Another Small Magic

Judy checked that her fingers were still attached as she left the tent. Satisfied that they were, she turned her mind to finding Mike, her boyfriend. The search did not take long; a quick sweep of the beer tent being unfruitful, she moved on to the line-up of vintage and classic cars; each polished to a gleam and haunted by proud owners willing, at the least provocation, to tell anyone the history of this particular specimen and the make and model to which it belongs.

As Judy arrived she saw Mike in conversation with the owner of a silver-grey Jaguar; he seemed to be telling Mike about the difficulty of finding the right shade of leather to re-upholster the seats. When Mike spotted Judy he tried to avoid showing relief; while he admired to car very much, he was finding the obsessive owner a bit overwhelming.

"Mike, you've gotta come and see this," was Judy's opening gambit.

"Oh, yes?" replied Mike, in deference to the fact he was in a conversation, albeit one-sided.

"I've found a magician."

"I've seen him," said Mike, almost dismissively. "Tom's alright, if you like magic for kids. He does a much better job than the children appreciate, but you know me; knotted silks and the cut and restored rope aren't really my thing."

The Jaguar owner made a polite cough to remind Mike that he was in a previous conversation.

"Not him," insisted Judy, "I've found another magician. She's in a tent and she cut my fingers off." Judy held up her hand of attached and working fingers, but she knew she had his attention now.

Mike paused long enough to shake the Jaguar owner's hand, before pursuing Judy across the showground. When he caught up, it was obvious that the destination was a circular tent in a backwater. A sign outside the tent said, "Miss Mystery: Small Magic illusions with audience participation: Maximum audience two."

Judy paused at the tent flap, before opening it and ushering Mike into the gloomy interior.

It took Mike a while to become accustomed to the dimness of the inside of the tent; lit entirely by the reflected light from the circular table set in the centre. As his eyes adjusted, he saw the gypsy character in full costume and face veiled. She smiled with her sparkling green eyes; a great contrast to the redness that the light reflected from the crimson tablecloth imparted the rest of the interior.

"Welcome back, my child," opened Miss Mystery. "Judy, please come and sit here." She indicated a chair not quite a quarter of the way round the table. "And if you would please sit there, Mike." Mike was slightly startled to be addressed by name by this stranger, but complied by sitting in the available chair, which meant Judy was between him and the gypsy character.

Miss Mystery addressed Judy, "So you came back and brought your boyfriend. I take it he's interested."

Mike answered, "Of course, I'm interested. I'm probably the biggest magic-fan in a ten mile radius; with Judy coming a close second."

The magician gave Mike a look that asked, 'Are you usually this rude? Or are you really this excited by magic?'

Judy intervened, "I found him being bored by one of the vintage car buffs and rescued him. But he really loves the magic and illusion. I'm sure he'd have come even if he'd been interested in the car."

"Shall we get started?" asked Miss Mystery. She leaned back into the darkness that framed her chair and brought forward a bag that rattled slightly, as if it contained a mix of wood and metal pieces. She laid the bag on the table on the side away from Judy and with its mouth pointing toward herself.

"This will take a little time to set up, especially as I will be asking you to build the box, my dear, and inspect the pieces. Judy, my child, you will be the assistant in this so won't see much as we will be building the box with you in it, but I think you will enjoy it, when we get to the magic part."

The magician reached into the bag and pulled out the first piece, accompanied by the light sound of wood across wood. This wooden panel seemed to be a plain wooden panel, but with many added features; these included a set of feet on one side, each a little over an inch high; an array of holes about three millimetres in diameter and a larger rounded triangular hole near the centre; above the bigger hole on the opposite side to the feet were two patches of black foam rubber, both seemed cover the position of one of the array of smaller holes; near the edges of the panel were a couple of narrow leather straps, one with a buckle, the other a set of holes down its length; finally, below the triangular hole was a small post set in another patch of foam rubber.

Miss Mystery handed this to Mike who checked it out and spotted nothing more odd than has already been described; but then he had not expected to, because a magician does not hand things to audience members if there is anything that they might discover. He tried to hand the panel back to the magician, but she indicated that he should place it feet down on the table in front of Judy. "I guess you're serious about me building this thing, whatever it is."

He placed the panel in front of Judy, who began to get an idea of what she expected to happen. They were both distracted by Miss Mystery pulling a square metal frame from the bag; they probably would not have noticed had the square not been looped through another similar square that seemed to be linked to it, so there was extra noise. The magician held up the pair of linked square rings with a puzzled look in her green eyes and passed them to Mike.

Each square consisted of four 'U'-shaped pieces welded together at the corners, one of which was quite a bit deeper. It seemed obvious as Mike inspected the linked squares that there was no way they would unlink and would not be of any use unless they were no longer connected. He handed them back.

The magician received them in one hand and a faint click was heard as she handed them to Judy; who received a pair of separated square rings and passed them on to Mike. Mike's face tried to combine awe at the simple skilfulness of the unlinking of the rings and a boredom of having seen the same trick many times before and add frustration, because he would have expected to see some tell-tale move, especially as he was expecting this to happen and watching closely from no more than a couple of feet away; his face failed. He blamed the dimness of the lighting, but in his heart knew that was not why he missed the moment.

"Fit the frames to the base, my dear." Mike looked a little puzzled. "The wide side of the square fits on the base."

While Mike fiddled the squares onto the sides, Miss Mystery pulled four straight pieces of metal from the bag, each consisting of a pair 'u'-shaped channels and a clip on each end. She handed Mike three indicating that the first two were for the top and bottom of the base, which had the effect of securing the square frames to the sides. The other one clipped in place to become the top front edge of the framework. It seemed evident that the section the magician had retained would complete the cubic frame.

More rattling produced four plain panels also with arrays of small holes, but no other features. The first two presented to Mike were soon slid into channels in the sides; these were soon followed by another panel making the side away from Judy. It was obvious that a box was being assembled.

A final couple of pieces came out of the bag; these were rectangular half panels with semi-circular cut-outs. The first one slid home in the side of the framework nearest Judy; who swallowed as it became more and more plain what was likely to happen next.

The pantomime of the construction of the box came to an end, when Miss Mystery addressed Judy, saying, "You know what needs to happen next, my child. Would you like to see the rest of it before your head goes in, after or not at all?"

"Not before, I think," responded Judy. "I don't want any excuse to chicken out."

"So, now is the time. A few quick words of advice, which will make thinks a little more comfortable for you. Keep your eyes closed, try to breathe normally and bite on the peg if you feel you need to, but I don't think you will, based on how you reacted earlier."

Judy leaned forward putting her head between the sidewalls of the box. With a little adjustment in her seating position she soon had her head totally within the box, so that her closed eyes rested on the foam pads, the peg was in her mouth with her lips against the foam padding there, her neck located in the semi-circular cut-out and nose fitted neatly in the triangular hole. Mike peered under the box and could just make out the tip of Judy's nose, despite the dim lighting.

Miss Mystery invited Mike to buckle the straps, thus restricting Judy's room for manoeuvre further. The remaining part of the neck stock, final part of the frame and the box's lid were put in place.

Miss Mystery smiled at Mike while she leaned back into the darkness behind her chair. She brought forward a metal square, not much smaller than the dimensions of the box. This square was the base of a set of narrow spikes; in fact they were all the same piece of metal. The nineteen spikes were arranged in a hexagonal formation; five rows, 3, 4, 5, 4 and 3 spikes in each row, the rows being about three cm apart (just over an inch). Each spike was 2 mm in diameter and stood straight up from the base-plate to slightly higher than the box was deep. She handed the spike set to Mike.

Mike nearly dropped it; he had not expected the spikes to be quite so heavy. He found the spikes not to be particular sharp, like the end of a six inch nail rather than a needle. He prodded the spikes from the ends and the sides and concluded that they were solid and did not fold or bend.

While Mike was inspecting the set of spikes, the magician had brought up two more identical sets of spikes. When he noticed, his eyes widened.

Sensing the tension, Judy asked, "What's happening?" as best she could with her lips press into foam rubber and a dowel between her teeth.

"Nothing to worry about, my child. Your boyfriend was inspecting the final additions and I think he is quite impressed. We just need to put them in place, so that we can do the magic."

A muffled 'OK' escaped the box. Mike was not sure if it included a note of resignation or excitement.

Miss Mystery accepted the inspected set of spikes from Mike and passed the other two for looking at. The spikes in her hand she turned points-down and rested them on the top of the box. She then shifted them slightly so that the individual spikes each located in the array of holes in the top of the box. The spikes went down slightly further than the thickness of the panel before stopping.

From within the box, Judy squeaked. She could feel a couple of points against the back of her head.

"Please, hold still, my child. We wouldn't want you to scratch yourself, before the magic starts."

Mike placed the remaining spike plates on the table after giving the a cursory inspection to see that they were just the same as the one now resting with its points through the top of the box around Judy's head.

"Ok, my dear," the magician said to Mike, "You'll need to line one of these up with the holes in your side of the box. I'll line the other one up on this side." She indicated the side of the cube opposite where Judy's neck was trapped in the stock.

They fiddled the tips of the spikes into the holes. Judy feel the points against the top of her head and her ear.

"For the magic part we need to push these in evenly when I say so. You take two, my dear, and I'll push one. Are you ready, my child?"

The grunt from the box conveyed readiness to the point of 'get on with it before I chicken out'.

Mike put up his hand and said, "I think Judy would like to be more involved than just being the victim, here." Miss Mystery paused, then nodded to allow him to say what he was proposing, while adding a feeling that she was prepared to veto anything that would spoil the magic moment they were about to share.

Instead of speaking, Mike took Judy's hand and guided it to the plate to the side of her head. Miss Mystery gave an approving nod. "When she tells us to, push this panel towards your head, ok, Judy?"

Muffled assent came from the box then Mike stood and carefully placed a hand on the plate sticking out from the top of the box. The magician lightly rested a hand on the remaining spike-set.

"When I say go, push the panels towards the box!" She took a moment to gather herself and take a deep breath as if she was just about to make a large physical effort. "Three, ... Two, ... One, ... Go!"

Each person pushed their assigned plate with its hexagonal array of spikes towards the box, so that the spikes went into the box. Naturally, Judy had a moment of 'How did I get myself in this situation?' when she first felt the spikes begin to penetrate her skull, but she kept pushing along with the others until the panel stopped at the face of box.

There was a silence that followed, then Mike asked, "Judy are you alright?" He immediately realised that the question was redundant, but was relieved when the hand that had pushed one of the plates of spikes through her own head gave a thumbs up.

Meanwhile on the other side of the box, Judy's other hand was rising to feel that side of the box.

"Go carefully, my child, the tips of the spikes might scratch," warned the magician.

Gingerly Judy touched the side of the box and detected the spike-tips protruding from the panel by about a millimetre She felt about to discover the pattern of the spikes.

Mike was stunned at being involved in some magic. Miss Mystery, despite her veil looked proud of having done the magic. After the initial shock, Judy was trying to work out what had happened. She could feel the entry points and exit points of each spike. The three that interested her most were the two that seemed to exit though her eyelids, implying that for each eye there was a spike that went straight through her eyeball and out through the eyelid (not a comforting thought), and the one the seemed to go through her upper lip which meant that there would be a spike-tip just under her nose.

In a bold move that surprised both the other occupants of the tent, Judy raised her head from the table taking the box spiked to her head with it. She sat up and cautiously felt the front face of the box to confirm the presence of a pin just under her nose. Inside the box she tried to smile, but found the sets of spikes had pinned the previous expression of worried anticipation on her face. Outside the box she shrugged and gave a double thumbs-up.

"My dear, if you would remove the spikes, being careful to pull them out as straight as possible. I am sure you would not want to hurt your girlfriend."

Mike withdrew the spikes and then dis-assembled the box enough that he could remove it from Judy's head. He handed the remains of the box to the magician without looking; he was checking that his girlfriend was not only feeling alright, but was uninjured.

Miss Mystery waited while the couple looked at each other.

Judy broke the silence. "That was quite an experience. Mike pay the lady!" She stood and left the tent.

Mike was again at a loss for a moment. The magician took that time to clear the table of the apparatus that had been discarded.

"Erm, What do I owe you?" asked Mike.

"Whatever you think it was worth, my dear," answered the gypsy character.

Mike opened his wallet and pulled out a twenty and placed it on the table. He was on the point of turning to leave when he reached back into the wallet and placed another twenty on top of the first.

"I think you'd like a souvenir of this, my dear," said Miss Mystery handing him a business card that was a miniature reproduction of the sign outside the tent. Mike thanked her and left.

Once in the sunshine, Mike noticed that the reverse side had a phone number. He smiled as he pocketed the card and turned his steps to follow Judy, who was rapidly disappearing in the direction of the refreshments tent.