EMV Penny and Jean

As screen at the back of the studio retracted back into the lighting gantries above, the audience showed their appreciation of having seen a young woman climb into a box on a coffee table and have that box compressed to too small to contain her, only to have it shown that she was still in there, then her friend hypnotised and dropped off the balcony, that was the location of the film they were being shown, only to float onto a balcony of the building opposite.

"We are lucky enough to have those two young woman in the audience," announced Terry. One of the cameras panned across the audience and picked out Penny and Jean in aisle seats a couple of rows back.

On seeing her image on the overhead monitors, Penny leapt to her feet tugging Jean's hand. Penny was grinning, while her friend looked shocked at what she had seen. It did not take Penny long to reach the bottom of the steps down to the studio floor with Jean in tow. They were met by Bob, the studio manager, who handed them microphones and asked them not to swear. The two women were soon standing either side of Terry.

In a low tone, he said, "I didn't mean for you to come on stage. I only meant to show that you are fit and well and none the worse for your experiences." There was obvious disappointment on Penny's face. Terry added, "But now that you're here, maybe we can talk about your experiences, because I'm sure some of the audience want to know how you feel about it. Did you enjoy what happened to you?"

Penny was the first to speak, "Yes, it was great fun, I've been in a few situations that weren't so much fun. Once I got the hang of being in a box on the wheelie-thing, I could carry on enjoying the party. The only downside was drinking through a straw and being fed, but it did mean that I didn't get to regret overdoing it the following morning. It also gave me a great excuse to not help with the clearing up, because Jean didn't let me out until the following afternoon; it meant I slept a night in there, but I've slept in weirder and less comfortable places."

"That's good, I'm glad you found it enjoyable. And Jean what did you think of what happened to you?"

"Well, I didn't know what was happening at the time and what the girls told me about what happened did not do what I just saw justice. They said you floated me over the balcony and over to the other building, they did not say that they had dropped me over the edge. I'll have to have words with Monica and Keisha about their parts in putting me out into mid-air."

"Ok, and was any of what happened arranged with you in advanced?" Terry asked.

"My part certainly wasn't," commented Penny, "But I probably enjoyed it the more because of that."

"Well I knew you were coming, because I invited you. I didn't know you were going to bring a cameraman. And while you said I might be asked to participate in an illusion, if I'd known what you were going to do, I'd've thought it would be too dangerous and declined, but it all turned out well and Penny seems to have got a real kick out of being a cubed cutie for a while."

"Importantly, would you do something like that again?"

Almost before Terry had finished his last syllable, Penny said, "Like a shot, but quicker."

"I would too, but I'd want to know a bit more about what I was letting myself in for first," commented Jean.

"But not too much, either, because it would seem either too dangerous or too impossible to attempt?"

"I guess," shrugged Jean.

"So, if I offered to do something with you, now, you'd be up for it?" queried the magician.

"Yeah, of course," answered Penny, while her friend said, "It'd depend on what it was."

"That's what I hoped you'd say," he said to Penny. "You wouldn't mind helping me do something with Penny, then we'll see if I can persuade to take part in something yourself." This time he addressed Jean.

"Ok, Penny when you got into that box, you proved you were quite flexible, so exactly how flexible are you? Like can you do the splits and hold it for a while?"

"Do you want front splits or side splits?" asked Penny.

Terry looked a little astonished to be offered any choice, but quickly responded, "Whichever you find easiest to hold. Why don't you limber up a bit, while I get the stuff, and you could take those shoes off? And I'm sure Bob will look after them and your jacket for you."

Penny shrugged off her jacket and handed it to Jean before putting a hand down to Jean's knee and bending from the hips to lean down to pull her flat shoes from her feet and handing these up the Jean. While Jean headed off to hand these burdens to Bob, Penny straightened up and then raising her arms bent backwards until her hands met her calves, she walked her hands down her legs until they reached bottoms of her shins. From this position she turned her head to peek at the audience between her knees, before standing back upright when she heard the rumble of a low platform pushed on stage by Terry.

Like the audience and the viewers, Penny looked at the trolley. At the end with the pushing handle there were low cylinders with various features such as holes and sliding panels that meant nothing at the moment and on a rack behind the cylinders were some things that she assumed would become relevant, but were, for the time being, unfathomable. The main thing that stood out about the front part of the platform was there was a yellow painted circle central in the area not containing parts and a few feet in each direction along the long dimension of the surface were yellow rectangles; each yellow area had a few hooks attached to the plywood around it.

"Ok, that doesn't look like any illusion I've even seen. What does it do?" asked Penny. Jean echoed these queries and asked what she needed to do to help.

"This is an illusion that will test your flexibility and after your showing off, while taking off your shoes, we all know you are highly flexy, but this will prove you can go to the next level. All you'll need do is take up a position and hold it while we build the illusion around, then you can enjoy it from there."

"So, you want me take a position. What position?"

"Sorry, I thought that was obvious. Ok. Please take a splits position with your body over the yellow circle and your lower legs over the rectangles either side."

"Ok, would have been obvious, if I'd had lots of time to think about it, but I've been busy taking off my shoes as you asked."

"Jean, would you help Penny get into position, she may need a hand staying upright while the illusion is constructed round her."

"Do you need me facing any particular way?" questioned Penny.

"No," replied Terry, "So long as you are not facing the push handle, we can turn the platform to face you towards the audience. The important thing is to make sure that you won't be too uncomfortable, because you'll be in that position for a while."

Penny stepped onto the surface and stood in the yellow circle. She put out a hand to Jean for a steadying hand and then slid her feet in opposite directions towards the yellow rectangles. About half way down she help her position and adjusted her trousers, so that they would not be strained by the extreme spread she was aiming for. Adjusted she continued down until both thighs were touching the surface, then she seemed to relax and the weight that she had been supporting with her outstretched feet transferred to her thighs. Her smile radiated pride in her accomplishment and relief that she had neither slipped nor toppled sideways. The audience applauded, while she asked, "OK, I'm down, what happens next?"

"The first thing we need to do is make sure you don't change your mind and get away." Terry handed Jean a half tube with some catches on the outside and shows that he has one too. "Penny, put your hands down so you can easily stay upright and me and Jean will put these in place. Jean, just place it over Penny's shin so that it covers the yellow area and use the catches to hold it down, by using the hooks."

A close up camera watched Jean connect the half cylinder over Penny's front leg to the surface below, then withdraw to allow another camera to take in the scene. Each of Penny's shins was hidden under a steel arch about six inches long, which Terry had already finished latching to the top of the platform and Jean was nearly finished.

"Do you think you could get out of there, Penny?" asked the magician.

"I guess so, but it wouldn't be quick. Do you want me to try?"

"No; it just confirms that the shin clamps aren't too tight. Now, move your hands inside the yellow circle and we can fit the next bit."

The 'next bit' proved to be one of the cylinders which had a pair of curtained arches cut from the bottom edge on opposite sides. Terry lowered the cylinder over Penny and settled the arches over her thighs, then invited Jean to help clip it to the platform. While they did this, Penny took the chance to tap the ring that now held her legs in place. She concluded it was made of plywood and was glad that it did not touch her thighs, because of the danger it might present of snagging her trousers. As Jean finished the last of the clips on her side, the magician lowered a metallic ring over Penny and settled it on the upper edge of the low cylinder.

This first layer covered Penny almost up to her waist. A second was settled on the ring on the first. This covered the volunteer to a little below her armpits. The magician demonstrated that this ring rotated freely above the first and showed a sliding panel which opened to show Penny's torso still in place. This panel was left open while a second metal ring was placed on top. Penny eyed the last remaining cylinder to see if she could work out how that might work; she noted a hole on the side she could see and clips near the top edge. This soon found its place on the growing stack of cylinders surrounding her body.

"This cylinder has armholes; please put your arms through, Penny."

The assistant tested the armholes for rough edges before putting her arms out; she did not want to scratch her bare arms. Getting the first arm out was easy, but the second was more problematic, because the tube was not much longer across than Penny's slender shoulders. With both arms out, she found that she could lean back slightly and rest her upper triceps against the backs of the armholes making maintaining her balance easy.

The next addition to her round container was a circular stock that closed round her neck and with Jean's continuing help, this was clipped shut and to the upper edge of the top cylinder. The final attachments to the cabinet were a pair of bars that jutted out from below the armholes to elbow length where a padded support allowed Penny to rest her elbows; Terry quickly strapped them in place. When Penny gave him a warning look, he said, "They're so your arms don't get too tired. I'll release them once the magic has happened."

A glance at the equipment rack at the handle end of the platform, revealed that there were a few items remaining, but Terry seemed happy with what he and Jean had constructed.

"Let's check that things are working properly. Please twist to your right as far as you can without straining."

Penny followed the instruction and stopped when her left arm was pointing a few degrees right of forward. The top section seemed to rotate on the middle section as smoothly as that section did on the bottom section. The audience watched Penny twist sideways through the middle section's hatch; her top showed tension against the waistband of her trousers as she twisted.

Terry requested a twist to the left, which only reached having Penny's right arm the line where her left arm had been and a small fraction further. "That's pretty good," he commented.

"Well, I guess," replied Penny, "but twists aren't my best thing; I'm more about the front bends, the back bends and the splits."

Terry leaned forward and slid the viewing hatch in the middle section shut. "Shall we see if we can help Penny, twist a bit more?"

Before either Penny or Jean can do anything to object, Terry grabs the elbow behind Penny, her left, and pulls it towards himself so that it is now sticks out in the direction that her right arm had occupied.

Facing away from the audience, Penny shouts, "Hey!" as she feels the tension in her sides increase and then, "What?!" when she realises that she is facing backwards while her hips are still facing forwards; She is still feeling greater than usual tension in her torso, but none of the pain she would have expected to feel from torn muscles and strained ligaments.

"We can't leave her like that," Terry comments and continues to rotate the upper section, passing the left arm pushed forward across Penny's front and snagging her right when it came within reach. As she was turned to face the audience once more, Penny let out a squeal, which most interpreted as owing more to surprise than pain. The grin on Jean's face at her friend's predicament threatens to reach her ears at the corners.

"How are you feel?" the magician enquired.

Penny took a moment to consider her answer, partly due to still being in some level of shock at having her head and shoulders turned through 360 degrees, in defiance of the way her body usually worked. "A bit tense. Um, I mean some of me seems to be under some sort of tension. I don't think I felt any pain, but you could warn a girl if you're going to do something like that!"

Terry stood back hand held his hands to his face, with an expression of mock horror at being told off. Penny did not get to see this, because the instant his hands left their place at her right elbow, the entire top section of the cabinet whipped back the way it had been turned; this left Penny facing forward and to the left where Jean was.

"Whoops! That wasn't meant to happen; you seem to have stronger muscles than I anticipated. I'll have a quick check that nothing bad has happened inside." He swiftly slid open the viewing hatch on the middle cylinder, to show Penny's torso; only slightly dishevelled by her top being partly pulled from the waistband of her trousers. "Yeah, you're fine! We'll just have to be more careful as we twist you, not to let go." The hatch was quickly closed. Then Penny was offered a choice. "Would you like to go the same way or the other way?"

"Um, given I started out more flexible turning to my right, I think that I should turn to my right, besides we've been to the left already."

The next thirty seconds were quite disorienting as her arms, head and shoulders were turned until she was facing forward for the third time. The last quarter turn seemed to have been a particular effort for the magician, which did not surprise Penny a great deal, because she was feeling more tension in her body than she had in a very long time. When she considered the tension, she could not determine exactly how it related to her torso, except that it was confined to a region between her hips and her armpits. The intensity of the tension made her worried that it might result in her straining something; under normal circumstances she would have called it a day, rather than risk needing to spend a couple of days recovering. She was relieved when the turning stopped.

"How are you feeling now?" enquired Terry.

Penny's answer showed the strain she was feeling. "I guess I'm alright, but I'm glad you've stopped turning, because I don't want to rip any muscles.

"Shall we see how Penny's doing? Jean, please hold onto Penny so she doesn't undo like last time."

With Jean holding onto Penny's elbow and resisting some force to keep it in place, Terry leaned forward to slide the viewing hatch open. At first the only thing to see was that Penny's top had completely parted company with her trousers. The magician reached in and lifted the hem to show the corded flesh of Penny's torso. Then he let the hem drop.

"Are you alright to stay there while I show Jean something?" Penny was asked.

Instead of saying 'no', Penny said, "Well, it is a bit uncomfortable, but I guess I could stand it for a little while. There is the problem that if both of you let go, I turn into a whirligig. And is there really any point if the audience can't see that my body has been pretzelled."

"You make some goods points," commented Terry. "You alright to hold on for a little longer, Jean?"

Jean nodded a positive reply, despite it being clear that she found it taxing to prevent her friend from violently unwinding.

Terry appeared to take this nod at face-value and stepped to rack by the trolley's push handle and lifted up six threaded rods each with a nut on the end and in the other hand collected some more nuts from a dish.

For each rod the process was the same, he slid it down the outside of the upper section of the cabinet, until it met the ring holding it up, where he poked it through a hole and down the inside of the middle section (for some of them the progress was visible through the open hatch). At the bottom of the middle section the rod went through another hole in the metal ring down there and he fitted one of the nuts on the bottom of the rod. With the six rods in place, he undid a catch in the mid section's side and asked Jean to lift it out of the way.

With the opened mid-cylinder removed, the upper cylinder was held rigidly above the lower tube by the six rods and Penny's body was exposed between the two sections.

"There. That'll stop you getting whiplash. Now, Jean, once you put that down there where it came from; here are a couple of clips. Please lift Penny's top a bit so that people can see that Penny was wrong when she said she wasn't good as twisting."

Jean knelt straddling Penny's rearward pointing leg and put her hands between the rods to the hem of her top. She gradually lifted it until all of Penny's twisted body showed from her hips to the base of her chest, then she clipped it there with the clips that Terry handed her. Before getting up, Jean tried to measure Penny's twisted waist with her hands; they did not quite touch at the front or the back, making her corded waist about four inches across or a little over twelve inches around.

Terry pushed Penny round the studio floor to allow the cameras to take in the fully extent of Penny's twist. Penny also got to see her predicament, because a monitor near the edge of the area where the cameras were was turned to face her. Terry parked the whole trolley in the corner where she could be seen by the audience and still see what happened next via the monitor.

A short period was edited from the eventual show, where a small folding table was brought on and a tripod stand supporting a dished circle of metal from which some flames rose. The close up camera came in.

"Ok, we're ready," announced Terry. "So, Jean, you wanted to have some idea of what I had planned for you, before taking part."

"Yes, after what I saw of last time; if I give you an inch, you'll take a mile. So, what are you planning to do with me?"

"I'm planning to balance you on something."

"Is that like the one where I would be lying on a board across a couple of chairs and you'd remove one of the chairs and maybe the board? Or would it be more like the one where I stand between a couple of brooms with them under my arms and I end up like a flag on one of them?"

"You may have noticed that I don't do illusions in the usual way and the two you have just described are about as standard as it gets. Although there are elements of each of them in what I intend to do."

"Ok, I think. But that begs the question why are we standing at a table, unless that's what you plan on balancing me on. Hardly a great feat; I could probably do that without your help."

"No. The point of the table is I'm going to teach you a trick and explain it, then I'll use the same idea, but a bit bigger, to balance on you something that's a bit smaller than the table. That's also why we have a close up camera, so people can see what's happening."

"So you're going to teach me a few balancing tricks and then balance me on something."

"Yes, the first one is how to balance an egg on its pointy end."

Jean snatched the egg from the table and shook it. "This egg is hard boiled. Is that cheating?"

"Only a little bit; it does make the egg more stable. But this trick can be done with a fresh egg. I'm using a hard-boiled egg here, in case it gets dropped; less mess to clear up before we can continue. Try balancing it on its sharp end; you'll find it is not at all easy."

Jean looked at the egg to see if there was any trick to it and, finding none, made three attempts to balance it on the tabletop, each unsuccessful. "Ok, that's difficult, but I might get it with a bit of practice, if I had the patience."

"Practice is a good idea, but it wouldn't help." Jean gave him a sceptical look. "It is possible to balance the egg on its tip, but that is what scientists call an unstable equilibrium; which basically means if the slightest thing happens, like if you breathe on it, it'll fall over."

"Now for the trick," the magician said. He took up the salt shaker that was on the table and poured out a small pile of salt and then took the egg from Jean's hand and screwed the egg into the pile of salt until it was touching the table.

"Now that is an obvious cheat; the salt piled up against the egg is holding it up," commented Jean.

"Ok, shall I get rid of the salt?" Terry leant down and blew gently at the salt pile surrounding the egg's point of contact with the table. Gradually the salt grains moved from around the tip of the egg. "There, the egg is still balanced on its tip and the salt has been moved away." The audience applauded.

"That's amazing! How does it work?" Jean reached out to the egg and knocked it over. This surprised her, because she had wondered if the magician had sneaked something sticky onto the end of the egg.

"Why don't you try doing what I did? I give you some tips along the way and explain it as we go along."

Jean re-examined the egg; it seemed no different from before except for a few grains of salt stuck to it, which she brushed off. Then she turned her attention to the salt shaker. "This ordinary salt, right?"

"Yes, I borrowed that from the studio cafeteria." The implication in his tone was that the cafeteria was probably unaware that the item had been taken and it would be returned before they noticed it was missing. "This works best with ordinary table salt. So pour yourself a heap of salt. It doesn't need to be very high; just enough to bury the end of the egg into."

Jean poured a small heap of salt onto the table having swept away the residue of the pile that Terry had poured before. She did this to be sure that surface was clear of whatever trick the magician had used and as an excuse to touch the table and be sure that it was normal. "Do I need to anything special pushing the egg into the salt pile?" asked Jean.

"You'll need to make sure that egg is fairly well balanced, like you were doing before, and you'll need to make sure the egg touches the table without pushed the salt away." The close up camera watched the concentration on Jean's face as she pushed the egg into the pile of salt she had poured. "So long as you can get it to stand up, it'll stay standing up until it is blown over or nudged."

Tentatively, Jean released the egg and was rewarded with a scattering of applause when the egg failed to topple. "What you need to do now is gently blow the pile of salt away." Jean moved her head down to table level and pursed her lips. "Gently is very important at this stage, because you don't want to blow the egg over. Steady helps too." Jean adjusted her face to be sure of directing a gentle stream of air at the impossibly balanced egg. "What happens when you place the egg into the salt is that some of the salt grains get trapped between the egg and the surface of the table and act like chocks holding it up and increasing the area of contact of the egg's shell with the table, so the egg has to move further before it can fall over."

Most of Jean's pile of salt had become streaks of salt across table. "So what happens when the salt is blown away?" she asked.

"That's the clever bit. All the loose grains are blown away, but the ones that are chocking up the egg don't, because they are held in place by the weight of the egg, but they are small enough that unless you get really close, you wouldn't notice them."

At this point the audience spontaneously applauded Jean's feat of balancing an egg on its pointy end.

Under the applause, Jean commented to Terry, "That's all very well, but I think I know a waitress who would complain that it leaves a mess of salt scattered across the table."

Privately, Terry said back, "I think I know her too."

As the clapping died down, Jean said, "That's a neat trick, but I can't try it on Penny, because she just watched you teach it to me." There is a brief shot of Penny still in the splits with her abdomen twisted to a thickness only a little thicker than her thigh. "Is that what you plan to do with me? Balance me on my head in a pile of salt and then blow the salt away?"

"No, I suspect that you wouldn't keep still enough for long enough to get it to work. I shall be using the principle in my next demonstration." He swept the egg up and deposited it in a bag hanging at the back of the table and brought out a small block of wood, a playing card and a pencil. "Do you think I can balance that pencil on the edge of that playing card?" He swept his hand across the table, making sure that it was clear of loose salt grains and placed the wooden block where the egg had been balanced. Into a groove in the top of the block he inserted the card, which stood there with its long edge horizontal.

"I'm guessing you can, but I haven't a clue how. If I didn't know you were a magician, I'd say it was impossible."

"It's not impossible, but it is more difficult than balancing an egg; it took me a few days practice to be sure of getting it nine times out of ten. But before I demonstrate, why don't you try it?"

Jean looked over the pencil from the eraser on the end held on with a metal band and at the other a point of lead. She weighed it in her hand suspecting a trick pencil, but it did not seem unevenly weighted. The shaft of the pencil was plain red with no markings that would give away where it would need to be balanced or grooves to locate it on the edge of the card. "Ok, I'll give it a go. What do I get if I succeed?"

"A spontaneous round of applause from the audience, for achieving in a few attempts what it took me nearly one hundreds attempts to achieve."

Jean took the pencil so that each end pressed into the pad of her forefinger and tried to guess where the middle was to rest it on the card's edge. She felt it was going to balance, but when she moved her fingers apart the eraser end stuck briefly and pulled the pencil out of balance, so it fell to the table. For her next attempt, Jean supported the ends from below, but with an equal lack of success.

Rather that bore the audience trying to work out another strategy for balancing a pencil, Jean admitted defeat and challenged Terry that he could do as he claimed and balance the pencil on the card. She also warned that she would be disappointed if his method involved a trick that subverted the implied target of the task.

Terry stood with his forefingers pointing forward and asked Jean to place the pencil so that it rested across the gap. Cautiously, Jean placed the pencil with the sharpened tip outside Terry's right finger and the ferrule holding the eraser overhanging his left. "Stand back please, because I need a bit of elbow room and I don't want you to accidentally interfere." He leans forward until he is supporting the pencil a millimetre or two above the edge of the card. "Then I slide my fingers together until they are very nearly touching either side of the card." As his fingers came together the pencil remained balanced on his fingertips, with approximately even amounts of pencil on either side. "Then I lower it onto the cards edge." With a look that denoted intense concentration he lowered his fingers the final few millimetres, until the pencil made contact with the cards edge. With further concentration he lowered his fingers until they were no longer supporting the pencil and stepped back.

As the pencil rested balanced on the card's edge, the audience began to applaud, but this did not last long, because after about a second the pencil tilted and slipped to the table.

"As you can see, I managed it, but it did not last for long; because it is also an unstable equilibrium. But if I had kept it balanced on my fingers, I could have kept it there with my fingers touching for as long as I could keep my fingers steady. For those that want to know how that works; it's to do with there being more friction at the nearer finger to the centre of gravity, so it pushes the pencil towards the further finger until the centre gets closer to the other finger."

"So that's another trick I can't show Penny, because you just showed her too." Jean glanced at the twisted form of Penny, looking almost comfortable, despite being clamped to a low platform in the splits and corkscrewed so that she as facing forward, having had her shoulders rotated three whole turns. Penny smiled back, because of the direction she was facing (towards the audience) she could only see what Jean was being shown via a monitor Bob, the studio manager, had turned to face her. "I hope this is leading further than the trick with the egg did."

"Yes, I shall be using the basic principle to get you balanced," said Terry.

"So rest me on two bars and gradually push them together," Jean speculated.

"I wish it were that simple! The trouble is that a person isn't as smooth or even as a pencil. So we are going to lie you on a smooth board and then balance everything and then push the supports together until you a balanced on a very small area."

"That sounds ok, to me; so long as I stay up longer than the pencil. I don't fancy toppling off, because the balance is too precarious."

"It should alright, as long as you don't fidget too much. You'll end up balanced on an area of about eight square inches, which I hope you'll agree still a small part of your area."

"What are we waiting for then?" asked Jean.

"You wait here, while I get the last pieces and Bob unplugs himself, so he can help, because I can't do this single-handed."

A camera caught Bob's expression of shock and surprise; this was obviously an unexpected turn of events. He had a quick word with his superiors in the production booth before hanging up his headphones and joining Jean in the centre of the performance area. Moments later, Terry was back with five 2 inch timbers, a board big enough for Jean to lie on and a sword, with a round blade. He dropped his load, shook Bob's hand and requested the audience's appreciation for Bob, who had been keeping things running smoothly on the studio floor.

"Ok, Jean," said Terry, "your job, while we set up the balancing frame, is to lie on this board centrally enough that the board stops vibrating. You'll get the hang of it quickly, just move slightly towards the vibrating corner or edge and the vibrations will reduce, unless you go too far, in which case the other side will start to buzz. Don't ask me how it works; a friend of mine build it for me. He did say something about stress sensors in the feet, but I stopped listening after that."

Jean sat on the board and soon discovered the vibrations that indicated the direction and, by their force, how far off centre she was.

While Jean was settling herself on the board, Bob was helping Terry construct the balance frame.

First Terry took the spike with the handle and socketed it into a fitting in the shallow bowl of the brazier. He then accept one of the two shorter pieces of wood the Bob offered him. He briefly showed that there was a hole drilled centrally on one side which he put over the top of the spike; this piece was as long as the width of the board that Jean was positioning herself on; the two longer pieces were as long as the board.

The magician indicated to Bob that the long pieces were needed next. Once Bob had lifted them he accepted one and instructed that the other be balanced on the opposite end of the spike-supported piece and pointing out that there were pencil marks to line up to make the job easier.

The final short pieces were placed across the ends on the long pieces; Terry counted down to get the coordination right so that they did not become unbalanced.

Terry walked round the construction and smiled that it was good.

"One more task before I can let you go," he said to Bob, "We need to lift Jean onto the framework." Turning to Jean he asked, "Are you ready?"

"I think so," replied Jean.

Terry leant down and touched the board. "That feels like it's within limits. You should be OK, but I'll remind you not to move more than a fraction of an inch; and definitely don't make any sudden moves."

"Bob, lift that end!" Terry instructed, indicating that Bob got the feet end of the board. "On the count of three."

Soon Jean was hoist into the air and the men chatter between themselves as the coordinated the placement of the board on top of the frame of loose timbers they had constructed on top of the spike.

Terry shook Bob's hand once more then allowed him to return to more usual duties; Bob seemed relieved.

"How is it up there, Jean?"

"Well, there's not much too see, but it doesn't feel too unsteady. What happens next?"

"That's easy, I move the supports closer together, so that your weight is not spread across such a big area. I'll start at your feet moving the side supports together. If you feel that things are get unsteady, tell me and we'll make sure to put thing back into balance. You might find getting a bit more relaxed will help, OK?"

"The last time I relaxed around you, you had me dropped off a sixteenth floor balcony. So forgive me if I'm having a little problem getting properly relaxed at the moment."

"Be fair! You didn't hit the ground," Terry protested.

"I guess that was a positive," admitted Jean.

While they had been talking, Terry had placed a finger on the outside of each of the long timbers and evenly began pressing them towards each other until the met under Jean's feet.

"Well, that's that end done. Time to do the other end." Terry placed a finger again the side of the board and gave a gentle push, causing Jean to rotate. This brought about a momentary squeal from the balanced volunteer.

"What d'ya do that for? I nearly moved and that would have been bad, right?"

"Yes, it would have been bad, but you didn't so it's alright. You on top of this setup is not the only thing being balanced. I'm also balancing speed with accuracy, because it is only a matter of time before you twitch or get a cramp or something like that, so I need to work as fast I can."

Again, he pushed the long side pieces together. The result was that Jean was on a board on two short timbers at the ends, which turn were held up in the middle by a pair of longer timbers down the centreline of the board and balanced on another short piece, which had a hole into which the spike had been socketed.

Stepping behind the apparatus, the magician announced, "And now for the trickier bit, by which I mean the bit where more care is required; not the bit where I trick you."

With exaggerated care he reached under the two longwise timbers and spread his arms so that he could reach the timbers supporting the ends of the board. With every indication of intense concentration he nudged the two lumps of wood towards each other.

It seemed that everyone in the studio held their breath and breathed a sigh of relief each time Terry pushed the blocks a step towards meeting under the middle of Jean's back.

Just before the final push, Jean asked, "Can you smell something singeing?"

This prompted members of the audience to notice that the spike that supported Jean in such a precarious position was glowing dull red and there was a wisp of smoke coming from the timber that it directly supported.

Terry ignored this comment and pushed the timber inward the final distance; a quiet impact was heard when they met. He stood back and did an assistant's 'Ta-Da' move. He seemed about to prepare for getting Jean from her balanced position when this happened at a fast and sudden pace.

It started with a quiet crack noise and the base piece of wood was sliding down the spike. The four pieces of wood above were deflected to the sides as the entire assembly with Jean on top dropped the four inches until the board hit the tip of the spike. The sound of the impact was lost in the noise made by the board cracking into two uneven parts and following its erstwhile supports towards the floor.

The noise was added to by Jean screaming her terror and then her shock as she fell onto the point of the spike that had been supporting her. By the time that the wood had finished clattering to the studio floor, even Jean and her fellow screamers in the audience had stopped. In the silence that followed Jean fainting, the onlookers saw her slack body partway down the spike with about four inches of the spike sticking out of her belly. It seemed fortunate that the fire in the brazier below had been extinguished by the violent air movements caused by the falling sections of board; if it had still alight Jean might have had flames licking at her hair and hem of her calf-length skirt.

Bob dropped his headphones and bolted in the wings. He returned with a first aid kit, but stopped two steps onto the stage as Terry made a 'stop!' gesture at him. If there had been any evidence of blood this would not have stopped him.

In the corner of the performance area, Penny was making an attempt to release herself to go to her friend's aid; she had got as far as releasing the stock at her neck and was working on unscrewing the nuts on the tops of the rods that prevented her unwinding.

Terry made a calming gesture towards the audience, then went to Jean. She was trying to work out for herself what had happened to her. "How are you feeling?" he asked.

"I don't know. What just happened? I can feel something poking me in my back. Why am I looking at you upside-down?" Jean moved her hands cautiously, not sure if she still needed to maintain her balance; soon discovered that she did not. Her hand went to the point in her back where she felt the hard pressure. She found the vertical steel that pressed there. "Was this a sneaky way to get me balanced on the sword's tip?" Terry shook his head. "Then what?" She sensed that she was more securely balanced than before. Jean's hands flew to her belly and found the four inches of spike sticking out there. "I fell onto the spike and got skewered?" The magician nodded. "What are you doing about it?"

"Luckily, you still have the residue of the hypnosis from that night so I can levitate you. If you had not you might have gone all the way down the sword. The problem is that I need you in a rigid and level posture before I can do much more than hold you up a bit. Do you think you can do that?"

"I'll try."

She tried, while Terry put on a voice and said, "Do or not do, there is no try."

Jean was soon fully horizontal on the sword with a lot less effort than she had anticipated. She could feel the tension in her front and legs, but it was not as much as she had feared; she suspected that the magician was helping her somehow.

"Very good! Just hold it there for a moment." The magician stepped forward and handling it with a cloth from his Jean's pocket made an adjustment to the sword's handle. Jean felt this as a click up the spike through her belly.

Soon after it became noticeable that Jean was moving higher, but the amount of spike sticking out of her belly did not seem to be reducing; this was confirmed when the sword hilt was lifted clear of the bowl of the brazier. Terry took the opportunity to move the brazier out from under the floating and still skewered Jean.

"Try relaxing a bit," suggested the magician. Jean relaxed quite a bit, but found that last bit was impossible to reach. The audience could tell that she had relaxed, because instead of appearing to be fighting to remain rigid, she was in a posture more reminiscent of lying on an invisible bed except that her mid-length brown hair dangled from the back of her head. Terry put his hand on the hilt and pulled.

"That felt odd. What are you doing down there?" Jean had felt the pull in her belly.

"You must have very strong abdominal muscles, Jean; they are holding onto the spike."

"What can I say? I work out a bit. Is that a problem?"

"Only in that I had intended to pull out the spike then float you down; now have to do it the other way round."

"Oh." Jean wondered if that was really a problem; she felt very slight discomfort from the spike seeming to be stuck in her flesh and feeling that she was supporting its weight, but what was supporting her. For a moment the thought that, at least this time, she was just a few feet above the ground, instead of over one hundred, was a relief, until she remembered a friend who did sky-diving telling her that if your parachute failed, it was not the fall that killed but hitting the ground at speed; she had also pointed out the phrase 'terminal velocity' is not use unadvisedly.

Jean sudden returned from her introspection, prompted by a feeling of sideways pressure.

Terry had hold of the handle of the sword, which he found to be still very warm from the time it had recently socketed into the brazier. After a few experiment movements, he put his other hand to the hilt. He carefully tilted the sword and the impaled Jean; this seemed to take a lot of concentration, which it did, because while holding someone up with levitation is relatively simple, maintaining the support while moving them with another force is much more problematic. At one point, during the rotation to the vertical, Jean felt the was a moment when she was not only being impaled by the sword, but supported by it too, which strained her abdominal muscles and impaired her attempt at remaining relaxed.

Moments after reaching the vertical, Jean felt the floor under her feet. Her instinct was to turn and hug the magician, but his hold on the sword prevented that. As a second thought she realised that if she had been able to hug him, she would also stab him with the sharp end of the sword.

Terry gave the sword an experimental tug, in the hope that the change of orientation had been sufficient to allow him to extract the blade; it was not. He picked up the cloth he had used to shield his hand from the heat as he unsocketted the sword from brazier and lifting his foot. With the foot covered he placed it against Jean's back and instructed her to try walking off the end of the blade while he tried to help her by pulling the sword and pushing her. This tactic seemed be effective.

The instant the sword was no longer protruding from Jean's belly, Penny rushed into shot and hugged her friend. She was asking a flurry of contradictory questions.

"I think I'm ok now, Penny, but I'm still too shocked to tell if I enjoyed it, but I have a sneaking feeling that I did and I'll realise that in a little while; probably after a stiff drink."

Terry despite his evident surprise that Penny had escaped from the twister, he lead his two volunteers in a bow and returned them to the audience.

After the show, as they were leaving the studio, someone stopped them and hand them what he said was a thank you from Terry. This turned out to be a voucher for the 'stiff drink' that Jean had mentioned.