Edwina: Floating

I am an exhibitionist of an unusual sort; I like to show off and be observed, but not in the usual sexual and nude connotations of the word. I like to show off in unusual costumes and doing out of the ordinary things in public. Since I met Callum, I have put myself into the public eye in some impossible situations and really enjoyed it.

I met Callum one Saturday, outside the theatre, while I was wearing my centaur costume, and handing out flyers for the upcoming production of The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, the group I was with was doing the next week. The theatre group was a perfect outlet for my form of exhibitionism; I got to be involved in publicity stunts and got to design, make and wear some costumes that suited my preference for not appearing normal.

I spotted him watching me as I clopped up to passers-by and handed them flyers. I occasionally had my photo taken and handed them a card requesting a copy of the photo.

He approached me and put out a hand. "You seem a natural at being a centaur," he complimented.

"I like being a centaur. You seem to like watching me be a centaur."

"Was I that obvious?"

"Not really, but when you are in a theatre group and a teacher, you get a feel for when people are paying attention." I pulled a flyer from the bundle and held it towards him.

"No thanks," he said, "I've already got a ticket. I just wondered if you'd like to become a centaur for real."

"What kind of pick-up line is that?"

"One I hope to be able to make good on one day, but for the moment it was a bit of a feeble attempt to sound interesting."

"What makes you think that you could make a real centaur. This costume took me a long time to perfect; I wish I had the technical know-how to have the back legs with driven mechanics, but there's only so much I can do with my skills."

"That costume is spectacular and the way the back legs move in synch with your front legs is pretty good. How about when you get off from handing out advertising, we have a meal and discuss the possibility of you becoming a centaur for real; even if it would have to be temporary. Or how about tomorrow lunchtime at that restaurant."

"Ok, pal, you got a date, tomorrow, here. And we'll see if your follow-up is as good as your opening."

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I spent most of that evening seeing what I could come up with as an outfit that would attract attention without ruining the date. I also wanted to present him with a challenge to retain any form of normal conversation in the face of my costume.

After much vacillating I settled on the Ice Queen costume with the six inch stilts on my feet to make me appear taller without being too impractical for getting through doorways, particularly with the six inch tall crystal covered crown on my head. I may be only five foot four, but I have learnt to duck through doorways, when I wear a tall costume.

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I arrived at the town hall car park a little before noon, to give myself time to put on the stilts and crown, both of which are completely impractical for driving. As the church clock began to strike the opposite of the witching hour, I strode with my elongated stride to where I hoped he would be waiting.

As I entered the square where the previous day I had been a centaur, I saw him stand up from a bench, then do a double-take; not entirely surprising. Yesterday I had appeared to be five foot eight, because of the hooves, and brunette, which is my natural colour, but enhanced with extra tresses to give the impression of a mane down my back. Today I was a six foot blonde in a white satin gown wearing a crown that flashed and sparkled in the clear light of this February day.

He looked a little uncertain if he had stood for the wrong woman, so I waved.

We met in the middle of the square, where nearly every gaze checked what they were seeing and then checked again to see that they had got it right; exactly the effect I like to have.

I waited for him to greet me, to see how he was reacting to my transformation. I was thinking that it had better be good, because he had the time it took him to cross the square to think of something.

"Wow! You look great! Do you go everywhere in costume?" A greeting that would earn him the offer of going dutch at the end of the meal, if we made it that far.

"Thank you," I said in answer to the first part. "I go everywhere in costume, although my work costume is quite low-key. I thought that as I was being taken to lunch I would pull out a few stops."

"The table is booked for about half past, I hope that's not a problem. The bench where I was sitting seems clean enough if you want to sit. If not we can stroll a couple of circuits."

I opted for strolling, partly because the practicality of sitting while wearing stilts strapped to your calves and rising again would be difficult. It also meant that I was more on view to anyone who wanted to see more details of the spectacle I presented.

"I'm sorry, but I realised that I never introduced myself. My name is Callum."

"No problem, Callum, I didn't introduce myself either. I'm Edwina."

"Edwina, nice name and not all that common. Forgive the curiosity, but you mentioned a work costume, so if it isn't impolite, what do you do for work that needs a costume?"

"If I tell you the costume, maybe you can tell me what my job is." He made a noise I took as accepting the challenge of identifying my profession from my professional attire. "Ok, at work I wear a blouse, cardigan, calf-length skirt and sensible flat shoes, usually in a range of browns and creams."

"That's not what I expected," was his initial reaction. "That could be any job that does not require a uniform or safety gear, but you strike me as something more than a secretary."

"If I was a secretary, I would probably feel insulted, but actually I teach maths."

"If I'd had a teacher like you, I would have probably paid more attention."

"Ok, now that you know what I do; what do you do?"

"I'll tell once we are seated. I think it's time to claim our table."

He was a gentleman, in that he held the door for me, while I ducked the excess inches of my augmented height under the lintel. The expression on the waiter's face was a picture of uncertainty, but one of the funniest I had seen in a long time; I smiled at him, because the alternative would have been to laugh, which would have spoiled the picture.

Naturally it took a little trouble to get seated at our table, but we soon ordered our Sunday lunches.

"Ok, enough of the mystery. What do you do, work-wise?" I asked, thinking this had better be good after the suspense you've created.

"Well, the short answer is that I'm an artist of sorts."

"Of sorts?" I queried.

"I'm a magician artist." This was a statement. I was left with the choice of taking it at face value and moving on to this being a dinner date; or to follow it up and delve into what that meant.

"Ok? What is a 'magician artist'? Is it a fancy way of saying you're a magician or is something else?"

"What I do is create temporary art installations using a combination of magic, technology and the principles of illusion."

"Nice summary, but it does not tell me anything."

"Well, I started out making floating tap water features." He saw that I was clueless and added, "It's, in it's simplest terms, a sculpture of sorts where it appears that a tap is suspended over a bucket held up by nothing except the stream of water coming out of the tap."

"Ok?"

"I quickly discovered that there were videos on the internet on how to do this, so I branched out. My latest work was for a company making robotic arms. I got a pair of their arms performing the linking rings effect for an electrical exhibition. It was the centrepiece of their stand."

"I guess I'm meant be impressed."

"Most people are. And I like that my creations seem to absorb people's attention, but because I use real magic, they can only be temporary; if I move more than about a mile from an installation it stops working. And I usually need to be about, more closely involved, to allow public interaction with the work."

"That sounds like an interesting line of work. Does it pay the bills?"

"Actually, it does for as long as I can keep the projects rolling in. Making unique stuff for companies to showcase their products in new and unusual ways, pays well enough and I am gaining a international reputation for creativity that keeps me in work."

"When you first said 'magician', I had a vision of a guy in a shiny suit sawing a woman in half or pulling a rabbit from a top hat."

"Well, if I were to make you into a real centaur, like I mentioned when we met, I would need to cut you in half, but that is a project for another day."

"That sounds like you have some projects that you have to do first."

"Well, the thought I had was someone who can pull off a centaur outfit, with every appearance of enjoying it, might be up for taking part in one of my magical installations. And now that you have become the Ice Queen too, I know that it would not be beyond what you could cope with, if you wanted to do it."

"Was that a clumsy way of saying, 'Would you be my assistant?'?"

He paused to see if I was offended by the idea; I gave him a smile to say not. and awaited his reply.

"Yes and no. It depends what you mean by assistant? If you mean someone who helps a magician on a regular basis; no. But if you mean someone who experiences the magic first-hand, that would be yes.

"Like I said, I don't do magic shows, but I have projects that I would like to do that will require someone to be central to the installation. If you were willing and could get the time off required, I think you would be perfect to be in some of my art projects."

I thought for a few moments then the waiter arrived with our meals. We ate and talked about an assortment of topics, between short periods of companionable silence. He did not press me for a decision on whether I wanted to take part in any of his art-magic projects. I found the food good and the company pleasant.

At the end of the meal, I said, "I am interested in finding out about some of your art things, before I decide if I want to be involved."

He handed me a card. "You'll find some video of the stuff I've done. If you want to find out more about the possibility of taking part in a future project of mine, drop me an email and we can arrange for you to visit my workshop to discuss more details and answer any questions you might have."

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I checked out the website and saw several of Callum's magic-based projects. The one he had mentioned was more than a pair of robot arms going through the motions of the linking rings, it was interacting with some of the guests, so I could see why he needed to be present to supervise, even if I did not see Callum in the video. It certainly displayed the dexterity of the robot arms, which was the point.

I sent my email expressing my interest in being involved. The reply gave me details and a date. He postponed though, but when I saw the new video on the website it made sense. Some prince from Dubai had engaged him to organise the presentation of a gift for his son's birthday. The Prince's limousine was grabbed and put into a crusher and what emerged was a cubic metal plinth with a scale replica of the car, which was the present for the son. At the end of the party, the crushed car was covered with some cloth and then restored to its original pristine condition.

The re-invitation with its new date also asked that I come along in my 'work costume', because he wanted to know what he would be working with.

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Getting to Callum's workshop was simple enough, even if he lived more than half an hour away. I had imagined from the directions that he lived in some kind of mansion, but it looked more like a ranch and a cluster of barns. I parked next a row of four cars out front, where Callum greeted me and offered me lunch, which we had with another man that Callum introduced as his videographer, whose voice I recognised from the commentary on the videos; he was Paul.

After lunch, that Callum cooked, he took us on a tour of the barns, each of which had a purpose. I got to see some of the equipment that I had seen in the videos, I only saw one of the robot arms, but Callum said that getting one of the arms had been the fee for that demonstration, because the arms were worth many tens of thousands, but he would find it useful to have one about; it was now mounted on a set of tracks like a tank so that it could easily be moved to wherever it was needed.

The barns seemed to be divided into four purposes; a store for all the materials that he needed to build the stuff he needed to make, a workshop full of all sorts of machinery for manufacturing parts, a big empty space for constructing his creations and lastly a small building jam-packed with high-tech kit, where he designed his projects.

It seemed that this was the first time that Paul had been given the tour too. He said that he mostly worked from the plans that Callum sent him and the gut instinct of a videographer.

The first indication that this was more than another get-to-know-you date was when he asked me if I would change into an outfit and follow some simple instructions. I said, "Sure, why not?"

The outfit he handed me was very strange and like nothing I have ever worn before. It was a skin-tight all-over body suit with a pattern of black and white squares, with each black square having a pattern of green dots that seemed to be different on each square.

The first thing he asked me to do was stand on a turntable and close my eyes. As the table turned I could see short flashes of brightness through my eyelids. After a few turns he asked me to change my pose, but still keep my eyes closed. After the fifth posed, the turntable stopped and he said I could open my eyes.

"So what was that about?" I asked.

"I was getting your shape into the computer, so that I can design any projects you are involved in to fit you perfectly and now we'll move on to my makeshift motion-capture set-up, so that I can record how you move; that way anything I build with you in mind will be as comfortable as I can make it."

The next hour was spent inside a circle of cameras standing, twisting, walking and running on a tread-mill, and jumping.

During this period, Paul left to draw up plans for a behind-the-scenes video of Callum's first project with me.

After an early tea, I went home with a promise that he would be in touch in the next few weeks.

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It turned out to be five weeks before I heard from Callum, during which the The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe in which I was the centaur happened and got a good write-up in the local paper.

The email started by congratulating on my role in the play, but then went on to offer me starring role in one of Callum's projects.

A check of my diary told me that I had that weekend free. So I shot back a note asking what would be involved and if there would be rehearsals. The reply said that it would be a turn-up-on-the-day job, but to expect a call from Paul, who wanted to do an interview for the behind-the-scenes video.

The actual interview with Paul took place a few days before the event, but all I could tell him was that I was nervous and excited. Nervous, because I did not know what Callum had planned and excited because what few hints I had received let me know that I would be a focus of attention.

Paul also asked me about my history with costumes and special effects, he showed me pictures that Callum must have taken of me as a centaur and the Ice Queen. He asked why I did it.

"I guess I got hooked when I when to a costume party in a special effects costume. I had built it with the bits of help from my parents that any fourteen year needs and the compliments flowed like champagne. I went as a caged mermaid carried by a pirate."

It seemed that this description did not gel with him, so I showed him some pictures of that and some of my other costumes on my computer. He seemed highly impressed and asked why I had not taken up doing this for a living.

"I think if I had decided to my parents would have supported my decision, but would have been unable to help financially if it flopped. What I did was go to college and use the chance of evening classes at concessionary rates to broaden my skills that I could apply to my hobby. In sixth form I discovered that I was good at maths and had a talent for helping people learn it, so, I went to university and then onto teaching college where I learnt about the amateur dramatics as an outlet for my talent and desire to appear unusual. Sometimes I think that theatre talents were the added edge I needed to get the job at the school."

There was a little more chat about what I thought about magic and illusion, Callum and what I had seen of his work, then Paul left, saying that he would see me at the weekend.

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Friday night was a heavy night of marking and I overslept Saturday morning, which meant I could not do my usual shopping expedition and would have to whizz round the supermarket on the way home from work on Monday.

I arrived at Callum's place at appointed hour with an overnight bag with three changes of clothes, two casual and one formal, and a make-up case that is the envy of the make-up people at the various amdrams I am a member of. Hidden inside these two cases were a couple of things that I knew would be useful, if the hinted at endurance of the event was likely to be a problem.

After an early lunch with Callum and Paul, we set off. I was a passenger in the box-van that contained the equipment and Paul hurried off in his car loaded with his videography equipment. While we drove for about three hours, Callum briefed me on what to expect, saying that he had picked the simplest project he could think of for his first project with a person in and for me as the person in the project. He told me that once I was in place it would be a case of waiting for the guests to go home, so that they could get me back out, without spoiling the illusion. I would not be interacting with anybody during my time on display, but I would be a centre of attention.

The party, where I was to be a featured item, was to last from about eight to gone midnight and I was going to be on display for all that time. This forced me to ask about bathroom and meal breaks, only to be told that there would be none. I was glad that I had come prepared.

We finally arrived at the place where I was to be exhibited. It was a big house on a private estate. We were directed to where Callum was supposed to set up. When we got there, he began enlisting the help of people helping set-up things for the party to unload his van. He handed me a dress hanger, saying my costume, wig and make-up instructions were in there and that I should be back in an hour or so to be installing in the magic.

Finding somewhere to change proved be less hassle than I had expected, once I found someone to point me in the right general direction. The dressing rooms were crowded with people changing into an assortment of characters from assorted kid's TV shows and movies.

I found a relatively quiet corner to discover what my costume would be. It seemed that I was to be Snow White, so I had the dress, with the dark blue bodice, cream skirt, puffed sleeves and high white collar, some slippers and the black wig, which had the red hair ribbon tied in place. There were also a few pictures that were meant to help me get the make-up right.

I went to the toilet and fitted my catheter, that I use when I know that I won't get to have a pee-break for more than a few hours, before returning to change into the costume I had been supplied. I did my make-up with great care, knowing that a sloppy job would not do. With my travelling clothes tucked into the dress carrier, I trekked back to where I had last seen Callum; a walk that proved to me that this costume fitted me better than my own clothes. For a moment I wondered how Callum had got my sizes, before remembering that he had laser scanned my body and probably had access to more of my measurements than I had and with greater accuracy.

I returned to find a tent at the site where the van had been parked and no sign of Callum. Paul was there, he videoed me approaching across the lawn.

"Wow! You make a great Snow White. Callum will be back in about ten minutes. How are you feeling about your first involvement in magic?"

"I think I'll be less nervous when I know exactly what it is, but I like the costume a lot; It's so comfortable, because it fits so well." I did a twirl on the lawn so that he could capture the dress in motion before the magic occurred. "It's just as well the skirt is so large, because it hides the catheter and bag, which I reckon I'll need if this party, or whatever, is going to go on as long he suggested and I won't get any toilet breaks. And I'll probably be hungry when we finish too."

"I don't think that he'd thought about that; it's just as well you have some experience in costumes."

"So, what's going to happen? And what's this tent for?"

"Callum tends build his things in tents so as not to give the game away. If I understand what he was muttering about when he left to park the van, he'll be installing you in the illusion inside the tent then covering you up for the big reveal and dismantling the tent and hiding it in the base."

Callum returned within the promised ten minutes and told me that I was 'wearing the costume perfectly'. I was not sure what to make of the wording.

He opened the tent and took me inside. In the centre of the tent was a large glass box similar to the one I remember from the Disney movie, but quite a bit taller. The base with 'Snow White' carved around it was held above a thick platform on the shoulders of six carvings of the dwarves with the seventh dwarf, presumably Sleepy, lying on the platform. Looking into the casket, I discovered that the floor was also glass.

Callum pressed a hidden button and the sheet of glass nearest us rose upward lifted by an unseen mechanism. "Alright, it's time for you to get in and get comfortable, then you'll have maybe an hour to get used to the magic before we unveil you as the centrepiece you are."

Callum helped me climb into the box and lie down and fussed with the skirts, before I told him that I would sort them out in the process of getting comfortable. I also expressed my doubt that I could 'get comfortable' on a glass sheet.

He stood back and the side returned to its former position, isolating me in the box; I did not even know if there was some way to escape without assistance. I resolved to hope for the best this time and bring it up in the debrief, or whatever discussion followed; after all, he was as new to this as I was.

"Alright. You're looking good already and we'll have you in position in a few minutes, then you can get used to it. If you can actually go to sleep that would be good, but relaxed, with your eyes closed and being Snow White waiting for your prince, would be good too." Callum's voice came from an invisible speaker somewhere in the frame near my head.

I tried to say something, but got interrupted. "I'm sorry, I can't hear you; I should have thought of that. Just relax."

Usually being told to relax has the opposite effect on me, especially if it is a student telling me to relax about them not getting homework in, they don't seem to realise is that their indolence will likely lead to a harder life for them, which they will tell me is their concern, because they have a plan, but their academic performance also impacts on my workplace performance scores and thus my pay grade.

This time being told to relax actually relaxed me. I let my body go limp in the hope that it would make six plus hours lying on a glass sheet less uncomfortable. My first thought was that it was already surprisingly comfortable, then I realised that I could not feel the glass against my back.

I opened my eyes to see what was happening and could not immediately tell. I was still in the glass box, but did it seem smaller?

The voice came out of the speaker. "Please try to relax better than that. Or the levitation will become a problem, because it will take me a lot more energy to keep it, and you, up. Try to keep your mind off of it. And, of course, the more you relax and get used to floating in the middle of the casket, the easier it will be for both of us."

A little exploration with a hand told me that I was really floating a few inches above the glass plate that I had been lying on a few minutes before. The fact that this situation seemed to sustain itself and as I groped behind my back, gradually increasing the air gap between me and the floor of the box, helped me relax, causing me to feel more comfortable with my situation and helping me relax more.

I tried to remember Snow White's pose in the casket and settled for resting my hands lightly on my hips. I considered crossing my arms across my chest and concluded that that would look silly without a bouquet of flowers and obscure too much of the dress. Callum and Paul then draped a crimson cloth over the casket making it dark in the box, except for the little light that filtered under the cloth's edge and up through the base of the box.

Once I got used to the concept of floating inside a glass box, it was easy to relax and let my mind wander. The first few minutes I could hear Callum deconstructing the tent that had hidden my installation in the box. His voice came again. "We'll leave you to get used to floating in a box, but we'll warn you when it comes to your grand unveiling. That'll be in an hour or so."

The hour passed remarkably quickly; with nothing better to do, I relaxed into whatever was holding me up and thought about some of my costume projects that had been on the back burner for a long time and wondered if Callum's workshop had the tools that would allow me to finish them.

I started slightly when the speaker crackled into life again. "Your unveiling will be some time in the next five to ten minutes. I can't more precise, because it seems that our host has decided to use the occasion to deliver some life-advice to his son. Once the cover is off, you'll be on display until the end of the party, please try to keep your eyes shut for most of that time, because you are supposed to be in a state of suspended animation until your prince comes."

After a while the cover draped over the box came off and it was lot brighter. I thought I heard some sounds that might have been surprise and awe, but it was difficult to tell, being sealed in a glass box.

I do not know how but the box seemed to be air-conditioned so that the temperature remained pleasant despite the flood light directed at me, and my breathing did not fog the glass.

For a short while, I wondered if I should do something, before I realised that doing something was not the thing to do. My breathing and tiny movements that my body naturally made to keep me comfortable, would be enough to show the observers that I was a real and live woman suspended contact-free in a glass box wearing a gorgeous Snow White outfit.

Even without opening my eyes fully I knew I was being watched and occasionally glimpsed someone peering at my form close enough that their breath misted the glass. I enjoyed being observed, but must have drifted off into some kind of meditative state, because I returned to thinking about my costume projects and what I could to help Andrea, one of my slower students, to get the basics of the lessons the rest of the class had learnt, so she did not fall further behind.

Sometime after midnight, the speaker crackled. "Alright, time to get you out." I heard the side panel through which I had entered the box rise and then Callum reached in and lifted me from my resting place in the middle of the box and stepping back lowered me until my feet touched the ground, then helped me to stand upright. After lying there for several hours my muscles took nearly a minute to get used to supporting me, during which Callum patiently held me up. "How was that?" he asked.

"Different. Ask me again when I've had time to think about it." After a pause, I asked, "What happens now?"

"Well, we'll pack up the equipment into the van, while you go and change back into your normal clothes, then we go home."

"Will there be somewhere to eat, because I haven't eaten since lunch?"

"I sure we can find somewhere," Callum assured me.

I rushed off to use a toilet and empty the bag of pee strapped to my thigh. Back in my usual clothes I returned to find and empty patch where the casket had been and Callum waiting in the van.

On the way home we stopped at a motorway service area for a meal. It may not have been much, but it filled the hungry hole I was feeling. We got back to his place in the small hours of the morning and he offered me the use of a bed. In the morning, coffee and breakfast felt highly restoring.

"Is Paul about?" I asked. "Does want to interview me for that behind the scenes video he's making?"

"He'll be in touch with you about that, once he's edited the raw footage he took last night and posted it on the web site."

"I look forward to seeing that. Now I ought to be getting home, because lessons don't plan themselves."

"Ok. But before you go there's two things I need to know. The first is would you be willing to take part in something like that again?"

"I don't see why not. Maybe. But I think I want to be more involved in the planning, because you seemed to have forgotten some of the human things the someone in your illusion needs. And if at all possible I'd like to do something a bit more active and perhaps interactive; while it was nice to have a bit of time out, I much to prefer to act with a costume. I know what you said about starting out easy, well, with a bit of preparation, I think I'm ready for something less passive."

I could see his eyes almost light up with the excitement to have a potential collaborator.

"You had another question?" I asked, because he seemed on the verge of running off to his design workshop to plan future adventures.

"Oh yes! How do I pay you for your part in this project?"

"Pay? Nobody mentioned payment, did they?"

"No, but part of the fee from the client was earmarked to pay for your part in the illusion."

"I was only doing it, for the experience of it. How much are we talking about?"

He told me and my jaw dropped, it was nearly a month's salary.

"I can't take that lying there for a few hours."

"You more than earned it."

"And it'll complicate things; maybe you can keep it and use it to pay for work and materials towards helping me finish some costume projects that I've had lying around awaiting the opportunity to complete them."

"Sounds good to me. It'll be good to see some of those machines get some proper use."

We chatted for a bit more, when I was ready to leave, I said, "Call me when you have another project you need a person on, or if you are ready to make me a centaur."