Melody – Seven

Melody felt restless. It’d been one week since she’d discovered her gift, but after the first night, nothing seemed to hold her interest. She’d seen Miranda twice since, but it was never long enough to experiment enough. She could play around herself, but it really wasn’t the same. Even using normalcy, it was different. She wanted people to be themselves – when they were more or less hypnotized by magic, it just felt like talking to a zombie.
She’d tried all sorts of configurations, but without the excitement she’d felt before, her creativity had dwindled. She’d also felt as if it was her duty to keep this a secret – at least until she understood more. She felt like there was a new barrier between her and everyone else – nobody without “the gift” would really understand what she was feeling.
Alone in her room, she flopped backwards onto her bed, and let her head roll away. She’d spent lots of time like this, mostly just to get used to the feeling. It was still somewhat strange, just being unattached. She’d considered “things” she could do like this, but so far hadn’t felt inspired to try.
Miranda was out of town for the weekend, visiting some Aunt she didn’t like, but felt obliged to visit anyway out of some sense of duty that Melody could never understand.
Enough.
Melody had to tell someone. Besides, she told herself, I can always undo it if they freak.
She sat up, still headless, and fumbled for the phone. Giving up, she began to reach for her head, but hesitated. After another second, another head popped out from her shoulders, giving her two. This was sometimes disorienting, but made life a little more entertaining. She felt like two people at the same time, sharing two brains.
Her eyes met with her other eyes, from the bed.
“We’re the same person,” she said in unison.
She picked up her extra head and stuffed it under the sheets for a moment, then ripped them away, revealing a complete duplicate of herself. The second her stood up, facing her other self.
It was almost creepy, but at the same time intriguing. She could easily know what both of her were thinking, seeing, feeling, and everything, but it wasn’t hard to divide her attention and function and think as two completely different people.
If only “we” were lesbians… We’d have it made.
Melody smiled. One of her walked off into the kitchen, while the other picked up the phone.
She dialed. She hung up. She breathed and dialed again, calling … she paused again. She wished she had a boyfriend, but didn’t at the time. That could be interesting.
She called Lia. Lia was trustable. Also, Lia was open minded enough she’d probably be interested in this.
“Hello?”
“Hey. This is Melody.”
“Oh, hey. What’s up?”
“Uh… I need to show you something.”
“What?”
“Too hard to explain. Are you like, busy today?”
“Not at all. You wanna have lunch?”
“Sure. Maybe. Why don’t you just come over, and we’ll figure out something.”
“Alright… I’ll be over in a few.”
“Sure. Later.”
Melody’s other self came in, and looked at Melody. It was eerie, for a moment, but Melody quickly grasped the situation. It was like a mirror, only in three dimensions.
Melody smirked a little. This was still too normal. She let her lower halves slowly melt into a puddle, leaving her torsos opposite one another, with a large, skin colored puddle between them. She flowed the puddle over to the side, and formed two more upper halves, making four.
The four of her grew legs again. This was weirder. She imagined creating herself an army.
She began perceiving some sort of link between her minds. She realized this could be broken and reconnected as needed. The four of her smiled, and then…
“Oh wow.”
“We’re…”
“Four different people.”
“This is cool.”
“Who needs Lia? We’ve got a party right here.”
“Yea. You’re right.”
“Of course I am. I’m you.”
“Hand on y’all I’ve got an idea.”
“Oh?”
“Yea. Two of me. Come here. Other me, you can help.”
“Uh. Wait. I’m me. You’re the other me.”
“Does it matter? We’re all me. Or you. Melody.”
“We should have numbers.”
“Cute. But anyway, you two hold still.”
One Melody walked over to the bed and tore off a sheet. She looked at her two victims, giggling a little in anticipation, almost sensing what she was going to do.
“You’re all gonna love this. Sit down, back to back.”
The two complied, sitting down cross-legged on a clear spot in the floor.
The Melody with the sheet spread it out, covering her two duplicates. The other sat down on a beanbag to watch.
“Ladies and gentlemen, blah, blah, blah. Here we go.”
Melody ripped away the sheet. Underneath, each girl’s upper half had disappeared. Beyond that, their lower halves had joined, fused together at the waist.
The two Melodys (Melodi?) would’ve gasped if they could. It was somewhat like sharing a mind, only more like being combined with Miranda, in the sense they were still conversing, instead of sharing a consciousness. The legs stood up, as best they could, and scuttled sideways, bumping into the performing Melody’s leg.
“Hmm… I’ve got an idea,” said the Melody on the beanbag, standing up.”
“Really? Go ahead.”
“You ready?”
“Sure.”
Melody stepped forward, over the set of legs, to her other intact counterpart. She reached up, placing a hand on each side of the other Melody’s head, and pulled up, removing it from her shoulders. Her neck was still attached to her head, and Melody squirmed it around as much as she could, twisting in a motion that would usually tuck her chin to her chest. It was really strange to watch – it reminded the other Melody vaguely of a slug, but cuter.
Melody bent over and with one hand steadied the four legs still milling around at their feet. She gently set the head down where the legs joined, right where each set of hips began, and attached the two.
The Melody on the floor squealed with delight.
“This is SO FREAKY… But, good freaky. *We* love this. We should do this more often.”
“Sure.”
Melody scuttled around in a circle. Meanwhile, the one remaining complete Melody eyed her identical body, minus a head and neck, standing next to her. She poked the body, and it seemed unresponsive. Vacant. Knowing herself, she figured if the body was conscious, it’d have at least tried something by now.
She lifted her head from her own shoulders and turned to face the mirror. As her copy had done before, she twisted her neck around. It made her look like an alien. She laughed at herself, and then turned back to the empty body. She then reached out, and planted her own head on its shoulders, bringing life back into it. Glancing back to the body that had just been hers, she found, with a smile, that she was still in complete control of it.
“You still need something,” she said to herself, “hang on…”
Melody’s headless body took her counterpart by the hands, and pulled, tearing out each arm at the shoulder. She then took each arm, and attached them to the Melody on the ground, beside her head, which made her more-or-less resemble a crab.
“Wow.”
Melody now existed as two separate minds – one a combination of three – and the other inhabiting two bodies, one armless. She contemplated her situation a little more, but then came a ring of the doorbell. Melody sighed in unison, then looked at herself. All three bodies melted, and formed one flesh-colored puddle on the ground. She then reformed herself into one, normal body, with one mind. It felt fabulous – she could remember the individual experiences of each “self” despite their happening all at the same time.
Melody ran downstairs, and opened the door. There, as expected, was Lia. Lia was about Melody’s height, with dyed hair (currently Magenta), mint blue eyes, and wearing a fading denim skirt and a black t-shirt that said “Spi.”
“Hey.”
“Hey.”
Lia stepped inside. The two had known each other since 1st grade, and were probably about as close to best friends as Melody could ask for.
“You okay? You seem… nervous.”
“Okay. Uh… I’m fine. But I need to show you this.” Melody closed the door and moved to block Lia’s possible escape route.
“What is it?”
“Promise not to freak out.”
Melody didn’t want normalcy. She wanted Lia’s real self.
“Yea. I promise.” Lia sounded genuine enough.
Melody reached up, with both hands, and slowly lifted off her head.
Lia gasped. But didn’t scream. Instead of shock, she seemed amazed. Instead of surprised, she just seemed excited.
Melody’s jaw dropped, as she watched Lia take a handful of hair and remover her own head, just as Melody had done.
“All this time, I thought I was the only one in the world who could do this.”
“Wow. I had no idea.”
“This is cool. Do you know anyone else who can do magic?”
“Miranda. And this magician named Steve.”
“Oh. Wow.”
“So what can you do? Anything?”
“I don’t know. I know I can affect other people, though I only have once – when I was 15 I made a girl’s mouth disappear for a minute because I was mad at her. Beyond that, I’ve never dared.”
Lia recounted her story of how she first discovered her gift – when she was five years old, she fell off her bed while jumping on it. She should’ve broken her neck, then and there, but instead, she explained, her head rolled off.
“But I’ve always been afraid to show anyone. I’ve tried things, once in a while, but never in public. I’ve always been too afraid. People think I’m weird enough already, and with this… it’s just I don’t want to be called some kind of…”
“Freak,” finished Melody.
“Yea. A freak.”
“So, did anyone else ever come to you? See, this is really kinda odd, but the other night, this guy showed up and gave us a whole history of everything, and the current state of magic in the world. Do you know about, whatever it is?”
“No… I’ve never met anyone else who could do this. Otherwise, I might have been more secure about this…”
Melody and Lia talked for hours, trading facts and exploits. Mostly Lia talked, about all the times she’d needed to use her magic. She’d been careful, and mostly she’d just employed her gift to keep from getting hurt. Lia found she couldn’t control time, the way Melody could, but Melody found that she lacked Lia’s ability to translate magic into athletic feats.
“This is why I was always so good in gym class.”
“Really? I wondered what your secret was.”
“One afternoon, I snuck into the weight room. The machine only had 250 pounds, but I could lift that easy enough. It scared me.”
“Wow. That sounds fun.”
“Yea. Pity was, I was scared to actually use it. I’ve timed my own mile at less that 20 seconds, but if anyone ever saw… Well, you know. Freak.”
“Guess so.”
“So…” Lia lifted Melody up with one hand and walked to the couch, and set her down, before joining her.
“No fair.”
“I’ve always wanted to do that,” said Lia, grinning.
“I feel like this is some movie for dorky comic book kids. Time Girl. Lady Strength. Something like that.”
“Yea.”
“So, lunch? How does Flying sound?”
“Perfect.”
The Flying Delight was located near some community college, a ploy to prey off kids who were too good for the cafeteria. It was run by some mumbling Mediterranean guy, who hated Ketchup, and had thusly banned it from his store. It was great entertainment with better food.
Melody was driving, when she noticed a miniature festival in Warren Square. This was generally swarming with students, but being summer, just about everyone was gone. However, there was some kind of family event going on, and a certain performer caught Melody’s eye.
She stopped the car, double parked, and screamed, “It’s Steve!”
“Who?”
“Steve! He’s the magician that me and Miranda went to see.”
“Oh…”
Melody gunned the car into an empty parking space, not bothering to straighten out, and jumped out of the car, running to join the massing circle.
The show had evidently just started, as Steve was still introducing himself. He’d traded the turtleneck and jeans for a plain white office-guy shirt, and grey slacks, with nice shoes. He really looked more like an accountant, minus a tie, than a magician.
Steve was saying, “So, I guess I’ll just get things started. This is, well, a little bit different from my usual act. Mostly, see, I do magic shows, but this is, after all, a children’s festival. So I’m going to make this as child-oriented as I can.”
Steve opened with a few juggling tricks, embarrassing as many volunteers as he could in the process. His act gradually became more and more magic oriented, first making some juggling clubs disappear midair, then teleporting himself from under one cardboard box to another.
Melody knew his act was about to take up a new twist, as Steve’s voice became a bit more excited, and his eyes flashed with enthusiasm. Then, he took out his favorite weapon, the 3x3 black cloth.
“May I have a volunteer?” asked Steve.
Melody’s hand shot up. Steve didn’t call on her, opting instead for a girl who looked to be a college student, or maybe a rising senior in high school.
“Mary,” responded the girl, who looked somewhat nervous.
“Nice to meet you, Mary. And, is there another volunteer? A little one?”
Steve picked a young boy, who introduced himself as 6-year-old Brian.
“Well, Brian, have you ever done any magic?”
Brian shook his head.
“That’s okay, because you know what? I’m going to teach you a trick. And Mary here is going to help us.”
Brian smiled a little, while Mary giggled nervously.
“Brian, have you ever seen the rabbit in the hat trick?”
Brian responded that he had.
“Well, this trick is a little bit like that one. The first thing we need is a hat.”
Steve covered Brain’s head with the cloth for a moment, and whisked it away, revealing a one-foot long top hat on his head. The audience clapped, but Melody didn’t, knowing the real show was still yet to come.
“Now… Next, we need Mary. I guess we’re going to call this the Mary in the hat trick.”
Mary blushed, and looked around, as if for help.
“And, right now, Mary is too big for the hat. So, what do we do, Brian?”
Brian shrugged.
“How about we make her disappear? That’s a start right?”
Brian smiled and Mary laughed a little, along with the crowd. Steve unfolded the cloth until it was 9x9, big enough to cover Mary head to toe. He then spread the cloth over Mary and asked her to wait.
“Now, Brian. All you’ve got to do is, say some magic words, any words at all, and grab the cloth. Magic is easy like that.”
Brian smiled, and shouted gibberish, then grabbed the cloth draped over Mary with both hands. Instantly, her form beneath it dissolved, and the cloth fell to the ground. The crown went nuts.
After they quieted down, Steve gathered up the cloth again, and said, “Okay, now we’re ready for the Mary in the hat trick.”
Steve held the hat, and crouched down, pointing the opening at Brian. “Now, Brian, all you have to do is reach in and grab Mary. Like I said, it’s all very easy.”
Brian carefully reached in.
“Deeper, deeper…”
Brain’s arm sank further and further in, until his hand was obviously passed where the bottom of the hat should have been. Melody and Lia were the only two who didn’t seem astonished.
Suddenly, Brian’s face lit up with excitement. He had found something, and he began to extract his arm from the hat.
The audience, of course, went nuts.
Brian had pulled Mary’s living head out of the hat. There was not even a trace of a neck, it was almost as if she’d never had a body.
Mary’s eyes darted around, looking confused. Carefully, Steve took her head from Brian, who was beaming with accomplishment, and held up Mary’s head for the crowd to see. Mary had grown past her stage fright, and was now enjoying the moment, and beaming.
“So, who are you here with Mary?”
“My friends. Andy and Catherine.”
“Well, would Andy and Catherine please come forward?”
A pair of blonds, who appeared to be brother and sister, emerged. Steve handed Mary’s head to Catherine, and instructed them to find him after the show to restore Mary.
Lia said to Melody, “He’s pretty um… Good.”
“This is just the beginning.”
Steve had meanwhile found another volunteer, a teen named Amia, and a 7-year-old helper named Marylyn. Marylyn seemed very excited to be the center of attention, and even at so young, had an impressive stage presence, not hesitating to answer any questions as Steve introduced her to the audience. Amia, in contrast, could hardly stop giggling. Amia kept glancing over at Mary who winked at her.
“So, Marylyn, do you like dolls?”
“Yes.”
Amia was growing more nervous, still uncertain what sort of trick she’d volunteered for.
“What sorts of dolls?”
“I don’t know. What kinds are there?”
“Well, I don’t know every kind, but there are a few I know a little about…”
Steve turned his attention to Amia, who blushed a little.
“Do you like dolls?” asked Steve, with a slightly sarcastic tone.
“Sure, I guess so.”
“Any favorite kind?”
“When I was littler, by friends and I played with Barbies.” For a moment, Amia seemed to forget her anxiety.
“Anyway, let’s get started.”
Steve produced his trademark black cloth, and asked Amia to sit down. Next, with Marylyn’s help, he draped the cloth over Amia, completely covering her and most of the surrounding ground.
“Now, Marylyn, all you need to do is say some magic words, and we’ll see what happens.”
Marylyn shouted, “Abracadabra!” over and over, until a change was noticeable in the cloth – at first it looked like Amia was hunching over, but soon it became apparent that she was… sinking. The cloth folded in on itself as the shape beneath collapsed.
Steve gingerly picked up half of the cloth and gave it a quick tug. Somehow, the entire 9x9 sheet vanished with a little bit of black smoke. When everything became clear again, the audience shot into an uproar – Amia had been shrunk down until she was only about 7 inches tall. Marylyn laughed and laughed, and Amia, although hard for Melody and Lia to see from where they were, appeared to be pleased as well.
Carefully picking up Amia, Steve sat her on the palm of his hand so that everyone could see. Steve made a couple bad jokes, and then asked whom Amia had come with.
“My Boyfriend Paul,” she responded. Her voice, interestingly enough, was unchanged.
Paul made his way to the front. He looked somewhat preppy, wearing a White button-up shirt and Dockers. He received Amia, and walking back to where Andy and Catherine were waiting, placed her in her shirt pocket.
“Okay, I’ve got a booking in Dallas tonight, so sadly, I only have time for one more act.”
Lia’s hand shot up before he even asked for a volunteer. It seemed to Melody that Lia could hardly take a lifetime of being “gifted” and never getting the excuse to use it in public.
“Lessee… You,” Steve pointed to Lia, whose face erupted in delight, “aaand, c… you can help.” Steve picked a 9-year-old Asian girl who was introduced as Shelly.
“Now, this has been a great kids festival, and at least in some festivals I’ve been to – the good ones anyway – they’ve had a piñata.”
Without further explanation, Steve asked Lia to lie down. Lia was more than happy to comply, lacking the stage fright of the previous two subjects, being overcome by some sort of long-repressed desire to be involved with magic.
“Well, a piñata also needs to be suspended somehow. Step two.”
Steve motioned towards Lia, more for dramatic effect than any real necessity, and she began to float, at first a few inches, then suddenly and steadily rising until she was about five feet above the ground, still in a horizontal position.
Sex came to both Lia and Melody’s minds.
Ripping the cloth out of thin air, Steve said, “Now all we need is a stick…” Steve produced a plastic whiffle bat from under the cloth. “And a blindfold. Shelly could you come here to be blindfolded?”
Shelly stepped forward while Steve balled up the cloth in his hand, and then released it leaving it the size of a bandana.
“Hold still please,” said Steve, as Shelly beamed up at him.
Steve quickly covered Shelly’s face with the cloth, but instead of tying it around, he rubbed once then whisked it away.
“This is what I call the magician’s blindfold,” he said quietly, before the audience exploded into a mix of hysterical laughter and applause. Steve had rubbed away any trace of Shelly’s eyes, with only eyebrows a reminder of what should be where on her face. Shelly continued to smile as Steve stuck the whiffle bat into her right hand and turned her towards Lia, who was thrashing about in the air with hysterical laughter.
The applause died down and Steve asked both Lia and Shelly if they were ready. Shelly nodded and Lia replied, with obvious anticipation that she was.
“Now, would all the children make a circle – not too close though,” said Steve, pointing to Shelly’s bat. Some of the kids laughed, as they all made an oval-ish shape around Shelly and Lia.
“Okay, now, we’ve got to get Shelly nice and dizzy.” Steve set his hand on top of her head, and made a sharp twisting motion. Shelly’s head spun around at a blur as if it were on a pivot for a few seconds, before Shelly reached up and caught her chin, setting her head at the proper angle.
And, it was on, Lia trying not to laugh and Shelly, quite blindly, wildly swinging the bat as she took a few shaky steps forward. The kids around were yelling directions – left and right, both at once, and it took maybe 20 seconds before Shelly had regained most of her balance, yet still she hadn’t quite found Lia.
Finally, Lia couldn’t take it any more. “Over here!” she shouted above the cheers of the kids.
Shelly zeroed in, swinging the whiffle bat in figure eights until finally, she connected with Lia’s left leg, striking at the knee. Lia leg separated, her lower knee falling to the ground and an assortment of candy spilled out. The audience, particularly the kids, wend wild, as Shelly continued to swing, having found her mark. Lia was quickly broken into several pieces, which fell to the ground below, breaking and spilling out candy.
As the children mobbed the candy below, Melody snuck over and picked up Lia’s right leg, which had come off in one piece. It was made of what felt like plastic, only somehow warmer and softer. Looking back at the kids, Melody saw that Shelly had given up destroying Lia and was foraging for candy (as best one could without eyes) on the ground. Lia had been mostly smashed, but her head along with her hips and right hand remained floating in the air. Lia looked happier than Melody had ever seen anyone.
After things had calmed down a bit and the contents of Lia taken home in various mouths, stomachs, and pockets, Steve turned to his volunteers and their caretakers, who were still waiting around.
“So um… thank you for volunteering today. I guess I’ll restore you now.”
Steve took Mary’s head from Andy and dropped it back into the top hat. Next, he carefully picked Amia out of Paul’s shirt pocket and dropped her in after. Finally, he walked around stooped over picking up Lia’s different bits and either dropping or shoving them in, depending on their size. Afterwards, he put in the remaining floating bits, finishing with Lia’s smiling head.
“And, just another moment…”
Steve overturned the hat and three streams of skin-colored liquid, thick as syrup slowly poured out. As the streams hit the ground, the formed three pairs of feet, one of which Melody recognized wearing Lia’s flip-flops. Slowly, the three volunteers lower halves began to fill in, then their stomachs, and up and up, filling out their arms, and finishing with their heads. The three volunteers, their friends, and any remaining bystanders applauded.
“That was so cool.”
“Seemed like it.”
A little while later, while Steve was packing up the few props he had brought, Melody appeared and greeted him.
“Oh. Hey. A fan. Melody right?”
“Yea. That was a great show.”
“Thanks.”
“Um… Do you remember how you told us before about the nature of magic.”
“I think so. You and uh… God I’m bad with names… Miranda! Miranda and you came backstage and asked.”
“Yes. Well… I don’t know how to say this, but…”
Melody snapped her fingers and suddenly, all the colors on her reversed – she appeared to be, of all things, a human negative.
Steve seemed to sputter for a moment before regaining a little composure.
“Nice. I’ll have to remember that one.”
“Miranda can do it too. And Lia. We all tried.”
“That’s great. I mean, have fun with it. Be careful. All that stuff I’m supposed to tell you. Well, I wasn’t lying about Dallas and all, and I need to go, so…”
“Oh! I’m so sorry! Go, go!”
“See you around.”
“Yea, see you.” Melody smiled.

To be continued.