Melody – Two

“Melody, this is terrible!”
“No, this is hilarious.”
“Our heads! I mean, I like my body.”
“You’re always telling me what a cute ass I have. Enjoy the moment. Besides, if you really care that much, I’m sure we can find him after the show. He seems nice enough, he’ll probably switch them back for us.”
“Well. Yea. But I’m… short!”
“Calm down, okay?”
“Yea. You’re right.” Miranda smiled. Melody thought about how ironic it was that it was Miranda who’d been pushing her to go to this the whole time.
Melody let out an impish smile and said, “It’s not like losing your head entirely would be a reason to panic or anything.”
Miranda laughed a little.
Meanwhile, Steve had chosen his next three volunteers. The first was Marie, one year younger than Miranda and Melody. Marie was a very striking brunette, originally from Maryland, and had (though this somewhat disgusted Melody) appeared in YM and Maxim magazines.
The other volunteer was some blond named Jade, whom neither of them knew, though she looked to be about college aged. Marie wore a white tank top and a blue denim skirt, while Jade had a sleeveless camo top and baggy jeans.
Lastly, there was Zannah, a red haired girl with an enchanting smile. Zannah wore faded flares, and a light green Oberlin t-shirt.
Steve thanked the three, who apparently didn’t know each other, for being brave enough to volunteer after the last act (at this, both Melody and Miranda blushed), and asked them each to wait a second as he prepared. First, he took the cloth and waved it out again, expanding it once, and then again, until it was about 9x9 feet. By now, the crowd seemed mostly unimpressed with Steve’s show of “mere sleight of hand,” though his t-shirt clearly revealed how impossible this was.
“Now, I know you three don’t know each other very well, so this may seem a little strange. But what I want you do is make a group hug. Don’t worry, it’s just for the duration of the trick.”
Zannah and Marie looked around somewhat nervously, more out of anticipation for the trick than the impending human contact, while Jade shrugged.
As the three complied with Steve’s request, he handed one side of the sheet to Zannah, and started to run in circles around the three, completely enveloping them in the large black cloth. He continued at this until he ran out of sheet. He then paused for a moment, tucked the sheet in, and stood back a minute.
“Ladies and gentlemen, I’ve never tried this before. But when I thought of it, it was so cool I just had to try it. So, being that I lack three assistants to experiment with, this will be the first time this trick has ever been done, in the world… (Pause) And my drummer missed his queue. Let’s try that again. In the world!” As he said those final words, someone offstage began a quick thundering of what sounded like a card table. The audience laughed.
“Anyway! I shall get on with it. ONE!”
Some nervous giggling emanated from the sheet.
“TWO!”
The card table drum-roll kicked back in.”
“THREE!”
Steve made some ridiculous looking motions toward the sheet, almost as if he was using Kung Fu against some invisible tap-dancer. As he did this, the mass of whatever was inside the cloth visibly diminished – instead of being tightly stretched around the girls, it slouched down a bit, as if a net had been draped over something.
Steve quickly set about grabbing the sheet off whatever it was, and as he finally removed it, the crowd broke into a hysterical frenzy, deafening everyone in the room. Melody imagined this had been the reaction when her head disappeared.
And it was indeed impressive – revealed inside the sheet was no longer three, but one girl. First to be noticed was Jade’s head, with her short spiky deadlocks, sitting upon Zannah’s shoulders and torso, with the Oberlin t-shirt, attached to Marie’s lower half in the same blue skirt. Jade, (or whoever it was) tried to speak, but ended up only saying “Wow” as she examined herself, almost as if she didn’t really believe that she was complete.
“Okay,” grinned Steve, “Now, there’s even more to this than appears. This isn’t just Jade with a new body – this girl is somewhat of a fusion of the three. Each of the girls is still fully conscious; it’s just that they well, share the same body. Isn’t that right… Jade-Zannah-Marie.”
Jade’s head nodded, and said “Yea, we’re, I mean, I’m, well… yea. That’s right.”
“Just come by after the show when and if you’d like to be, well, restored.”
Jade, or whoever she was, smiled, and began to walk off the stage. Unsure of what seat she should take, she ended up just sitting back down on the floor.
Melody looked over to Miranda with a glimmer in her eyes, and Miranda immediately said, “I don’t think so. No way.”
“Oh, c’mon. I can’t believe you don’t want to. It would be awesome.”
“Okay. But if, and only if I get to be the head.”
“Right.”
Steve selected another two volunteers, though he seemed to be running out. There were only about seven girls who he hadn’t yet performed on, and he’d also just reduced three of his audience members to one person. The volunteers were an adorable blond with short-cropped hair and a glistening eyebrow ring, who introduced herself as Brooke, and an Anna, with buzzed auburn hair and thick glasses that suited her perfectly.
Steve began by shrinking the large sheet down by balling it up again, and shaking it out until it was again only 3x3. He then addressed the audience, “These are pretty quick, and so I have a variety of things. Also, a couple more props.”
Steve wandered backstage and came back with a helium balloon, and a coin. He looked over to Anna, and said “Heads or tails?” as he flipped the coin up and caught it behind his back.
“Heads.”
“Oh. You Win. Brooke goes first.”
Brooke blushed a little, and step towards Steve. First, Steve handed the balloon to Anna, who looked at it, a little confused. He then put the coin into his pocket, and lifted up the black cloth.
“This only takes a moment. But still, it’s lots of fun.”
Steve, took the cloth, and gently covered Brooke’s face. After rubbing the cloth up and down twice, he whisked the cloth away, to another awed applause. It appeared that he had rubbed Brooke’s face off completely. He smiled, and showed both sides of the cloth to show that her eyes, nose, and mouth, had in fact, disappeared. Brooke just stood there, not fully understanding her plight, until Steve raised her hand to touch her face. She drew it away, almost as if she’d been shocked, and then slowly let her hand back to where her eyes used to be.
“Now, Brooke, you can’t see, or say anything, but you can still hear me, correct?”
Brooke hesitated for a second, then nodded.
“Very well. I’d leave you to explore this a little bit, but then you couldn’t see the show. So I guess I may as well restore you – with a twist of course.”
Brooke made the O.K. sign with one hand.
Steve again came forward and placed the cloth over her head. Again, he rubbed twice, and drew the cloth away, and the audience went wild.
Brooke’s face was upside-down. And she wore the biggest smile possible, though it was almost hard to tell that from a frown. Again it took her a moment to understand what had happened, but after Steve came forward with a mirror, she too broke into hysterics. After this, she gleefully departed from the stage giving her waiting boyfriend a kiss with her newly relocated mouth.
Steve turned his attention to Anna, who held her nervousness as best she was able, yet her fist was very tightly clenched around the string to the balloon as if her well being depended solely on it.
Steve took the string out of her hand, then tugged the balloon down and caught it. After this, he draped the cloth over the balloon, and away again quickly, vanishing it completely. A few people clapped, but most were stuck in the anticipation of what was to come.
After this, Steve paused for a second, and stared at Anna with an almost wicked smile on his face. She seemed to laugh a little bit, or at least loosen up, whereupon Steve leapt forward, and covered her head with the cloth. Anna just stood there for a moment, and Steve circled around until he was behind her.
“Ladies and gentlemen, prepare to be amazified again!”
Steve took his hands off the cloth, and it began to rise. Slowly at first, but in a second it picked up a little more speed, and a string appeared to trail beneath it. Steve quickly grabbed the string while the audience began to applaud once more – for just as had happened to Miranda and Melody, Anna’s head had disappeared.
“But wait – there’s more!” Said Steve, struggling to hold back his giggling.
He reached up to the cloth that was still covering the balloon, and jerked it away. Everyone broke into hysterical laugher, for underneath the cloth appeared Anna’s very bewildered-looking head, floating in mid-air, attached to a string.  Steve gave the head a quick jerk, eliciting a quick squeal from Anna, and tied the string around her wrist.
As Anna descended to her seat, Melody looked over again at Miranda, and said, “I’m so going to become his apprentice.”
Miranda rolled her eyes, though she knew that Melody was truly serious.

Still to be continued.