as the blade through the middle of the box. This would imply that their shoulders, throats and faces were inside the tube, but the camera said different; the tube seemed nearly completely empty. They both noticed that their vision seemed to be from the inside of the tube, but they could see nothing but the inside of the tube as if their parts were invisible.

The only thing that the camera detected inside the recently inserted tube was a small pile of pale blue cloth. Fred reached into the aperture and retrieved this. Once shaken out it was evident this was the T-shirt Quinn had been wearing. Quinn and Lisa felt Fred's hand and arm pass through the parts of themselves that seemed be inside the tube and it gave them a sensual frisson; as it their bodies had been invaded by a pleasant feeling whether Fred's substantial arm intersect with the seeming non-corporeal bodies of the assistants.

"Hey! What's happening?" asked Lisa.

Fred paused as if he was thinking up an excuse on the spot. "I got Quinn's top out of the tube; I guessed she'd rather have it removed temporarily, when no-one can see, than have it cut up and have to go home topless."

"Good save, Fred, but you really want to get me naked again," Quinn accused.

"While getting you naked is a nice idea, I had planned on returning your clothes to you, before you got out of the box."

"And you think there's space in here for us to get dressed in here?" Lisa commented. "Besides, you've missed the point of my question. What's happening to us in here?"

"Oh, that!" exclaimed Fred. "Afraid I don't know. I just know what it looks like and as a magical effect it looks great. You can tell me how it feels afterwards; we're under some time constraint here. Quinn wiggle a finger and I'll give you your top back." Quinn waved a finger from the front hand hole and Fred tucked the T-shirt into Quinn's hand. "Are you two ready for the next tube?"

Lisa gave a thumbs up from the other front hand hole and Fred put another tube through the box; this one went through the cabinet's lower section from Quinn's side and out Lisa's. The girls felt the cut sensation where the tube passed through their bodies, the upper edge passing just below their ribs and the lower edge going through at hip level, but angling upwards to just above their hips. Of course their legs squashed between their bodies also experience the cut feeling.

Fred turned the cabinet sideways to show the camera the length of the tube and the fact there was now a garment in the tube. He leaned down the retrieve Lisa's skirt; Quinn felt Fred's arm through her back and inner thigh, like a massage, but more intrusive; in a good way. Lisa just felt Fred's hand where it coincided with her shin.

"What have you got there?" asked Lisa; noting that she could feel the base of the cabinet better than with the intervening layer of cloth.

Fred held the garment up for the benefit of the camera and said, "Just, your skirt, Lisa. I take it you rather not be going home naked either," as he tucked the item into the hand Lisa had extending through the back door.

"So what's happened to my skirt and Lisa's top?" asked Quinn, trying to follow the logic of their predicament.

"I'll get round to them soon, I promise, but we need to be getting on with this." He had turn the box around completely until the front faced front once more. "You know what the next move is, right?"

"Pushing the bottom part to the side," the box's two occupants shouted, moments before Fred did just that.

"That felt a bit weird," remarked Quinn. "But I guess, if we're going to do much of this kind of thing, we ought to get used to having bits of us moved in relation to other bits." There was a pause, then Quinn added, "Am I making any sense here?"

Both Lisa and Fred said that they had understood what she was trying to get across and Fred observed that English is not generally a language where describing the impossible is easy. "But, it's a lot worse in French, even though my French is pretty good I could not describe a magic trick at all except in the most general turn, but that'll be partly because I'm not native French-speaker."

"Now we get to the novel bits of this illusion. I need you both to push your toes through the holes in the bottom half of the box." Lisa and Quinn pushed forward the foot that the other was not nearly sitting on and to their surprise found arched holes to put their toes through. Fred revolved the cabinet again to show the toes; Quinn's concealed in the toe of her blue low heeled shoes and Lisa's in pink nail polish, partially concealed behind Quinn's dangling top.

"Now another tube," he announced.

"Another tube?" queried Lisa. "Where's that going?"

"Through here," said Fred, demonstrating by pushing the tube through the top half of the cabinet them one side to the other. This penetrated Quinn, then the existing tube and then Lisa. Fred immediately reached in through Quinn's shoulders to collect the white T-shirt with the big pink heart that Lisa had been wearing when she enter the box.

"Let me guess," proposed Quinn, "the last tube is going through the bottom half, from front to back, and my skirt will be in that."

"Exactly," replied Fred, who having pushed Lisa top into her hand, demonstrated the fulfilment of Quinn's expectations, concluding by putting Quinn's skirt in her unused hand.

"Ok, now that I've inserted two tubes and displaced the bottom half, then inserted two more tubes what do you think happens next?" asked Fred.

"You reverse the whole process and let us try and get out of here without flashing you too much," said Lisa, more hoping it to be true, but expecting Fred had more planned parts to what had started out seeming a straight-forward illusion.

"No, I displace the bottom half some more." With confident moves Fred unfolded some legs that were concealed in the lower half of the cabinet that dangled displaced from its former position under the upper part of the cabinet. Once the legs were locked in place the bottom half of the cabinet, criss-crossed with tubes, was separated from the main part of the apparatus. He displayed this to the camera, drawing particular attention to the toes jutting from their holes. He also induced some pleasant feelings in the box's occupants by waving his hands through all the tubes from all directions.

"Ok, you're done now," Lisa told Fred; she was feeling a bit cramped inside the box, especially as the box seemed to contain a lot less inside than it had started out with.

"Not quite," said Fred. "One of these tricks wouldn't be complete without a few spikes pushed through the bits where there aren't holes already." He quickly pushed a wooden rod along each diagonal of each part of the cabinet. When he had finished at the intersection of each tube on each pole hung an item of the occupants' underwear. "Now it's time to reverse everything."

Pulling the wooden rods from the illusion, he collected the undergarments and placed them on the table. Next he pulled out the second tubes from each half; this shot Lisa and Quinn through with exotic vibrations. He then re-insert the lower part into cabinet, having tucked its legs back inside it. "I did consider turning this round, so you ended up with each other's bottom halves, but then I thought about having to find time to put you back into the right set parts and thought better of it. Maybe some other time, if you're game."

Next, out came the main tubes, leaving the girls in the dim interior of the cabinet staring at each other's bare chests, across their island knees. The blades came out next. Then they heard the outside door slam.

"Ok, girls, you can get out and get dressed; I think I've got a bit of smoothing over to do with Angie," said Fred as his released the door catches. "When you're ready could you bring the kit out," he added as he left.

While they extracted themselves from the cabinet and got dressed, Lisa and Quinn could hear the sounds of arguing from the reception area. I seemed Fred had wilfully misinterpreted Angie's offer of the use of her studio space and she was particularly alarmed by the fact that he had disabled the alarm system, which she said she had not given him the code for.

Having repacked the cub-zag cabinet with its tubes and blades. Lisa picked up the fabric tubes and the bundle of cloth and held open the door so that Quinn could push the wheeled box through and towards the outer door.

As they passed, Angie watched them heading for the door. As they opened the outer door, she said, "Fred's a terrible brother, but I'm sure he'd make a worse boyfriend. My advice is don't get involved."

They were soon helping Fred load his kit into an unmarked white van. He offered to get them lunch, but they refused, because they wanted to get back into the mall to find the perfect shoes and accessories to go with their new dresses, but claiming they were still not hungry from the cakes earlier and having lost over an hour each that morning.