Extreme Magic Vignette: A Twisted Interlude with Quinn and Lisa

The studio was abuzz as the audience watched and responded to seeing the magician, in plain black T-shirt and shorts, performing small miracles for the patrons of a café on the big screen. There were two members of the audience that were not paying particular attention as Terry somehow put a stranger's iPhone inside a glass bottle and got their friend to ring it; they were also spotting glimpses of a friend. They knew the waitress who would be cleaning up the debris, when the magician eventually smashed the bottle in order to return the mobile phone to its owner. Her name was Ann and they also knew she was not at all fond of the magical fraternity, so it was a surprise when the next segment of the video showed Ann walking along with the magician and still more astonished, when she allowed him to walk her across the lake to a small water-ski-jump, where he tied her to an archway and rode a jet-ski through her twice, before letting her ride off on the jet-ski. At the end there was a short interview with Ann, which tried to disguise the fact that she was soaked to the skin, making her white blouse mostly transparent and cling to her curves.

Quinn said to Lisa, "She'll be mortified when she sees that, but she did seem quite happy at the end. Maybe, she might like to join in some more magic with Fred."

Lisa agreed and added, "This Terry, in addition to being a good magician, must have something else about him. I don't know which is the bigger miracle; the magic we saw on the tape or him persuading Ann to go for it."

The studio manager held up a card calling for applause and the 150 members of the audience gladly complied. As the clapping was petering out, Terry walked to the centre of the performance area.

"The young lady I was waltzing on the lake with was Ann; she's a waitress at the café where we filmed the first part of that video. You may have caught a glimpse of her in the background of the bit of film from there."

"While we were walking to the lake, she mentioned that she had some friends who would be attending this recording. Would Quinn and Lisa make themselves known, please?"

Slightly flustered at being unexpectedly dragged to the centre of attention, first Lisa put up a hand, but then Quinn stood up, so Lisa joined her. Soon everybody was looking at them including one of the cameras that haunted the darkened strip between the audience seating and the white painted floor of the performance area.

"Would you ladies like to come down here?" invited Terry.

Almost before the question was finished, Quinn was pushing passed the few knees between her and the gangway that lead to the studio floor. Lisa followed, excusing herself to the owners of those knees. Quinn paused at the bottom of the stairway for just long enough for Lisa to catch up and for Bob, the studio manager, to hand them both microphones and remind them not to swear.

Quinn strode towards the magician, closely followed by Lisa. They were soon standing either side of Terry. "So, you two know Ann?" was his opener.

"Yes," confirmed Quinn. Lisa nodded. "I must say what you did was astounding; Not that I haven't seen videos of people driving motorbikes and the like through people. But I know Ann; she can be a bit magic-phobic, but she does have an adventurous streak; you must have caught her on one of her more adventurous days. I'm a bit surprised she didn't tell us about it."

"Have you been in touch with her since last Friday, when we shot that?"

Both the ladies shook their heads.

"I guess that'll be why, then." Lisa and Quinn looked as though that made sense to them. "You know that I'm Terry, and I know you are Quinn and Lisa, but which is which?"

Lisa spoke, partly to stop Quinn monopolising the conversation. "I'm Lisa and my talkative friend here is Quinn."

"Nice dresses ladies," commented Terry.

Flattered that he had noticed they stood straighter to allow the cameras to take in their outfits.

Lisa was wearing a mini-dress with a black sheer cowl neck top and a black bikini top underneath to remain decent. Quinn was also wearing a black mini-dress, but hers had a high neckline and was mostly lace at the front with three vinyl panels across her chest, belly and hips; Terry noticed she was wearing flesh coloured bra and panties, presumably to protect her modesty if anything should slip, without spoiling the effect. Both wore hold-up stockings and nice matching shoes with mid height heels.

"Are you going to a club after the show?" he enquired.

"We thought we might," said Quinn, "but the outfits are for you. We thought if you wanted volunteers, we'd stand a better chance of being chosen, if we were looking our best."

"So, you'd like to volunteer for an illusion?" the magician asked them.

"We'd loved to," they both said, in near unison, and then giggled.

"And what illusions would you like to volunteer for?"

"I'd love to do the Houdini water torture cell escape," Quinn blurted.

Terry was taken aback, even though he had been warned by Ann that Quinn was a 'volunteer for anything, don't care what' magic fan. The audience gasped at the declaration.

"Wow! That's ambitious! Sadly, I don't have the equipment for that and I suspect that the studio wouldn't let you even if I did; they nearly had enough kittens to give one to every member of the audience, when I took a chainsaw to a volunteer at a previous recording."

Lisa and Quinn exchanged glances; both wondering what a chainsaw would feel like and what it would do to their brand new outfits.

"Maybe, you can think of something a little less dangerous," Terry suggested.

Quinn pondered and almost suggested the buzzsaw, but remembering mention of a chainsaw being used at a previous recording, thought better of it. "What about the 'Interlude'? I always thought that would be fun in an intimate sort of way."

"That is do-able," said Terry, "but it'll take a little while to dig out. So, Lisa, do you have an illusion you'd particularly like to take part in?"

"Hmm, the Twister or one of those ones where the assistant ends up eighteen inches tall, both seem fun and pretty harmless; harmless fun, I suppose. Surprise me!"

"Well, I suppose they," Terry said indicating the audience, both those present and the viewers, "and you will have to wait and find out which one I decide to do with you,"

The magician marched into the wings and returned almost immediately towing a low platform from which rose an apparatus nearly five foot tall and very plain. "This I call my Heavenly Interlude."

"It doesn't look very heavenly to me," commented Lisa. "In fact, it looks a bit bare-bones for an illusion, all together."

"True," admitted the magician, "but I like to keep the apparatus simple and highlight the magic. Shall we open her up?"

He went round the back of the equipment and two metal on metal clinks were heard. He came back round the side and took hold of the arm jutting out from that side of the column defined by the main part. He asked Lisa to go to the other side and take hold of the opposite side, warning her that it might be a bit heavy, but to lay it down gently once it was released. "Now, Quinn, please undo the plates holding the illusion together on the front; there's one on each crossbar."

Quinn examined the higher of the two crosspieces, noting that it was slightly curved and in two parts that joined in the middle by means of one becoming narrower and fitting inside the other where they met. This was held in place by a narrow plate, which was attached to one side by a hinge and hooked over a loop welded to the frame on the other side. It took no effort to unhook the plate by hinging it backwards. The lower cross bar had the same arrangement, but opposite handed. This too Quinn unhinged.

"Ok, Lisa could you lower your half to the floor," instructed the magician. Lisa stepped back and slowly lowered the part of the apparatus until the end of the arm touched the floor. Terry did the same. "Alright, Quinn, step onto the platform and we can get you into place."

"Doesn't the magician usually stand inside the illusion?" Quinn protested, but quickly stepped into place, because while this development was unexpected, she thought that she wanted her time in the spotlight.

"Yes, indeed," said the magician, "that would be usual, but as you've seen already, I'm not your usual run-of-the-mill magician. Besides I know of several female illusionists that do it this way."

Quinn, a little defensive, said, "I wasn't criticising; just pointing out that it's unusual. So now I'm here what happens?" She had already taken a stance that had her feet shoulder width apart on the painted footprints close to where the halves of the apparatus hinged to the platform.

"I'd like you to lift your left arm," he requested.

Quinn was a little confused; did the magician mean his left, her left or the audience's left? She lifted an arm at random.

"That's great, but you do know that's your right arm?" Quinn realised that he was correct and was about to lower it and substitute the other arm, when the magician said, "Never mind, leave it up and we'll work with that." The audience sounded amused.

"Lisa, can you lift your side up, please; I'll be round to help you straight away." Between them they had soon raised the half of the illusion into place. The top corner where the arm jutted touched Quinn just under her elevated arm and the half crosspieces stuck out to just past Quinn's centreline at upper thigh and collar-bone levels at the front and the back. "Quinn you can rest your arm along this shelf towards me," said Terry. "And Lisa, would you strap Quinn's legs to the side of the frame and describe what you are doing, for the benefit of the audience, because we can't get a camera in there. I would do it myself, but some ladies can get a bit more than normally nervous if someone they don't know touches their legs."

Lisa knelt in front of Quinn and described what she found there. At ankle and knee level there was a bar running from front to back, on each bar was a ring and threaded through this ring was a short leather strap with a buckle. She told the audience how she brought the ends of the strap together firstly round Quinn's ankle and pushed the free end of the belt through the buckle and tightened it until she was confident that Quinn could only move her foot next to the bar. Once Lisa had belted Quinn's knee to the frame, she declared that Quinn's right leg was immobilised. She also observed that is was fortunate that Quinn's dress was as short as it was, because it could have been in the way if it were much longer.

While Lisa was narrating the strapping in of Quinn's leg, Terry was doing the same service for her arm, with straps at her wrist and just above her elbow. He then folded up the end of the illusion's arm, which was a hand grip and guided Quinn's palm round it.

The procedure was soon repeated with the other half of the apparatus and the hinged plates connecting the two halves were flipped over their loops and padlocked in place.

"Can you get out?" asked Terry.

Quinn considered this and concluded, "Maybe, if my arms and legs weren't strapped in, but it's also a bit close fitting, so it might damage my new dress." She was envisioning the possibility that she could raise her arms and squat and then sit to exit via the arch at the base of the frame that showed off her stockinged legs, except that her arms and legs were held nearly immobile.

"We wouldn't want to damage your dress. Let's show it off instead." Terry, helped by Lisa, rotated the illusion pausing each quarter turn to let people see what there was to see. At the front all of Quinn was visible between the inward angled uprights of the frame; the only obstructions were the two crossbars with their slight upward curve, the first crossed Quinn's upper thighs just above the hem of her dress, the other curving across her collar bone. The rear view was basically the same, except that it was Quinn's back on view and her brown hair brushed the upper crosspiece at the back as she tried, unsuccessfully, to turn and see what was happening behind her. The side view was a bit more obscured as the sides of the frame had many bars across and there were the curving brackets that supported the arms.

With Quinn facing front again, Terry looked at the audience and then at Lisa and said, "Shall we show them why I call this the 'Heavenly Interlude'?"

"Yes, why not?" replied Lisa, who, while mildly intrigued by the adjective being applied to this illusion, was more interested in getting to the end and finding out what Terry had in store for her.

"You see a ring sticking out of the bracket under Quinn's hand." Lisa confirmed that she saw what he described by nodding. "Ok, pull it. I'll do the same on this side."

The two pulled and each ended up with a semicircle of stretchy white fabric with a silvery pattern on it. When Lisa held up by its corners, it became apparent that it was not quite a true semicircle, more of a fat crescent moon shape. Also, in addition to the ring in the centre of the outward curving edge, there were rings at the corners and a further two evenly spaced along the inward curving edge.

Quinn took in the new items and was puzzled as to what they were for. Wondering if she was being stupid, she asked, "What are they for? And how do they make this illusion heavenly?"

"I'll answer the first question now, but I save the second for later, ok?"

"Ok," said Quinn. "So what ARE they for?"

"You, of course, know that this illusion usually comes with framed panels of stretchy fabric to hide from the public gaze the exact details of what is going on. These serve that role, while being a little less cryptic in how they work and a bit more decorative. We just need to fit them." The magician went to the side of the illusion he had pulled the cloth from and draped it over Quinn's arm. "Just follow my instructions, Lisa, we'll have it done in no time. First drape it over Quinn's arm and hook the central ring on the catch on her wrist strap."

Lisa followed the instruction and then, "Got it. What's next?"

"You hook the front corner to this catch down here." He indicate a previously unnoticed hook on his side of the lower crossbar. "I'll be doing the same round the back."

"Done that," said Lisa, "but I had to stretch it a bit."

"That's fine, it's meant to stretch. Next you take the front corner from my side and hook that on the catch on the opposite side. That'll even up the tension."

"So the corners cross?" asked Lisa. Terry made an affirmative noise. "Ok, I've done that."

"Good. Now take the remaining ring you can see on my side and hook that to the hook on your side of the upper crossbar. Got that?"

"Yeah, got it." She did it. "Is it meant to go underneath the fabric from my side?"

"Yes, that's the point. The final move is to bring the other ring, from your side forward and catch it on the catch on opposite the one you just used. You might need to pull the cloth from my side down a bit to find the catch, but that's ok."

With a bit of a tug Lisa manages to perform the last step, and steps back to admire her handiwork. Quinn can feel the two edges stretched against the sides of her neck.

Terry comes back round to the front and checks out the way the fabric's edges stretch against each other, says, "Good job," and makes a minor adjustment so that the stretched fabric lies more evenly.

"Now we can see the first reason I call this my 'Heavenly Interlude'. Because Quinn now looks like an angel."

It was true that the silver pattern on the fabric now took on the appearance of feathers. Quinn only had her head, hands and legs visible and the rest seemed to be wings.

"I, kind of, see what you mean with the silvery white wings, but I know Quinn and she's no angel, believe me."

Quinn took exception to that remark and shouted, "Hoy! You're not exactly squeaky clean yourself."

Lisa ignored the comment and continued, "Maybe, a halo would help sell it."

With a cry of "Why didn't I think of that", Terry bolted into the wings and swiftly returned with a steel ring that he had used earlier when demonstrating the Chinese linking rings. He stood behind the captive Quinn and held the ring horizontally a few inches above her head. He let go and it hovered there pretending to be a halo. As Quinn saw the magician's hand come down, she flinched, expecting the ring to fall on her head.

"That better?" Terry asked.

"Yeah, I guess," replied Lisa, not sure if she was more impressed by the fact that a steel ring was floating several inches above her friend's head or that this piece of magic seemed to be unprepared.

Terry brushed off Lisa's seeming lack of enthusiasm for his minor feat, because he was quite used to people being too stunned to express themselves particularly coherently after some of the things he had done.

He continued with his patter. "Now we come to the second reason I call this the 'Heavenly Interlude'. Quinn looks like an angel and angels are holy. We can pass objects through things that are holey. Shall we demonstrate, Lisa?"

This explanation drew a mix of giggles and groans from the seated audience. Bob wondered if he had heard a worse pun in all his years as a studio floor manager; he suspected he had and thanked providence that he had forgotten it too.

Trying to suppress a smirk at the idea of Quinn being wholly holey Lisa answered, "Um, ok," not sure exactly what Terry is planning, but with some idea how it would end.

Quinn also knows what she is expecting, but the manner of achieving it she is waiting to see.

"Right, Lisa, go round the back and put your hand through between the edges of the wings. Check that Quinn is still in there."

"Of course I'm still in here," commented Quinn. "I can't get out." To emphasise the point, she struggled and achieved nothing. "And before you ask, my body hasn't vanished; I'm sure I'd know if my body disappeared."

"We'll check that now," the magician said, as he stretched the edges of the wing fabric apart to give a glimpse of Quinn's body behind the lace fabric between two stripes of black vinyl. "Yep, you're still there to see."

"How are you doing back there, Lisa?" continued Terry. "Can you feel Quinn's back through the gap you made between the two wings?"

There was a pause as Lisa peeped round the frame, below the arm bracket, wearing a puzzled look. "I'm not quite sure. I can feel the back of her dress, but I don't think I am feeling Quinn inside the dress."

"Well, I can feel your hand against my back," commented Quinn. "In fact, you could do me a bit of a favour. I'm getting an itch just above where you're touching; could you scratch it please? I'm not exactly in a position to do it myself."

Lisa's position changed slightly as she moved her hand an inch or so up the back of the dress.

"Yeah, that's it," Quinn sighed. "That feels a lot better."

"You're welcome," Lisa returned, "but I still can't feel your back through the fabric."

"It's got to be there, somewhere," said Terry. "We can see it through the front." He demonstrated by opening the fabric edges, bit higher up, to show that Quinn's dress was there with some bits of Quinn visible through it. "Try pushing against it and see if you can feel her back."

Lisa returned to a more upright position behind, peeping over Quinn's shoulder. She pushed her hand forward in an attempt to find a body inside the dress.

Quinn felt her face twist into a grimace, which she knew did not belong on her face. She could feel Lisa's hand penetrate her back and it felt good like a sensuous massage; she recognised the feeling from the previous weekend as the sensation induced by intersecting bodies. She wondered why her face was reacting as if something nasty was happening to her.

Lisa also felt something; her hand felt the vinyl fabric that backed Quinn's dress close round it and a very pleasant warm feeling pass into it, but she still did not find Quinn's back. She continued to press forward and until her arm to a little beyond her elbow had disappeared through the gap between the stretchy fabric of the wings.

Lisa was a little surprised when the texture she was feeling up her bare arm as she thrust into the cabinet, suddenly seemed to change around her hand. Her hand now felt stretchy cloth like the wings fabric.

Terry stood back from the device to allow the audience to see the bulge that had appeared in the front covering of the illusion. He called to Lisa, "You may need to more your hand right a bit."

"I'll try that," replied Lisa. The hump in the cloth covering Quinn moved towards the centre and encounters the hemmed edge of the fabric. "What's that?" The bump moves beyond the edge to the other side and then moves back and a hand pops out of the front of the covered frame.

Before Lisa has a chance to withdraw her hand, Terry takes a gentle, but firm, hold of it.

"What's that? Something just grabbed my hand," shouted Lisa, surprised by the sudden interaction and trying to pull back; which Terry resists.

"It's alright. It's only me." Terry gives the hand a playful tug, causing Lisa to topple forward and follow her arm between the angel's wings. Quinn's face is a picture of the tortured person, but she does not utter a sound. A smart editor captures the moment from one of the cameras more to the side of the apparatus. The TV audience see Lisa fall forward and moments later her head emerges between the front wings above her hand.

Both Quinn and Lisa are feeling the good feelings of their intersection, but are reacting differently. Quinn is doing what appears to be a silent scream of agony, while Lisa is breathless with the sensations and unable to speak. Terry takes Lisa's hand and pulls Lisa through until her shoulders emerge and quickly turns her until she is facing upwards.

Quinn looks down and sees the emerging Lisa. She thinks, 'what are you doing down there?' She finds that she cannot voice that thought.

Terry puts his hands under Lisa's shoulders and uses her to rotate the illusion through a full 360 degrees, showing Lisa's legs projecting from the rear of the illusion. Then stepping back, he drags Lisa forward and from within Quinn. Lisa has enough presence of mind to draw one leg out first and lower it so that she is not suddenly dropped out of Quinn, with the consequence of landing awkwardly and possibly breaking a heel on one of her shoes.

The audience applaud the feat. Then Quinn notices that Lisa is wearing her dress. "Hey, Lisa, How come you're wearing my dress?" shouts Quinn to be heard over the noise of the crowd. Lisa looks down to see some of the black bikini she was wearing for underwear visible through the alternating vinyl and mesh stripes of Quinn's dress. With this change drawn to the attention, the audience raise their applause up a notch or two.

As the clapping subsides, Terry begins releasing the rings holding the stretchy wings in place, thus showing that Quinn is now dressed in Lisa's dress. With some flicks and twiddles by Terry, Quinn is rapidly released from the 'Heavenly Interlude'.

"How was that for you?" asked Terry, once the two volunteers were arranged either side of him.

Quinn answered first; Lisa was holding back, because it was Quinn's chosen illusion. "That certainly wasn't exactly what I expected, but it was definitely cool. The dress swap wouldn't have worked if we weren't near enough the same size" She glanced upward and added, "And I've still got a halo too."

Terry looked almost embarrassed, then plucked the steel ring from the air above Quinn's head. He then rolled it with a lot of back-spin towards the wings; it passed into the backstage area then came back out now that the backspin had taken over and took a curving path back into the wings.

"I didn't expect to be quite as IN to it," said Lisa, coaxing a groan from the audience.

"It sounds like we need to get you in an illusion quick, before the audience start to leave." The audience tittered at Terry's comment.

He sprints into the wings leaving his volunteers stranded centre stage, while a crew member removes the previous illusion.

Terry returned towing another low platform with a cuboid cabinet on legs and an open-faced head box on top. This looked at first sight like the twister that you could see on many a stage; the main difference was its decoration; it had none, being plain white with no handles or cogs or other unnecessary trappings. Terry opened the door at the front and invited the friends to check the plain black interior; Lisa by stepping into it and Quinn helped out and slid in the base of the rectangular cabinet, so that Lisa was trapped in the 'U'-shaped cut-out. Lisa had to duck her head under the top of the main cabinet to put her head through the hole that allowed her head up into the head section of the box.

"Ok, Lisa, are you comfortable?" asked Terry on the way to stand on the platform next to the enclosed woman.

"Yes, I'm ok," replied Lisa, "but this head box is a bit tight."

"Feeling a bit big headed?" sniped Quinn, in revenge for the 'no angel' comment.

Terry ignored this and said, "It needs to be tight to have the friction needed to turn your head, but you may find pushing your head forward a little will ease the pressure on your ears."

Lisa's head came forward until the tip of her nose was beyond the front of the box, then her face showed she was in less discomfort.

"Let's begin," said the magician. He took hold of the front edge nearest him and the furthest back edge and turned the headbox. Quinn watch amazed as Lisa's face pointed further and further backwards. Lisa made a 'whoa' noise. Terry stopped after a half turn. The open back of the headbox displayed the brown hair at the back of Lisa's head.

"Hey!" called Lisa, "You can't stop there. You'll give me a crick in the neck."

"Sorry," said Terry in an insincere tone and turned Lisa's head a further 180 degrees to face the audience once more.

"That's better," observed Lisa. "I'm facing front again and there's little risk that my neck'll be stiff. If anything that probably proved my neck is a bit loose."

"And maybe it'll stop you being a pain in the neck," added Quinn.

Terry came round the front and shut the door to the cabinet. He returned to the position at the side of the cabinet and set about rotating Lisa's head a further three turns. Lisa felt tension build up in her body and the freedom to move her arms lessen. At the end of the third rotation he slipped a small bolt into place to stop the head box from rotating further.

Back at the front of the box the magician opened the door and lifted it from its pivots. When he placed the door to the side, inside was a thick twisted rope wrapped in the alternating vinyl and mesh panels of Quinn's dress and with a pair of hands in the middle.

"Given that your lungs aren't at their usual capacity, you may find speaking a bit difficult. If you find that, try using hand signals. How are you feeling?"

Lisa's mouth moved but no sound came out. Next she tried to make a 'so-so' gesture, but spreading her hand to rock it side to side; this proved to be a problem with her other hand trapped in such close proximity. She finally resorted to a simple thumbs up gesture, but with only one hand; she was trying to express she felt ok, not great.

"Now, most magicians would leave it there. This will be because they are still using old, out-dated methods, where covering a flaw in an original design led something that was new and novel in its day. The newer method allows me to do this." He moved to the side opposite from where the door had been hinged and unhooked the entire side and then rotated the entire platform to show that Lisa was not hiding her body except where it was twisted against itself.

"Now, Quinn, you may have noticed that Lisa got to be part of the illusion you were in. Would like to be part of Lisa's illusion?"

"You bet! What do I have to do?"

On this cue, another twister cabinet rolled on to the performance area. Terry met it at the point it ran out of momentum and pushed it to a more central position beside Lisa's part dismantled cabinet. Quinn rushed to it opening the door and removing the cut-out from the floor, handing it to Terry as she ducked into cabinet and carefully pushed her head up into the head box.

Her face showed a moment of doubt. "This won't crease my dress too much, will it?"

Terry gently reminded her that she was not wearing her own dress.

"In that case, if Lisa has creased my dress, I'll crease hers." The expression on Lisa's face said 'This is getting petty' as clearly as if she had spoken the words.

Terry fitted the box's base and closed the door. "I think we can forego the first twist, so, here goes."

With that little warning, the magician started turning Quinn's head relative to the cabinet until she had seen the back of the studio three times. He slid the bolt into place and then open the cabinet's door and side; showing that Quinn was in the same predicament as Lisa, but had been turned in the opposite direction.

Quinn gave a double thumbs up gesture with her hands that projected from her thick rope of torso.

"Looks like Quinn is living up to her reputation as described to me by Ann." In response, Quinn stuck her tongue out. "I think she'll get a real kick out of the next bit."

Terry pushed the open sides of the cabinets together to make a larger combined cabinet. He went behind the cabinet and the sound of a few catches being connected was heard. Then by pushing Lisa's headbox he began to twist the two girls' heads around each other. When the headboxes had swapped places the two rope-like bodies stretched diagonally across the inside of the cabinet.

"I suggest you hold onto each other, because this may be a bit of a wild ride." The hands grasped each other, then the magician continued to make the heads orbit each other another until they were facing forward for the third time and their hands seemed lost in the twining bodies. He slid in another bolt to stop the turntable on which the headboxes were mounted from turn further.

He turned the cabinet's open front to face the back of the studio. "You know I said this would be a wild ride? Well, this is the wild part." He reach over and released the bolts that had been holding the headboxes and the turning base from rotating in quick succession; he needed to be quick, because as soon as he released the bolt on a component it began to rotate in the opposite direction from which it had originally been turned. As they turned the audience got flashes of the volunteers faces rotating in their head boxes and around each other.

The headboxes stopped spinning and moments later the box bases were pushed out. The hair the audience could see through the backs of the headboxes was pulled down and Lisa and Quinn stepped out of the twister cabinets and came round to face the audience.

Terry gathered the two women, still a bit dizzy from their rapid rotations and stood in the middle front of the performing area, while a crew person cleared the twisters and the removed parts from behind them.

"How does it feel to be in your own dresses again?" asked the magician.

They both looked down to confirm what he said was true, before agreeing that they liked it much better that wearing each other's.

"Now to introduce your third illusion."

"You didn't say anything about a third illusion," Lisa pointed out.

"Quinn got an illusion of her choice, and you got a choice of illusion; if stands to reason that I also get to choose an illusion."

"He's right, you know," said Quinn.

"Who's side are you on?" Lisa sniped back.

"Put it this way, we both came here hoping to volunteer for an illusion and we've got two under our belts and we are being offered a third. What's not to like?" reasoned Quinn.

"It's the way it was assumed we'd take part, but of course I want to be in another illusion."

Terry looked contrite and said, "Would you two lovely ladies like to take part in another illusion?"

Quinn said, "Yes!" while Lisa said, "So long as we don't end up swapping dresses again."

"Ok," said Terry, "I'll get the starting part while you prepared yourselves to be blown away by this next bit of magic."

Terry rushed off and returned with a box on a low platform. The box was of similar construction to a packing crate, each side being a thin sheet of plywood with a frame of timber. "Please check it and open it up, while I get the next pieces."

Lisa and Quinn approached the box and saw that the lid was held on with a set of clips around the edges. They unclipped these and lifted the lid from the box. When they had put the lid down, a man with a handheld camera had joined them to view the inside of the box and the volunteers thumping all the walls and the base to assure themselves that the box was exactly that and no more. Lisa lifted the lid back up and showed the audience four hole in a line across the plywood of the lid each four inches in diameter. "At the moment it looks like it's going to be a variation on the Metamorphosis," said Lisa.

"It does look like that," commented Quinn, "If it is, do you want to be put in the box at the start or be let out of the box at the end?"

"I think I'd prefer to be first in the box," decided Lisa.

Terry came back pushing a larger trolley with a bigger box of clear plastic with a metal frame. On top of the box was a small cardboard box and a pair of handcuffs.

"Ok, Ladies, let's get you into the box and ready for the next stage."

"You want us both in there?" Lisa queried.

"Exactly," said Terry. Quinn swung her leg over the edge of the box and blessed the shortness of dress that made this manoeuvre easy. "I need you to sit down in the box facing opposite directions."

Quinn was already standing in the box and offered a hand to help the more reluctant Lisa into the box. Terry offered to lift her into the box, but Lisa moved to get into the box of her own accord.

"Ok, now that you're in the box, unless you want to change sides, I'd like Quinn to sit facing the audience and Lisa to sit facing away from them."

With some shuffling about they both managed to sit with their heads above the rim of the box satisfied that they had not snagged their dresses on the rough interior of the box.

"Good, now I need you to raise you right hands. Quinn, in case you're in doubt, that's the one nearest Lisa, ok?"

Quinn made a face, which told the audience that she did not enjoy being reminded of her earlier mistake. Terry lifted the lid over the box and asked the volunteers to put their hands though the pair of central holes in the lid. "Good," said the magician, "Could you hold it there while a make a couple of adjustments." Both women put up their left hands to support the lid. Terry fetched the handcuffs from the other box and quickly snapped them around the right wrists of his volunteers. He took hold of the lid once more and began to slowly lower into place, giving Quinn and Lisa enough time lower their left hands and duck their heads between their knees. With the lid in position he made a quick tour of the box attaching the clips to hold it in place.

Two crew people came on from either side carrying a set of spikes, placing them point down beside the box with the two right hands sticking out. Terry mimed being horrified by a thought. "They aren't going to want their dresses damaged," he said. He went Quinn's end of the box and put in his hand; it returned with Quinn's dress in tow and followed by her left hand trying to retrieve it and a cry of protest. Lisa seemed to be amused by this turn of events, judging by the comments she made, until he repeated the process, by pulling her dress from the box too; her comment was edited from the show as broadcast.

Terry carefully draped the dresses over the edge of the big plastic box. He next picked up one of the sets of spikes and pushed them through Lisa's side of the box, causing Lisa's hand to wave in protest. The second set were pushed through Quinn's half from behind the box. Quinn's hand did not show quite the distress that Lisa's had, even when the points of the spikes emerged from the front of the box.

The magician rotated the box to show that there was no escape for his two volunteers and that Lisa was as pierced as Quinn was. He then addressed the girls in the box. "How are you doing in there?"

Lisa said, in a voice heavily loaded with sarcasm, "Great! If your idea of great is stuffed in a box, stripped and the run through with I don't know now many spikes."

"That would be sixteen, unless one or two missed you," confirmed the magician.

Quinn just raised the thumb of her right hand to demonstrate that she was still alive and able to do something.

"Now, we get to the dangerous bit."

"You think being in a box and full of spikes isn't dangerous enough?" commented Lisa.

"I don't mean dangerous for you; I'm sure you'll get a blast out of it."

He lifted the cardboard box down onto the crate that contained his volunteers. From the box he pulled two red sticks labelled 'Dynamite', then tossed the box towards the wings.

"I have a special job for each of you," he told the boxed volunteers, "In a minute or so, I am going to drop a stick of dynamite into the holes on the left hand side of you and all you have to do is pick it up and defuse it."

"One-handed?" queried Quinn.

"No, of course not," Terry assured them. "You can use anything, your elbows, or knees or teeth, whatever you need to do. You can even cooperate with each other if you want to."

Addressing the audience he added, "You may think that this is a bit dangerous, but that is why we have this reinforced plastic box. One of the crew and me will place the box over our volunteers, so that, in the unfortunate case the ladies fail to defuse both sticks of dynamite, the explosion will be contained in the box and nobody will get hurt; well, except Quinn and Lisa, but they should have the motivation to be quick enough."

Terry produced a lighter from his pocket and lit the ends of the fuses that began to shoot off sparks. Taking one in each hand he dropped them into the open hole in the top of the box. The only obvious reaction was Quinn shouting, "You could have given us a countdown or something."

Terry and a crew member lifted the large bomb-proof plastic box from its platform and move towards the box entrapping Quinn and Lisa. As they reached it they raised it to pass it over the box, in the process they tipped it slightly dropping the dresses onto the top of the box and covering the holes through which Terry had dropped the explosives. With the protective outer box in place Terry and the crew member stood back and covered their ears.

The tension built for a few seconds, then there was a huge bang. The outer box was full of nothing but smoke and a hail for wood chips.

With a down cast look, Terry took centre stage. "Well, that didn't go as well as I had hoped, but still I'd like to thank my two lovely volunteers." He pointed to the audience and a camera turned to look at the audience and soon homed in on Lisa and Quinn back in their seats and in their dresses.