I could not believe it when Molly volunteered for the magician. It might not have been a problem for me if she had not dragged me along to be her 'plus one' volunteer. I will admit that he had been good at the smallish stuff you would normally see on Buskers' Square. The Dagger head box trick with a volunteer had been well presented and the volunteer did not seem to have a clue what had happened to her until she got back to the her friends who shared the pictures they had snapped on their phones. The ZigZag lady had been a little dull, even if his assistant had been pretty; she seemed to have more fun with the rings illusion.

He announced that he had one final illusion to present and would prefer to use a volunteer with the help of the friend of the volunteer rather than his assistant and someone he dragged from the audience. After an awkward moment when it seemed that nobody was going to step up, Molly took pity on him and volunteered herself and me as her friend.

It took a few moments to get to the front of the crowd and duck under tape strung from several large traffic cones to get to the performance area. Once there Molly introduce herself, then introduced me. During the introductions, Clare, the magician's assistant, wheeled a mid-thigh high table behind us and locked the wheels.

Molly noticed this and asked if William, the magician, was planning to cut her in half. He replied that he intent to make her vanish and then reappear in a way never before seen. I can't fathom why she seemed alright with this, but then Molly likes her moments in the spotlight, but I am a lot less smitten with being the centre of attention.

“We'll start by getting Molly ready to be vanished. This will involve you getting on the table, so that the audience know that you can't escape. But also you'll need to take your shoes off, because while vanishing shoes is easy, getting them back is harder work than you'll ever imagine.”

I assisted in boosting Molly to sit on the edge of the table, which seemed to be a few millimetres thick on square steel legs at each corner. Clare took charge of Molly's shoes, saying that I would need my hands free to help the magician preparing Molly to be vanished. The next few minutes were spent securing Molly to the table using 'U'-bolts over her ankles, wrists and neck which threaded through holes in the table and were held in place by wing nuts. Her waist was held in place  by a metal strap the ends of which fed through holes and were bolted in place. The magician explained all this restraining as 'stuff that would make the Molly's disappearance more spectacular'.

Next he began clipping a sheet of the newspaper that he had used for the torn and restored newspaper routine, to the end of the table near her feet and then folded it over to cover her feet. The next three sheets covered the lower legs, thighs and hips.

“Now for a bit of bad news,” said the magician. “I'm afraid that your outer clothes will be as difficult to bring back as your shoes. So rather than lose them where vanished people go, I shall be removing them before you go; Clare will look after them. I didn't tell you before, because I did not want to lose you and to spare you the embarrassment of undressing in front of all these people.”

He slipped his hand under the edge of the newspaper over Molly's hips and pulled out her short denim skirt. After a shocked gasp from Molly and the audience, they applauded.

“Of course, we don't want you to come back in just your underwear, either. So here's a leotard to put on while you are vanished.” The magician showed the garment his assistant had handed to him to the audience and then tucked it under the edge of the newspaper. Further sheets of paper were clipped to the table to cover Molly's belly, chest and shoulders, before the magician pulled Molly's top from under them.

“Alright, Molly,” the magician said as he clipped the final sheet of paper to the head edge of the table. “Once we have covered your face, we will begin a short count-down and then you'll disappear. Please remember to put on the leotard while you are vanished and we'll see you on the other side.”

The magician covered her face and clipped the side of the paper to the table and then began a countdown from five. While he counted, Clare was spraying the paper that cover Molly with something. It took me too long to recognise the distinctive pear aroma of acetone, because by the time I had identified the odour, the magician had reached one and applied the flame of a small lighter to the corner of Molly's paper covering.

I took a step forward to see what I could do about rescuing Molly, but the heat was too intense and I had to retreat again. I did hear Molly make an 'oo' sound, as if she was discovering a new and pleasant sensation; I hoped this was a good thing.

Flame receded as rapidly as they had appeared. The newspaper was gone and so was Molly, but there was a skeleton left on the table.

The magician looked a bit worried, but I could not tell if he was genuinely worried or acting it. “Molly was supposed to vanish completely, but she seems to have left her skeleton behind. You can confirm that that is Molly's skeleton?”

I looked at the skeleton, the realised that it was ridiculous to try and identify someone's skeleton, so I said so; although I did notice the evidence of a healed break that corresponded to where Molly had broken her arm when we were kids.

“I think we had better break the skeleton, because it's going to be impossible to bring her back onto it as it is.”

The three of us were quickly equipped with hammers and broke the skeleton down into a pile of ash and bone shards. Clare was given the task of transferring the debris to a bag, while I was given the job of finding a place for Molly to reappear. The first place I chose was a spot about half way between where the table was and the audience. The magician said that this was hardly a challenge and suggested I find somewhere else.

I eventually chose a spot in the centre of the square where a large concrete slab bearing the town's emblem and motto were. The crowd followed and surrounded me and the magician and then allowed through the magician's assistant carrying a large cloth and the bag containing Molly's remains.

The front row were asked to join hands, so that nobody could get into the circle undetected.

The magician handed me a stick of chalk and asked me to draw a circle where I wanted Molly to reappear. Once I had drawn the circle, he took the bag for ashes and tipped them into a pile in the centre of the circle, then he and his assistant spread the cloth between them and then settled it over the small pile of burnt and crushed bone.

For a moment nothing happened, then I spotted some movement under the cloth. Soon it became obvious that there were two lumps under the cloth; one about a foot high and the other about six inches high and about a foot to a foot and half away.

From under the cloth Molly's voice complained, “I thought you were going to vanish me; what happened?”

The magician directed me to a spot and then with his assistant's help lifted the cloth. Under the cloth was Molly's head and one of her hands. “I feel very odd. I can't feel anything below my chest.”

At first I thought that her head and hand were sitting on the decorated concrete slab, but various clues, including her saying that she could feel her chest and the way her head moved, quickly convinced me that she was embedded in the slab with only her head and hand showing. I was less certain if she was all there or only partially there, but I was willing to accept either as a possibility.

I glanced at the magician. He raised an eyebrow and gave me a challenging look. He was curious to see how I would explain Molly's unusual situation to her; the audience also wanted to hear my explanation.

“Well,” I started, to buy myself enough time to arrange the events and the words to describe them in my head. “He did mostly vanish you, but he did it by setting you on fire. He did not manage to vanish you completely; I'm not sure if that was deliberate or not, but all that was left was your skeleton. So we smashed that and then I was asked to find somewhere for you to reappear. We piled the ashes and bone splinters inside a circle I drew. Then they covered them with a cloth and you appeared under the cloth. That's why you seem to embedded in the town founders' memorial slab.”

“I'm not sure a really believe you, but I don't have a better explanation.”

The magician intervened. “I think we had better cover her up so that she can get out of this concrete that has been here for,” he paused to consult the inscription. “about seventy years.”

Magician and assistant draped the cloth over Molly's head and hand. Nothing much happened, except the lumps under the cloth shook from side to side and Molly made effortful noises. After about twenty seconds they stepped onto the cloth. The magician took hold of Molly's head and the assistant gripped her hand. On a count of three they tried to pull on the part that they had hold of through the cloth. To everyone's and no-one's surprise they managed to lift that parts by about a foot, then Molly squealed and shouted for them to stop, because it hurt and felt extra weird.

They stepped off the cloth and pulled it away, to reveal more of Molly. She was out as far as the bottom of her ribs. Fortunately she was wearing the leotard that had been tucked in beside her before she was burnt. Her hand that had been visible was now free, but her other forearm seemed to disappear into the concrete. She reached across with her free arm and tucked at her trapped arm and winced.

“That's a bit better, but I still can't feel my legs and I'm still trapped.” She tried to turn to look at the magician, who was behind her line of sight. “ What are you going to do about it?”

With a nod between them the magician and his assistant wafted the cloth back into the air and settled it back over Molly's exposed parts and then stepped in to take an arm each and lifted the covered form by the arms, until Molly began to say that it hurt again. Then they stepped away and dragged the cloth away.

There was more of Molly in view this time, but her legs seemed to be embedded in the concrete to high on her thighs. After a moment, she began flailing her arms about, as if trying to maintain her balance; she quickly gave up and leant forward to put her hands on the ground in front of her.

The magician draped the cloth over her a final time and stood on the back of it. A dozen or more seconds later Molly crawled out from under the cloth and stood up looking a bit shaken. While Molly recovered enough to stand and join the magician in a bow, the crowd applauded and the assistant did circuit of the surrounding audience and seemed to collect a generous amount in the top hat she carried.