Ann at Arthur's Show

Ann looked over the terrace of The Café in the Park and saw a familiar face.

When she arrived at the table, she said, "Hi Freddie! What're you doing here?" Her tone was slightly hostile, because she had not quite forgiven him for not letting her know he had been filming the events of Kyle's after-party.

"And hello to you, too," replied Freddie. "I was doing some practice over at Busker's Square the other side of the lake, and thought I could do with a break and a snack. So I came here for a hot chocolate and a toasted tea-cake."

Ann automatically noted down Freddie's order on her pad. "Did you get many takers for being sawn in half?"

"I wasn't practicing that kind of magic. Arthur (he's taken me on as a kind of apprentice, you know?), he says my grand illusion is getting to be pretty good and he says that if I develop some of my ideas properly, I could go far. But he says my small magic needs a lot more work, so I was trying some of that. It's a lot harder to keep people engaged with the small stuff and it takes just as much magical effort. It's taken me most of the afternoon to earn the money to pay for this snack."

"Ok, I'll go and get it for you."

Ann soon returned with Freddie's order.

"How would you like a free ticket to a magic show?" asked Freddie.

"What?" asked Ann.

Freddie repeated himself. "Arthur said that if I ran into you, I should offer you a ticket to one of his shows." He took a sip of the hot chocolate. "While you were getting this, I gave him a call." he indicated the phone lying on the table. "To see if the offer still stood and find out when his next show is and it's tomorrow night at the Maiden's Theatre."

"And what's the catch? I know magicians; there's always a catch."

"Well, he said he hoped you would act as a volunteer for one of his audience participation sections."

"I've heard about them from Lisa and Quinn."

"He said he wanted to do the guillotine on you. You've experience of that and seemed to have enjoyed the result. Then he said he'd do some more magic with a volunteer of your choosing, while you watch."

"I guess I could do that."

"Oh yes! And he said he'd like you to wear something short. I think he means a short dress or skirt or, even, shorts."

"What's that got to do with the guillotine? I get not wearing a high collar, 'coz it'd get in the way of the blade, but a short dress?"


"He said that while you'd pixelated your boobs, he could see you had very good legs." Ann felt this compliment was justified, after all she spend most of her working day on her feet. "Besides," added Freddie, "If you aren't dressed to his liking, he'll probably have you change into one of his bikinis."

Ann had also heard about the selection of bikinis that Arthur had, but thought she had something that would be short enough, without being too revealing

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Ann arrived early at the Maidens Theatre. She had a plan to pre-select her co-volunteer, in the hope of finding someone who would not cause her embarrassment. She felt she was looking for a woman who would be a willing volunteer but embarrassed to change into one of Arthur the Archmage's only-just-there bikinis.

She was not having much luck spotting a likely prospect. Most of the more modestly dressed women seemed as if they would be unwilling and the rest seemed to be dressed for going on to a club where pulling a guy would be the aim; in short, they were not considering their modesty much.

Her considerations were interrupted by Arthur, who said, "Hello, you must be Ann. Thank you for coming as a volunteer. I hope you pick someone nice to come up with you," as he shook her hand. Then he repeated himself and turned away. Ann felt that something else had happened, but could not quite pin down what.

She decided that she would go to the bar and get herself some Dutch courage and nearly ran into a couple of guys. Before she could finish apologising, the shorter of the two asked, "Was that Arthur?"

"Yes, he came to thank me for volunteering."

Both guys eyed Ann and seemed to approve of her being a volunteer, having heard that volunteers ended up showing more flesh than Ann's modest black dress, with its high-mid-thigh hemline and high neckline. They seemed to consider that what was hidden would be worth seeing.

"I hope you have a good time. I'd love to be up there with the magic happening under my nose. By the way, I'm Martin and this is Shaun."

"Today, may be your lucky day," said Ann, "He wants me to select a volunteer to join us. If I can't spot a girl I like the look of, I might be calling you up."

"That, would be great," said Martin, "I'd love see up close what he has planned for you." Shaun just nodded his agreement.

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The show began with a floating cane and a few card tricks, then Arthur called for his first volunteer. Ann took this as her cue and waved. She was soon found by the spotlight. Once she was on stage, Arthur called for the house lights to be raised so that Ann could select someone else to join them on stage. It took Ann a little while to spot Martin, but then she said, "There's a guy called Martin, I met him in the foyer before the show. He said he'd like to be on stage watching the magic happen close-up." It turned out that Martin's seat was on the aisle on the opposite side of the auditorium from where Ann's seat was.

Soon introductions were over and the curtains swished open. On the stage were four items. The two that Ann was expecting to see and two she was not. The two expected items were a guillotine and a screen near the back from which hung two bikinis. The other things were two trolleys which had a flat top held up by an open fronted box with a black painted interior. Ann was close enough to see there was some kind of mechanism at the base and back of the inside of each of the boxes.

"Ok, Ann, we are going to demonstrate the workings of my new guillotine on you."

"Erm, ok?" She sounded very uncertain that this was a good idea, because she was; having seen the audience when the lights were brought up, she was aware that if things got embarrassing, she would be embarrassed in front of more people in one go than all her previous embarrassments put together.

"Don't be too nervous," encouraged Arthur, "I've done it lots of times before and most of my vict-er-volunteers have survived, but this one is a new guillotine I had my apprentice build for me last week and I haven't had the chance to try it. There's a couple of innovations I'm DYING to try out."

Ann knew that this was the usual type of patter that magicians performing the guillotine illusion indulged in, but it was not instilling her with confidence. She knew that Arthur had at least one guillotine that would remove her head and this was not that one, but to know that this might do the same was a sobering thought (the Dutch courage she had had before the show had fled). She also knew that Arthur did indeed have an apprentice, Freddie, who was capable designing and probably building illusions with a twist. Her experience of twists is they lead to embarrassment.

"Erm, can we get on with it before I lose my nerve?"

Arthur could tell that Ann was close to the point of deciding the embarrassment of chickening out would be the lesser of two evils.

"Ok, sorry, sometimes I do chunter on. So, Ann pick a trolley!"

"Why? Don't you just open up the stocks and I put my head through?"

"That would normally be the case, but this one is designed to be more comfortable than kneeling behind it on the floor and once you are in position the blade goes through straight rather than at an angle, which makes putting your head back on so much easier."

To Ann this sounded like nonsensical excuses, but if she was going to do this she might as well get it over with. She had a quick look at the trolleys; the section on the table over the box on each seemed to a board laid in place; one was plain, the other had an array of holes in it. And holes could only mean spikes or swords or other sharp stuff that would ruin her dress. "I'll have that one", she said, indicating the trolley without the holes.

"Good choice," said Arthur, approvingly. "Do you need any help to get onto the trolley?"

"No, I think I can manage." She was refusing help, because she did not want anyone looking up the skirt of dress; she felt she was showing off enough leg, without letting anyone see further up. She went round the back of the trolley, where she saw a lever, and with a quick jump she was sitting with lower legs dangling behind the trolley.

"Now, we want you to lie on the trolley face-down."

"Don't I get a choice?" complained Ann. She remembered the terror of watching the blade fall towards her neck from the previous time with Freddie.

"Sorry, no, it would make one of the minor innovations in this particular guillotine redundant."

"As it happens, I would have chosen face-down, but a lady likes to have a choice." Ann figured that the best way to forestall things going wrong for her was to try and take some control of the situation.

"Ok, Ann, if you could get yourself into position, lying on your front with your shoulders just behind the line that marks the edge of the box underneath. Martin and I will get the next bit."

Ann manoeuvred herself into position, being careful that her short skirt did not ride up any higher than it already was. She rested her head on the shelf that extended from the main box part of the trolley. She wondered how they were going to get her head through the stock of the guillotine if there was a shelf in the way; maybe the innovation was catching the detached head on a shelf rather than letting it fall into a basket. Then it occurred to her to wonder what Arthur and Martin were going into the wings to fetch; it seemed to indicate more twist and thus more chance of embarrassment. Aside from leaving before Arthur and her volunteer, Martin, came back, she had little option than to wait where she was and dreading what Arthur or perhaps Freddie had dreamed up.

All of a sudden such speculation was pointless, as the men returned with a couple of boards, one with holes and one without. They dropped the one with holes at the side of the stage and carried the one without over to Ann.

"What's that for?" asked Ann as the magician and the volunteer lifted the board over her. The underside had six legs; one close to each corner and one in the middle of each of the long sides.

They lowered it so that the board touched Ann's shoulders and the feet rested in sockets in the board upon which Ann lay. "This has two purposes. The one that's good for me," he said as he turned a small knob on the top of each leg locking them to the board underneath, "is that with this board in place you can't escape." This made sense to Ann, especially as she was beginning to feel that accepting Freddie's assurance that she was only here to experience the guillotine again had been a bad idea. "And the reason that is good for you is that, when the guillotine blade passes through your neck you might have a reaction. I've known people jerk so violently that they fall, which could get you hurt. With this in place you can't fall off, but the audience can see that you are there the whole time."

"Erm, Thank you, I think?" said Ann doubtfully. There had not been any such precautions when she had been under the guillotine before and she had lain on a much narrower bench.

"Now that the lid is securely in place you are ready for the guillotine. Martin, help me move this trolley so that we can present Ann to the chopper."

It took the men a little time to line her up with the head chopping device, which gave Ann some time to study it. It was quite tall and the blade assembly hung by its release mechanism with a wicked looking blade and wooden weight on top.

"Hey, aren't you forgetting something?" called Ann.

Arthur paused. "Guillotine, all set up and ready; check. Volunteer on trolley with nowhere to go; check. No, I think that's all I need. Do you think I've forgotten anything, Martin?"

Martin looked surprised to be asked. Ann whispered to him, loudly, "Cabbage."

The front row heard the whisper and a wave of amusement washed round the auditorium as they passed what Ann had said to the people behind them.

"How about testing the guillotine on a cabbage?" offered Martin.

"No need," Arthur assured them. "It worked perfectly fine in the workshop and there's only so much coleslaw a man can eat; I'm a magician, not a rabbit, you know. Now that we have the lovely Ann lined up, I'll open the stocks and you push her through until the trolley touches the guillotine."

Martin nodded that he understood and was ready, but Ann intervened. "What about this shelf thing my head is on; won't that be in the way?"

Arthur looked at Martin and slowly said, "She's right you know; I had forgotten something." Turning his attention to Ann, he said, "You'll need to hold your head up, because I'm going to fold the shelf down so that the trolley can get close enough to the guillotine." The shelf was quickly folded down, the upper half of the stock raised, and a shove from Martin propelled the trolley until it touched the uprights of the guillotine. Ann did not feel the stock touch the back of her neck, but heard the upper stock make contact with the lower stock.

Ann looked down and noted the lack of anything to catch her head, should it become detached from the rest of her, which she hoped it would not, but suspected it would. In the same mood of trying to have some control, despite being clamped between two boards on a trolley and her head in a stock, she said, "You are getting forgetful, you forgotten the basket to catch my head, in case it falls off."

"I'm afraid you're wrong, young lady; I have not forgotten the basket. There is no basket."

Ann relaxed a bit, because she thought, 'no basket means my head isn't coming off'.

Arthur continued, "The reason for no basket, because this guillotine is fitted with a head support device. It supports your head so your neck doesn't get too tired and remains properly lined-up for the blade; it also stops you hitting the floor face-first should your head come off." So saying, he picked up the blonde ponytail that Ann had put her hair into and pulled it up and backwards until there was a little tension in Ann's scalp, then she heard a click and the scalp tension remained, but both his hands came into view.

"What have you done with my hair?"

"I clipped it to the top stock with something like one of those re-usable plastic freezer bags clips. Don't worry, your hair is strong enough to support you head, unless you are suffer from a hair-loss problem, which you certainly are not. If you stay there for long, it may put a slight crimp in your ponytail, but nothing that a pair of hair-straighteners can't put right. The advantage from my point of view is it does away with all that tiresome, bring the basket and get rid of the head of the previous victim nonsense. So, Ann, are you ready to feel the guillotine's blade?"

Ann tried to nod, but with her head held up by her ponytail she could not manage a convincing nod. "Ready, I guess."

"Good. Martin have you got a good view? Could you move to this side so that you aren't blocking the view of the audience; good. I'll countdown from 5, ok?"

Both Ann and Martin said, "Ok."

"Here goes. 5... 4... 3... 2..."

There was a swish of metal against metal, then a loud thump as the wooden weight attached to the blade collided with the top of the stock holding Ann's neck in place. Ann felt a sudden shock as the blade passed into her neck then stopped. She voiced the thought of the majority of the audience. "Hey, what happened to one?"

"Well, I only said I would count down from five, besides this way you didn't have time to tense up before the blade did its job, so you were perfectly in line. Martin, please pull the trolley away from the guillotine."

Martin looked somewhat dubious, but moved to the end of the trolley where Ann's feet overhung. Tentatively, for fear of hurting Ann, he pulled the trolley and was a little shocked when it came towards him.

Ann felt the movement of the trolley and realised that the tension in her scalp had increased, as her neck was no longer providing any extra support.

The audience, seeing Ann's body roll back from the guillotine where her head remained suspended by its hair, burst into applause, which lasted long enough that Martin could come round the trolley and see that the neck stump, which nearly stuck out from the board holding the rest of Ann's body down, was covered with the pink of new skin. He reached forward and gently stroked it.

"Cut that out!" called Ann, "It feels like you're tickling the inside of my throat with a feather and making me feel a bit nauseous." Martin quickly stopped.

"Well that worked very nicely," commented Arthur. "Now, Martin, it's time for you to get ready for your illusion."

Martin froze in place, it did not seem to have occurred to him that he would be victim to an illusion; he thought of himself as a witness, and, maybe, a helper, not a participant.

"I'm sure you don't want your clothes damaged, so you'll find a pair of shorts behind the screen. You'll probably be best to go and change now, while I finish off with Ann, here."

Martin suddenly looked like a man who had been told he would be hanged in about ten minute's time, but could not find any way out. He trudged to the screen and disappeared behind it.

Feeling slightly sorry for Martin, Ann was hoping that she would have her head reunited with her body by the time he returned. She soon realised that she was going to be disappointed. First her body on its trolley was wheeled the one side of the stage and the guillotine was moved from the centre to the other side.

"Aren't you going to put my head back where it belongs?" she asked.

"Not just yet, dear. I want to demonstrate another innovative feature of this device."

Ann felt the guillotine's frame quiver as the magician pressed something on each of the uprights, just above the wooden weight of the blade assembly. The audience saw the top section pivot back until it became horizontal. Supporting the horizontal section with one hand to stop the whole thing overbalancing, Arthur leant down and pressed two more similar buttons on the uprights below where the blade's edge reached and lowered what had been the top of the guillotine to the floor. The result was that Ann's head was resting on a horizontal sheet of steel in a shallow hole in a wooden tabletop.

The only good things about this arrangement were the reduced tension in her scald, which vanished when Arthur undid the clip holding her hair, and the fact that she could see the whole stage again, rather than being limited to the patch of floor directly under her head.

It seemed that Martin needed more time to change, so Arthur stepped off into the wings to fetch something. Ann still felt sorry for Martin, but then remembered his willingness to watch her being beheaded, she thought, 'turnaround is fair play'.

About the time Martin emerged from behind the screen, Arthur returned from the wings pushing a bed of spikes, each a little over two feet tall, on a low platform on casters. Martin was so obviously uncomfortable, the drawstring shorts were a bit baggy on him and he had kept on his trainers and socks, in fact, some of girls in the audience wolf-whistled, increasing his discomfort.

Arthur's response was to distract Martin by giving him something to do; namely open the door at one end of the unused trolley and raise the lever on the back. Martin was then asked to check that the spikes were genuine and solid, which he did also pronouncing them to be sharp too. Together they slid the spike bed from the platform on which it arrived, through the open door into the open fronted box in the base of the trolley. Arthur kicked the spike-mover out of the way and demonstrated that when he pushed the lever back down the spikes rose through the board covering the top of the trolley. Raising the lever again, the magician lowered the spikes, but not before Martin had confirmed that these were still the spikes he had just examined and they had not been switched for retractable or soft replacements.

"Now, Martin, I would like you to lie on the top of the trolley, please."

Martin visibly gulped, it was quite clear that he knew his fate from having seen something like this on TV, but to be faced with the actual prospect of being on top of the spikes as they were raised again, he was not as confident; at least it took his mind off being on stage wearing less than he usually wore in bed.

He boosted himself up so that he sat on the edge of the tabletop. His confidence took a further knock, when he looked down through the holes in the board, only to see the tips of the spikes all lined up and ready to rise. He began to roll onto the board so that he was face-down, like Ann, but Arthur stopped him, saying that face-up was the correct orientation for this illusion.

While Martin arranged himself on top of the trolley, Arthur fetched the board that they had brought from the wings earlier and fixed it placed over the increasingly nervous Martin.

With no preamble, other than, "Shall we see if this works?" the magician pushed the lever down a bit and evidently met some resistance. Martin was feeling the tips of the spikes pressing against his back and the realisation of this showed on his face. The magician kept the pressure on the lever, but changed his stance, so that he could apply more pressure. Once his position was set, he pushed the lever harder and it suddenly gave way; the spikes shot up through Martin and the tips poked out the board that was holding him down, meanwhile Arthur was sprawled on the floor.

Some of the audience drew in gasping breaths at the impalement of Martin, while others giggled at the magician's attempt to get up as if this was what was meant to happen. After the initial shock of being impaled, Martin recovered and reached a hand out and to the top of the box to check that the spikes that he could feel running through his body had matching tips that emerged though the board above him.

Back on his feet, Arthur asked Martin, "How are you feeling?"

Martin replied, "Ok, I guess." He was relieved to be feeling no pain, despite being totally aware that the spikes were going through his body.

Arthur raised the lever again allowing the spikes to drop back down into the box section of the trolley and opened the door to drag the spike bed out onto the platform he had brought it in on. He parked the platform at the back of the stage, commenting that he could probably find a use for it later.

"Don't go anywhere, you two! I'll be right back," said Arthur as he bustled back into the wings. He soon returned with another low platform. On this one rode a thick plate, the same dimensions as the spike bed, but this one only had four spikes, one at each corner. Between these spikes, which were about six inches taller than their counterparts on the bed of spike, were taut wires from tip to tip at the top and bottom of the plate. The other feature was a substantial peg sticking towards the centre as far down the spike from the tip as the pair of boards enclosing Martin's body were apart.

Martin was getting a bit concerned at not being released yet. "What's that for?" asked Martin. Ann knew that 'that' was part of the embarrassing twist, and felt a little smug that she had had the sense not to open her mouth.

"I'm glad you asked," said the magician as he lined the new item with the open door to the box under Martin's back. "My apprentice asked me to try this out; he says it's his take on the old zig-zag illusion, but the audience gets to see what's really happened to the assistant's body." A shove and a clatter later and the new device was installed. Arthur closed the door and went behind the trolley and put a hand on the lever.

"Are you telling me that you are trying out something you've never tried before and have little idea what it does and you're going to try it out on me?" protested Martin.

"Exactly."

Martin mouth moved like he was going to say something more, but no words came out.

"Freddie's a good lad, maybe a bit over-enthusiastic when it comes to tweaking the old standards," mused Arthur, "but he knows his responsibilities when it comes to keeping the assistant safe and unharmed."

Arthur leant on the lever and the audience and Ann saw the base plate of the new device begin to rise. "Keep it going nice and even, that's what Freddie told me," he muttered to himself.

Initially the only person to have any idea what was happening, besides the rising of the exchanged part, was Martin. He quickly felt the taut wire make contact at the base of his neck and mid-thigh and then he felt the wire moving through him. He squinted down his body and could just see the tips of the spikes at the corners of the boards and the wire trailing from one, through his neck to the other. The wire soon left the parts they had passed through and when it came to level with the upper board, there was a slight tap and then board sandwich with Martin's torso as its meat was lifted until it had risen just over its thickness above the rim of the box section.

Arthur locked the lever in place and stood. "Well, isn't that a nifty effect?" The cheering of the audience indicated that they agreed.

As the applause subsided, the magician opened the door to the box under Ann's body. Ann spotted this and called, "Hey, what are you doing there?"

"Getting ready for the next bit. I'll be back in a moment."

As Arthur rushed off stage, Ann tried to free her body from between the boards it was between, but found that she could not get her arms out and suspected that even if she could, she would not be able the reach the catches that held the boards together.

The magician returned with another item exactly like the four-spiked thing that was holding Martin's body a body's-depth above where it should be. This was quickly fitted under Ann's body. Then Arthur pushed the lever on Ann's trolley and she felt the wire cut through her legs at mid-thigh and scrape across the stump of her neck. Arthur stopped at this point and locked the lever.

The magician went to the head end of Ann's trolley and re-erected the shelf that had briefly supported her head. He took hold of the connecting pillars between the boards beside her shoulders and gave a grunt as he lifted and pulled the entrapped body a foot in that direction, opening up a gap of about foot mid-way between her hips and her knees. Ann felt the movement as Arthur dropped the end he had lifted about an inch down on to the shelf.

The audience responded with more applause. Arthur released the lever and began to turn Ann's sandwiched body until it was at ninety degrees to its proper orientation and then lifted an edge and rolled the board-encased Ann until her torso was face-up and back on the head-shelf of the trolley. The magician took the trolley behind Martin's trolley so that the side of Ann's body could be seen through the gap under her co-volunteer's body. It took everyone by surprise when Arthur pushed Ann's body into that gap and released the lever so that the spike-supported wires dropped down into the box.

Martin's feelings were very confused, He felt as if he had two bodies; one lying between two holey boards dressed in only a pair of shorts; the other dressed in a dress and between plain boards. This not being an experience he had had before, it was going to taking a little time to process what this meant.

Ann, on the other hand, was principally aware of the lack of feeling between neck and mid-thigh; if she had not been able to see it she would have assumed that her body had been vanished. Her mind flitted back to a pre-wedding party she had attended where she had been conned into participating in a twist on an illusion she had discovered later was called shadow-vision. She instantly knew where this event was likely to go; she was not happy with the prospect, but could not think of any way to forestall the inevitable.

As Ann watched, the spike and wire assembly was lowered and Martin's body was slid from on top of hers and onto the trolley where her legs rested. Once Martin's body had been turned face down it was nudged into the place that Ann's body had previously occupied. As Martin's body clicked into place, Ann lost the feeling in her legs too, while Martin gained the feeling of an extra pair of face-down legs in heels.

Arthur returned Ann's trolley, which was now occupied by more Martin then Ann, to the side of the stage opposite the guillotine-to-table conversion. He then returned to release Martin. This seemed to be a matter of a quick twist on the tops of the pillars joining the two boards and then lifting the top board free.

Martin sat up and looked down at the body he had on involuntary loan from Ann. Quite naturally he had not got the hang of controlling two bodies at once, so every move seemed to work, but be constrained at the same time, because while the body with his head attached was free to move, any move by his original torso and arms was limited by the boards they were still between. As expected, after spending a little time staring at and gesturing with an unfamiliar hand, that hand was used to confirm the reality of what were, at least temporarily, his breasts.

Ann watched in consternation, trying to decide what, if anything, to say that might cause Martin to show some respect for her body. "Hey, be careful; if you damage the goods, you're liable for repairs," she said.

While the audience was demonstrating that they were amused by this comment, Arthur released and removed the cover-board from Ann's trolley. "Martin, would you come and help me get this body on its feet, please."

As Martin, sat up straighter and then swung the legs over the front of the table he was sat on, the other body made some seemingly uncontrolled movements and lurches; to the point that Arthur made an attempt to hold it down lest it fall off the trolley. What concerned Ann more was that as Martin twisted her body the sit on the edge of the table her dress was riding up, rather higher than she preferred. She moved on to horrified when Martin slipped down off the front of the box causing her dress' hem to rise to her waist, exposing the knickers below, a modest pair in black. (Not lacy or see-through, but also not intended for the public gaze.) Ann was a little relieved when Martin noticed and tugged the hem of her dress down to cover the panties.

After a few steps Martin seemed to have got the hang of piloting just one of the bodies he was feeling and, to a more limited extent, controlling. He soon navigated the distance to the other trolley, where the torso of the body he had arrived with lay. By this point, he had got the hang of managing to move one body at a time, so the spasming of the headless body was now almost gone. When he reached the trolley he placed a hand on it for support and tried to get the other body to cooperate with Arthur in moving to a standing position also standing beside the trolley.

"That seemed to go well. I think you're getting the hang of this; I'm guessing it's not something you get to practice. Now if you could bring both bodies to centre stage, I'll go and sort out the completion of this trick."

Martin initially tried to move both bodies, but the movements did not seem to synchronise and he felt very unstable; so he needed to think of another strategy. He soon realised that if he lined up the bodies together he could get one to follow the other in a sort of lock-step. So he stepped his headed body in front of his headless body and made an attempt to place his sightless hands on his sighted shoulders. He then walked the bodies together to the middle of the stage.

Meanwhile, Arthur had produce a large brown cloth and approached Ann's head on the makeshift table.

"What are going to do with that?" asked Ann.

"Well, my original plan was to cover your head and levitate it over to the spare body, over there, but I've changed my mind. I feel sure you don't want to be treated like a floating ball, so I thought up something different that will suit you a bit more and convince the audience that I am really moving your detached head from this table to the available neck stump over there."

"Oh?"

"Yes and it will have the added advantage that you will be able see, so you won't feel so queasy during the transfer." He turned the table so that Ann was now facing the audience and draped the cloth over her hair without obscuring her face. He reached under her chin and clipped it together so that it looked like a headscarf, but with a clip instead of a knot under Ann's chin. Arthur placed a hand on top of Ann's head and then raised it, causing the head-scarfed head to rise under the hand.

A few steps across the stage and Arthur was lowering the stump below Ann's head onto the stump on Martin's shoulders, being careful that neither the scarf nor Ann's hair got between the inner surfaces of the two stumps. As the stumps touched, they fused and Ann was relieved to have a body again; even if it was not her body; she would have to see what she could do about that. Martin was also thankful that his second body was no longer his responsibility, but he wondered when he would get his body back.

The two volunteers showed that their current predicaments were an improvement on what had gone before by hugging each other.

Arthur told them that they could return to the audience and enjoy the rest of the show and he would sort them back out afterwards. Neither of the volunteers could see a way of bring forward the return of the usual torsos, so returned to their former seats. Martin seemed excited to be borrowing Ann's body for so long. Ann was more concerned by the feeling of being topless, even if the top that was exposed was Martin's.

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The show continued with some more small magic, doves and rabbits and a small dog were produced.

Arthur then introduced the hypnosis section of his show and called up two pre-selected volunteers, Monika and Keisha, who were soon hypnotised and changed into the bikinis that hung from the screen. Ann saw that they were a lot more modest that the ones her friends Quinn and Lisa had described to her when they had been volunteers for Arthur. Soon Arthur was putting them through their paces; they forget their names, did not flinch when the held a match that burnt away while still being held, punched each other in the abdomen with no ill effects and were turned into human bridges, which Arthur carefully stepped across.

The climax of the hypnosis act was bringing forward the bed of spikes and with the help two male helpers from the front row laying Monika face up across the spikes, so that they supported her from shoulders to the tops of her thighs. Keisha was then lain face down on top with the tops of her thighs on Monika's shoulders and her shoulders on Monika's thighs. A board was placed on top and held in place by some poles that Arthur locked onto the corner spikes. Using a step ladder the helpers and Arthur climbed onto the board. On a count of three the three men jumped, when they landed the board was pushed down until it was prevented from going any further by the tips of the spikes; the hypnotised volunteers having been pushed fully onto the spikes.

The board was removed, once the men had dismounted and the remaining assembly of spikes and impaled girls was turned over. It did not take much to lift the spike bed from the volunteers and then they were brought round and told that they had done a marvellous job, to return to the stage when the show was finished for their own clothes and, in the meantime, to be unconcerned that they were wearing spike shredded bikinis.

They was another short piece of magic where Arthur turned his head backward and then announced the interval.

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The interval did not go as Ann expected.

Firstly, she had hoped that Martin would find her and apologise or thank her for the loan of her body, but she saw nothing of him.

Secondly, once she had found her pre-ordered drink, she went to find Monika and Keisha and talk to them about the fact that their breasts were not covered by the damaged bikinis that they continued to wear. She could not get near them for men of all ages getting their photos taken with the very exposed young women.

A young woman began flirting with Ann. When Ann seemed uninterested the woman gave her a scrap of paper and asked that Ann pass it on to Martin.

There was also an incident at the other end of the bar, during which, from the shouting, was someone was ejected from the theatre.

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The second act was similar in format and climaxed with Arthur taking a male volunteer and putting his head in a box and then with the front and back closed inserting many knives. What surprised everyone was once Arthur had shown the interior of the box full of knives, he did not close the front doors, until he had removed the many blades and opened the back panel. The magician closed the front panel and removed the box from the volunteer's reappeared head.

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As most of the audience were leaving Ann, Martin, Monika and Keisha moved to the front and were invited to come through the closed curtain and backstage.

Arthur invited the girls he had hypnotised to go behind the screen and change back into their normal clothes.

It occurred to Ann that the two girls would be in for a nasty shock once the photos that were taken in the bar hit the internet. She asked Arthur how he could allow it. Arthur did not answer the question directly, but commented that cameras failed, had smudges on their lens or went out of focus and sometimes things got in the way, and then he winked. Ann got the impression that it was unlikely that anyone had a useable photo of Monika or Keisha and felt that Arthur was not quite as bad as she had imagined.

Arthur did Ann and Martin's return to their own bodies by getting them to stand back-to-back and raising a curtain on a hoop around them; when it was lowered Ann was back in her body, but something did not feel quite right. About the time that the other girls emerged from behind the screen and Martin was sent to change back into his clothes, Ann realised that the strange thing was that she was not wearing any underwear under her dress.

Ann had to wait for Martin to get dressed before she could ask him what had happened. When Martin returned dressed as he had been, he saw Ann's questioning look and pre-empted the question by saying, "I know what you're thinking, but it wasn't like that. Let's go to the bar and I tell you what really happened."

Ann nodded, because she did not want to create a scene and they went to the theatre bar, but not before Arthur had pressed a card into Ann's hand, saying that he would love to have her volunteer for him again.

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In the bar, Martin bought Ann a glass of wine and they found a quiet place.

When they were sat down and had taken their first sips of their drinks, Martin began, "I'm guessing that you think I'm a pervert of some sort. So I'm going to tell you what really happened."

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At the interval I needed to go to the loo, urgently; I don't know what you had to drink before the show, but it seems to have gone straight through you. Well, I went to the gent's; it wasn't until I was in there I remembered that I had your body, but I didn't feel it would be right to go into ladies', so I went into a cubicle.

It took me a little while to work out what I needed to do and I was peeing when Shaun turned up. He got into the cubicle too and was insistent that I proof that what had happened had really happened.

I hoped he would be satisfied with seeing the change in skin tone at my neck and mid-thigh so I showed him those, but it did not. He wanted to see that I was really walking around with a woman's body; I was shocked when he attacked me. I didn't really recover until he had pulled the dress off over my head, pulled down your knickers and removed your bra, but when I did and realised he was feeling my (sorry your) body. I did the only thing that I could think of; I kneed him in the nuts, pulled the dress back on and reported Shaun to someone from the theatre. It took three of them to chuck him out and that give me the chance to retrieve your underwear. By that time it was too late to put it back on before the second act so I tucked them in my bag, I'll give them to you now if you like.

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Ann exchanged the phone number she had been given during the interval for her underwear and tucked the items into her hand bag, before she went home.

Later she wondered if she should have given Martin her own number as well.