Magic Short 25 - A Tank

Hugh was surprised when Kendra volunteered, especially as the magicienne, Marilyn, had specified that the illusion required a bit of courage and fortitude from the volunteer. Kendra was not normally courageous, and she really liked her comforts. Hugh suspected that his sister was using the excuse of her going on stage to try to arrange a date for her single brother. While Hugh liked the look of Marilyn in that white satin dress, he was not looking for another entanglement provided by his sister; the last one had proved to be a psycho.

Kendra's squeals of 'pick me!' and energetic waving, did the job of attracting Marilyn's attention. Marilyn asked if the man beside her was with her, to which she answered, 'Yes'.

"I think you'll be just perfect and bring the man with you, partly to give you moral support and partly to help me out with a couple of heavy things that will need doing."

Kendra turned to Hugh and whispered, "I think she might fancy you, she always did when we were at school together. Don't muck it up!"

Hugh did not remember anyone from Kendra's year at school that he would have thought could have become the blonde bombshell on the stage. He was unable to consider it any further, because Kendra was pulling on his hand, to get him moving.

Kendra and Hugh arrived on stage with a minimum of toes trodden on to get to the aisle. Marilyn had noticed that Hugh was less than totally willing to be there. "Introduce yourself and the man you dragged along with you."

Kendra proceeded with her public service announcement. "I'm Kendra and this is my brother, Hugh; he's single at the moment."

"And have we ever met before?" Marilyn asked.

"Of course we have, Mary; we went to school together, but I haven't seen you since."

Both Marilyn and Hugh stood back in shock. Marilyn to try to recognise her school friend and Hugh to appreciate how Mary, Kendra's science geek friend, had blossomed to become the magicienne fatale, Marilyn, he saw before him.

"While it would be good to catch up, we'll have to leave that 'til after. Can you confirm for the audience that we have not arranged anything beforehand?"

Kendra piped up again. "The last I heard from Mary, sorry, Marilyn, was that she had got a job in a lab somewhere a bit north of London. I haven't seen or heard from her since."

"Good, then we can get started with the thing you have volunteered for." Behind them the curtain swished open. The stage was set with two items; on the left was a cuboid frame about three feet square and seven tall, held above the stage on four foot legs. On the other side was a glass-walled tank of water of about the same dimensions, except that the seven foot dimension was horizontal.

"Now is the time for you to show some courage, Kendra. I need you to change into this swimsuit." Marilyn held up a golden piece of fabric on a hanger that one of her assistants had handed to her. The golden cloth was dotted with gold sequins which flashed under the stage lighting.

Kendra accepted the costume and made a move to follow the assistant backstage. Marilyn put a hand on her shoulder. "No, we can't have you going backstage just yet; you might learn some of my secrets. Besides, we don't want our audience to think you were given instructions that they don't know about."

"But you can't expect me to change here?" protested Kendra.

"I did say that a little courage was required." Marilyn paused to let that sink in, before she let Kendra off the hook. "That's why I've provided a changing cubicle." She indicated the raised frame.

Kendra voiced what most of the audience were thinking. "That doesn't look much like a changing cubicle. Why is it up there? and how would I get up there? Because in this dress, I'm hardly going to climb."

"Why it does not look like a changing cubicle at the moment and why it is up there are both to do with proving to the audience that you are not being given any instructions. The changing room is isolated from all directions so that people can see if anyone tries to get at you. And the walls, which are roller-blinds are up, so that everyone can see that there is no-one there already. That way everyone knows you are up there alone and you can't get away without being seen either."

Two stagehands enter carrying an item each. The first had a ladder with slanting steps between two bars, which he slots into some sockets in the side of the cabinet's base making the steps flat.

"To get you up there we have these steps; thanks, Bill. And Ben has a light so you can see what you're doing and we can too." The second stagehand lifted up two crossed bars with a lamp at their intersection and hung them on the back of the frame.

"So, you want me to go up those steps, pull down the blinds and change into this."

"Yes, but probably best if you take those shoes off first; those steps are a bit narrow to be easily navigated in heels. I'm sure Hugh will look after them for you."

Kendra pulled her heels from her feet and handed them to Hugh. Hugh blushed as she whispered, "Now's your chance to talk to her." Kendra cautiously walked up the ladder, but became more confident as she discovered that the structure was firmer that it looked. "What do I do now?"

"Pull down the blinds, starting with the back one and then the sides and finally the front. Once you are hidden from the public gaze, I'll turn on the light and you'll cast a shadow on the front blind, so the audience can see that you are still there and not being given any instruction about what is going to happen next."

The blinds got pulled down and the light switched on so that Kendra cast a shadow on the front blind. The audience watched as Kendra unzipped her dress and slid it down. She stood there for a moment with the removed dress in hand. "Um, there's nowhere to hang this."

"That's ok," reassured the magicienne, "Hand it out here and I'll get Hugh to hold onto it for you." She stepped halfway up the ladder to accept the dress and passed it down to Hugh.

"Do I have to take my underwear off?" queried Kendra.

"Yes, everything must go. You don't want to spoil the lines of the swimsuit, do you?"

With evident reluctance Kendra passed out bra, tights and panties. The silhouette on the blind hurriedly pulled the swimsuit up its form. Kendra stepped out onto the ladder only to be shooed back into the cubicle under the excuse that she needed to get herself properly adjusted in the golden garment, so that she was decent.

While Kendra could be seen adjusting suit on her body, an assistant arrived with a wine glass full of water and handed it to Marilyn. The magicienne said, "Kendra, please stand still for a moment."

The shadow cast on the blind by Kendra stood with hands on hips, then there was a cry of puzzlement that coincided with the shadow shrinking. Marilyn held the glass under the centre of the changing cubicle and as Kendra's shadow disappeared there was a plink sound as a goldfish dropped into the glass. Then the catches on all the blinds making up the cubicle released and there was quickly nothing more than a frame on legs.

Marilyn lifted the glass with the small goldfish in to the audience, almost in the manner of a toast. "We can't keep her in here," she remarked. She took a few steps and tipped the glass and its occupant into the large tank of water.

Marilyn turned to Hugh who seemed perplexed by the situation. "Do you believe I just turned your sister into a goldfish? When we were at school, I wouldn't have dared, even if I had known how."

Hugh was not sure how to take the question; did the magician want to know whether he thought what he thought he had seen had happened, or was she asking for an assessment of her courage in did that to his sister? "It does look like that's what you've done," he said, thinking it was a valid, if vague, answer to both versions of the question.

"Now that we have fishy Kendra in the tank, its time to put the lid on it. Please give me a hand, because the lid is heavy and needs screwing down properly so that it does not get water everywhere when we move it. Kathy will take care of Kendra's clothes while you busy."

Between them, Marilyn and Hugh lifted the lid that had be hanging down the back of the tank until it dropped, sealing the tank with a metal rim that embedded itself in the foam-rubber seal on the top edge. They then put wing-nuts on the studs of screw-thread that poked through the lid in various places along the rim.

"Please tell the audience what's in the tank, because you are in a better position to see anything that they may not be able to see."

"Um, I guess what you want me to say is, there's nothing in the tank except a goldfish, which you say is my sister, and a lot of water."

"That's exactly what I want you to say (you'd be amazed at the number of people that forget to mention the nearly two tons of water), but I'm not going to force you, if you don't believe it."

"There's definitely only a goldfish in a lot water; I think I'll reserve judgement on whether that fish is my sister."

Two assistants entered carrying a cloth between them, which they placed on the floor in front of the tank, before going again.

"Alright, you go to that end and when I say, pick up the corner with the loop on it and we'll drag this cloth over the tank until it comes off the back. Ok?" Hugh nodded that he was ok with that. "Go!" the magicienne shouted.

Slightly taken by surprised, Hugh hurriedly grabbed the handle on the corner of the cloth and lifted it over the front corner of the tank, then dragged it upstage, until Marilyn said, "Stop!" This coincided with a burst of applauds from the audience.

Hugh looked about to see what had caused this reaction. His jaw dropped when he saw Kendra in the tank wearing the golden swimsuit.

Kendra came back to knowing herself; the last she remembered was standing in the changing cubicle; and now she was lying down and the world seemed thicker around her. She opened her mouth to asked what was going on, but felt her mouth fill with water. She quickly discovered that she was in a glass tank of water and could not find any air or way out. In her panic she beat ineffectively on the thick glass walls of the tank until she saw Marilyn looking in with a finger to her lips, indicating that she should be quiet and still. She felt calmed that Marilyn was there and taking charge and saw the purpose in being stiller to conserve what little oxygen she had left. Having had a moment to reflect, she felt that she had probably used her limited supply of air more than three times over by thrashing about looking for something to breathe and a way out; this led her to the conclusion that she was not going to drown while sealed in this box of water.

Once Kendra had calmed, Marilyn drew Hugh's attention to a set of wire cables that was dangling above the end of the tank nearest Kendra's head. She had Hugh attached the hooks on the ends of the cables to eye-bolts on the end of the tank. The cables were then winched up pulling the tank with it. With some guidance from Marilyn and Hugh the tank hung vertically above the stage. A stagehand brought out a three foot square frame on wheels out and took away the three by seven frame that had supported the tank in its horizontal position. With the glass box lowered onto the new supporting frame, Kendra stood in the tank facing the audience through what had once been the lid, still secured by the many wing-nuts around the rim.

"Now the trick is to get her out, without drowning the stage in the process."

"Wouldn't it have been easier to have undone the bolts and opened the lid, before you up-ended the tank?"

"Of course it would, but it would hardly have been magical would it? Besides, since when have magicians ever done things the easy way?"

"Wasn't turning my sister into a goldfish and back (or making her disappear and reappear) enough magic?"

Marilyn enlisted the help of the audience in deciding that Kendra should be extracted from the tank by magical means.

At about the time that the spectators had decided, Kathy, the assistant, handed Marilyn a marker, a reel of tape and a rectangular frame with some stretchy black fabric over it. Marilyn had Hugh mark the positions of the corners as she held the black rectangle against the cabinet. She then took it away and had him sign across the glass. Using the reel of tape the magicienne outlined the rectangle on the glass lid (now front face) of the box.

When this preparation was finished, Kendra was standing with her arms crossed looking bored, but still in nothing but the golden swimsuit.

"Now that that's done, Kendra can get out of the box by pushing through the section of glass cover by the frame which will be held in place by the attraction between the metal frame and the magnetic tape." Kathy was at Marilyn's elbow again, ready to take away the remains to the tape and the marker, exchanging them for a small white board and red marker. "We'll have Hugh read the words I write on the whiteboard to give instructions to Kendra, so that you don't get the impression that I'm cheating by telling Kendra how to do this." She quickly wrote a few words.

"Push hand through frame!" read Hugh, before Marilyn placed the frame against the rectangle of tape where it stuck, then showed the board to Kendra, then wiping the board clean.

Around the edge of the frame, which about half the size of the face of the tank in both directions, the audience could see Kendra move and her hair floating around her head. Then the fabric over the frame began to bulge. After about ten seconds, the pressure of whatever was making the bulge caused the frame to pop off the tank and clatter to the stage floor.

It took the audience and Hugh a little while to realise that Kendra's right hand was sticking out of the tank through the glass, but the water was not leaking out. Kendra looked amazed but also a bit uncomfortable with her lower forearm gripped by the hole in the glass that it was plugging.

Marilyn scribbled 'OK?' on the whiteboard, which Hugh read to the audience. Kendra responded by making a fist and raising her thumb. A wipe later and Hugh told the audience that Kendra was being instructed to put her foot through when the frame was back in place.

Marilyn opened a gap in the fabric and threaded it over the exposed hand before aligning the frame with the oblong outline of magnetic tape. Soon, there was another bilge in the fabric, but this time lower down. This bulge moved about a bit, hunting to find a gap in the fabric, but instead the frame fell from the glass again.

The magicienne picked up the frame, to allow the spectators time to not only realise that that Kendra's foot and part of her lower leg were through the glass, but also that foot and lower leg had a shoe and hosiery on that did not continue up the rest of the leg that was still inside the tank of water.

The frame was threaded over the exposed foot and hand and the instruction to continue slowly was shown to the volunteer and relayed to the audience by Hugh. Marilyn wrote 'Stop!' on the white board and flashed it at Kendra and Hugh when she had her hip and first shoulder out through the stretchy fabric of the frame. Marilyn pulled off the frame and then with Hugh's help turned the tank so that the area where the frame's magnetic tape was became the side. Kendra faced the audience with the part outside the tank in a dress, but the part inside the tank still wearing nothing but the golden swimsuit.

They turned the lid back to facing the audience and instructed Kendra to continue slowly. After about another minute Kendra was standing outside the tank fully dressed and dry. She was asked to stand aside and Hugh was asked to help cover the tank with the cloth that had been used to cover Kendra's transformation from goldfish and back to woman.

The cloth, on the first attempt, did not stay over the tank for long because Marilyn flicked it off again. Inside the tank was the golden swimsuit, floating as if being worn by an invisible water woman. The magician threw the cloth back up in front of the tank and when it fell the swimsuit appeared to be a formation of goldfish that immediately scattered to fill the tank.

The curtain closed and Marilyn thanked Hugh and Kendra for their help and invited them backstage after the show to catch up.