Jemma and Susie sat in the front row at the magic show amazed and enjoying what they had seen so far. They were surprised to be invited on stage, because the only previous audience participation and been a demonstration of the floating side table done in front of the curtain while the next big illusion was being set up.

Once on the stage, they were introduced to the rest of the audience and it was established that the two young women had been friends since early in their time at school.

“Ok, which of you is the more adventurous?” asked the magician.

The girls looked at each other and silently agreed that Jemma was the more adventurous; this did not surprise the audience. Jemma, the school P.E. Teacher, who climbed mountains for fun and ran marathons for charity, had come to the show dressed in green satin gown that was supported by one shoulder and exposed most of her left leg when she walked, through the thigh-high slit up that side. Susie, the receptionist, was dressed in a pale blue cotton blouse over a calf-length blue skirt showing flesh-coloured nylons and darker blue shoes.

“So, Jemma you would be willing to go first, right?” asked the magician.

“I guess. I don't know what I'm letting myself in for, but you wouldn't do something dangerous with a member of the public, even if it seemed dangerous.”

While this short discussion was happening, one of the magician's assistants arrived pushing a box that was shaped and painted to resemble a doll's house.

Jemma looked at the prop and speculated out loud, “So, I guess the idea is that I get there and after some mucking about, it is shown I've disappeared from inside and I will turn up somewhere unexpected.”

“Something like that,” the magician lied. He was busy opening the two roof panels and the double doors that made up the gable front of the box. “Please, take off your shoes and sit inside the box, Jemma.”

Jemma sat on the ledge at the front and shed her heels. She shuffled back into the box, careful not to reveal more of her legs and underwear than necessary. Sooner than she expected she reached the rear wall of the house-shaped box. She tried to draw her legs into the box in a cross-legged pose, but found that the gap between the side walls was too narrow to allow her to flatten her calves, so she had to raise her knees to about chest level to fit them in.

“It's a bit tighter in here than I expected,” she commented.

“Of course, it is,” said the magician. “We can't have the audience thinking you've got enough space to open any covers to any hidey-holes that they may assume are there.” To further reinforce the impression that Jemma filled the doll-house, he turned it in a circle with Susie's help. This showed that the volunteer had her back against the rear wall of the box by her head and upper shoulders being visible at the back of the space between the front and back gables, exposed by the folded down roof.

“Now, you are going to need to lean forward a bit, so that we can fold the roof back into place.” sensing a little reluctance in the volunteer box-jumper, he added, “If you don't you may get bumped on the head.”

Jemma hunched forward so that her shoulders were closer to her knees, as Susie and the magician hinged the roof sections back into place. From the side-ledge the magician picked up a long rod and threaded it through some metal loops along the ridge of the roof to hold it in place against the pressure that was being exerted by the back of Jemma's shoulders.

The magician asked Jemma to wave good bye to the audience before shutting the double-doors of the box front and using three more rods to hold them shut; one between the edges of the doors and two more to attach each door to the section of roof above.

“So, Susie, Jemma suggested that there might be some mucking about before we show that she has disappeared. Any ideas?”

“Umm. How about we turn the table round again to show that there is no way Jemma could have escaped.”

“Ok,” said the magician. He helped his second volunteer rotate the table, showing that the box was constructed from panels held together and to the the table by pins similar to those holding the front and roof shut. From inside Jemma's voice was heard complaining that there was no way for her to escape, especially if they kept turning the box and made her dizzy.

“Maybe she needs some encouragement,” suggested the magician. This was the cue for a stage hand to push on stage a stand displaying 21 swords.

Susie looked at the swords and matched them with the dark slots in the roof and walls of the box filled with her friend. “Are you serious?”

“Why not? This is a magic show after all.”

“But I'm pretty sure that Jemma hasn't a clue how that trick works.”

“Trust me! I know what I'm doing. Do you want to hand me the swords or help me push them in?”

“I'll help, because it'll be cooler than just pulling out swords and handing them over. But if you hurt a single hair on Jemma's head, I'll ram as many of the swords where the sun don't shine as I can.”

To the audience, as an aside, he said, “Remind me never to offend a receptionist ever again; they have more ways to make your life difficult, than just calling the person after you through for their appointment first.”

It took a bit of coordinating, the first pair of swords penetrated from a couple of inches below the eaves of the doll-house, about two inches behind the front doors. They were inserted at an angle that  would hit the bottom of the opposite wall.

“Are you alright in there, Jemma?” the magician asked.

“I think I just saw a couple of swords cross in front of my face and I've got a funny sensation in my lower legs, but it doesn't feel like cramp; it might even feel nice, if I was sure what it was.”

“Important question, Jemma. Is your hair alright?”

“Um, my hair? Why? It's perfectly fine,except the bit that's being flattened by the roof.”

The magician gestured the wiping of a sweaty brow, drawing some giggles from the audience. He then pulled another pair of swords from the stand and handed one to Susie. Guided by the magician she pushed the sword in to match his, half way back through the roof.

There was a squeal from inside the box, which sounded more like a six-year's excitement at receiving a much desired present than an adult being stabbed in the upper back.

Susie's uncertainty about pushing swords into a box that was supposed to contain her friend was overcome when the next and subsequent pairs of swords drew no further reaction from the box's occupant; she assumed that Jemma had made good her escape (or was, perhaps, dead) and thus no longer in a position to care about the swords that now riddled the box.

With three rows of three sword handles sticking out of each side of the box and a further three handles projecting upwards from the ridge of the roof, the magician asked if the audience wanted to see what had happened to Jemma; the consensus was that they did.

The magician pulled the three rods holding the front doors shut and peeked inside. He acted shocked and demanded that the audience confirm that they wanted to see the inside of the box; they did.

He opened the doors fully and exposed the interior criss-crossed with swords to the spectators. Most, including Susie, were relieved to not see a highly impaled Jemma within the box. But many noticed some trace of the green satin in amongst the swords. Susie was asked to have a closer look and identify what was inside the box in place of Jemma.

“It's a doll dressed like Jemma was, but how could you have know what your volunteer would be wearing to dressed a doll in an identical outfit?”

“That isn't just a doll; that's Jemma shrunk down to a size that could avoid the swords as we thrust them into the box.”

Susie's expression showed her scepticism, but had to admit that the doll's facial features were very similar to Jemma's.

“How about we pull the swords out of the box, so that we can retrieve the Jemma doll without risk of losing a hand?”

Susie agreed and there was a flurry of activity as all the swords were dragged from the box and passed to a pair of assistants who returned the swords to the display rack and removed it when it was full.

As the swords were withdrawn it became clear to the audience that the doll was dressed as Jemma had been was stood in the box; standing about two feet tall. As the final sword was pulled (the middle on through the ridge of the dolls house) the dolls toppled backwards.

The magician invited Susie to remove the doll from the sword-box and inspect it. “Well, it looks like Jemma and it's dressed like her too, but it feels like a big plastic doll and it's definitely smaller than Jemma.”

“I think that we should display the Jemma doll.” This cued a stage hand to bring out a glass box on a stand. “Please put Jemma in here,” the magician requested putting his hand into the box to show that it was empty.

Susie carefully lowered the doll into the clear container, where it stood confined by the narrowness of the walls, with its head still outside the box.

“I wonder where Jemma really is. I hope she won't miss the rest of the show.”

“That's a good point, we don't want Jemma to miss out on the rest of the show.” The magician pulled a silk cloth from the breast-pocket of his jacket and draped over the doll's head.

For a moment all was still, then there was movement under the cloth and a few seconds later the cloth fell from the head; the magician caught it before it reached the floor.

“What's happening? Things don't feel right. Not that they feel bad, but weird.” This was the head on top of the box containing the body of the Jemma doll. It was Jemma's full-sized head.

“Ok, Susie, you explain what happened to Jemma, while I get your illusion ready.”

With a nervousness to her stance Susie explained the chain of events to her friend and her current situation, while trying to determine, based on the items that the magician was bringing onto the stage what fate awaited her.

The items looked to be a small platform, a couple of clear plastic tubes with a bar attached and a hoop with a curtain attached. The magician enlisted Susie's help to move the platform forward to about four feet back from the edge of the stage and then deploy the curtain and hoop around the platform.

“Now, we're ready to set you up in your illusion. Please stand on the platform facing front; you'll see a couple of painted footprints to show you exactly where to stand. But it'll probably be better if you take off your shoes off before we get started.”

It took Susie seconds to drop her low heels beside the stand holding her dollified friend and then she stood on the platform.

“Good,” said the approving magician. “Now, keep your hands by your sides while I add the other bits to the platform.” He lifted the first of the plastic tubes and then lowered it over the volunteer. The tube did not touch Susie, but there was no more than a few inches between her and the tube that surrounded her from ankle to hip. The magician made an adjustment to slot the bar into the base on which Susie stood, which made a click loud enough to be heard throughout the auditorium.

“What was that?”

“The supporting bar for the lower half is now locked into the base, by a sprung pin; it's not coming back out until we use the special tool to recompress it, but that's backstage.”

“So how am I meant to get back out? Because this seems to be narrow enough that I couldn't lift my leg to get it high enough to climb out; well not without help anyway.”

“That's the magic part. But before we do that, there's the second tube.” He hefted the second tube and lowered it over the volunteer and located the bar at the back into the top of the bar of the lower tube with a similarly loud click.

The result was a Susie was trapped in pair of tubes one above the other with a gap between them of a couple of inches at hip height. She could used this gap to rest her hands on the upper edge of the lower tube. “So, you think that I can get out of here?”

“Well, there is a simple way to get out of there, but I'm not planning to use that method.”

“Could you tell me, in case I need it for some emergency?”

“Ok, and it lets the audience know that we won't be cheating that way. So all you'd need to do is rock the whole assembly until it falls over, and then crawl out; simple really, like most magic once you know how.”

“That sounds a bit dangerous and uncomfortable,” Susie commented.

“It is. Which is why we won't be doing it that way. It will probably result in bruises and in a worst case scenario you could bang your head hard enough to die of a brain haemorrhage; which, I'm sure neither of us want. That's why we will be doing it the magical method.”

The magician leant down to raise the hooped curtain until Susie was out of sight. He shimmied the curtain for about ten seconds and then lowered it. When Susie came back into view, she was standing behind the supporting bars of the illusion with hands still on the rim of the lower tube.

The audience reacted to Susie's escape from being confined to outside the tubes with enthusiastic applause. It appeared that the fact of the audience reacting made her look round to see what had caused them to applaud and show surprise that she was behind instead of inside the tubes. This was not lost on the audience, who added extra cheering to the response.

The magician lead Susie forward for a brief bow and told her she there was a little more to do. He handed her the silk cloth that he had draped over doll Jemma's head to change it to real Jemma's head. He asked Susie to use the cloth to cover Jemma's doll body, count to three and then remove it.

Susie followed the instructions, by standing beside her diminished friend and raising the cloth in front of the miniature body under her chin and then deliberately counting to three before dropping it and re-catching it before it reached the stage.

Again Susie seemed unaware that there had been any change until the onlookers voiced there approval of the change. The doll body under Jemma's head was now clad in clothes that resembled Susie's.

The magician brought Susie back to the centre and had her stand behind the tubes, still carrying the cloth. The curtain was raised again and upon lowering, Susie was back inside. While this was not entirely unexpected, the fact that Susie was wearing Jemma's green dress prompted them to cheer and stamp their feet.

The curtain stayed down long enough for Susie to notice her sudden change of clothes. Then it was re-raised and the magician pulled it sideways, away from the tubes which emerged from a gap in the curtain empty. The magician dropped the curtain to show Susie standing motionless, except for her face which initially showed frustration at not being able to move, but quickly morph to curiosity.

“What have you done to me?”

“You are now a head mounted on the top of a mannequin,” the magician asserted. He rapped his knuckles on her belly and a hollow knocking was heard. He carried her to the opposite side of the stage from Jemma and continued with the show.