Parallel

“Staring into the window of a bondage shop is a lousy way to hide your fetish, Janine.”

The woman being addressed squeaked softly in alarm and turned to her friend to ask.  “Was I that obvious?”

He shrugged.  “I’m sure not everybody in the mall noticed.  It was the purple collar that really caught your eye, wasn’t it?  It’d go so well with your cat-ear hood.  Not so well with that green dress you have on.”

Janine blushed furiously.  “Lance!  That was...  You were never supposed to show anyone that photo.”

“And I haven’t,” said the casually dressed man who was still staring into the store.  “Still saving it and the edited version for blackmail purposes if I ever need to really shake you out of your rut.”  He grinned as he saw someone buying that particular purple collar, and turned away, pulling his friend with him.

“I am not in a rut,” muttered Janine.

“Then why are you being so surly about a simple trip to the mall?  Would you prefer to be mewed up in your garret, pining away for...”

“Lance!  I was not pining.  And my apartment isn’t a garret.”  Under her breath Janine added, “much to my disappointment.”

“It’s a fourth floor walk-up.  Close enough.  Come on, if we don’t hurry up we’ll miss the show.”

Lance started walking briskly up the mall, and Janine tagged along.  A bit further back, so did the willowy blonde who’d bought the collar.

Not fifty feet further on, Janine’s nose was pressed up against another window.  Lance was watching her with an amused smile on his face.  The wig store was having a going out of business sale, and Janine’s eyes had been drawn to a gorgeous red wig of wavy, shoulder-length hair.  Still, even at 70% off it was more than she was willing to part with.

“I wish,” she murmured softly.

“Hm?  See something you like?”

Janine’s hand went to her straight, dark hair, so unlike the wig’s.  “I’d rather see it on a cute girl than wear it, though.  It’d be so sexy...”

“It’d look good on you, too.  Maybe under the hood.”

“Lance!”  Janine spun to glare at him once more.  “Why do you keep bringing that up?”

“Because you looked really cute and happy in that picture.  Come on, if you can’t afford that lovely red wig you’d love to see on a cute girl, we should keep moving.”  He made sure to gaze significantly at the wig in question as he spoke, and a certain willowy blonde carrying a small shopping bag nodded at him and headed into the store.

Janine slouched after Lance as he forged onward.  Before long they came up against a milling throng of people surrounding a small stage in the middle of the mall.  Shortly after they arrived, the curtains opened and “Marvin the Magnificent” started his patter.

Janine watched entranced as he started with some simple hand-prop tricks.  She giggled as he produced egg after egg from his lovely assistant.  She clapped along with the others when he finished a card trick by pulling off his assistant’s shirt to reveal her wearing a spangly bikini top... and the missing card tattooed over her stomach.

The part she’d really been looking forward to was the finale.  Marvin’s unnamed assistant wheeled a box onto the stage atop an open-framed trolley, and soon enough was tucked snug inside it, almost completely immobilized by it.

Lance was watching Janine instead of the show.  “Glad I dragged you out here?”

Janine just squirmed in place, arms tight around her body as if trying to straitjacket herself.  “I... oooh, I just wish you’d build me one of those.  You work in a theatre props shop, it shouldn’t be hard.”

Lance waggled a finger at her.  “Your birthday is next month.  No peeking.”

Janine’s breath caught at that, but her eyes were transfixed by the girl on the stage.  The boxes had been separated by great metal blades.  The rolling cart separated into two with a flourish that released some hidden catches.  Marvin brought the upper half out into the audience so people could talk with his assistant and shake her hand.  When asked, she’d even kick her feet that were still up on the stage.

A willowy blonde woman carrying two shopping bags sighed softly.  “Seems like magic.”

Lance shrugged.  “They just used the mall’s Venn Machine to make her into two parts.  Did you notice how she never leaned over except when he was supporting her?”

“Ah, but how did he give her the tattoo of the Jack of Hearts?”

“I...”  Lance didn’t like to admit he was stumped, but this time he had to.  “That, I didn’t figure out.”

The willowy woman laughed a tinkling laugh.  “See?  Magic.”

Lance pulled Janine forward so that she could see the boxed woman up close.  Janine’s eyes shone and she was only able to mumble her question when she got to speak.

The assistant still answered.  “Yes, it’s really tight.  No way out of here until Marvin lets me go, but I trust that he will.  Eventually.”  Her eyes sparkled almost as brightly as Janine’s.

Janine was all wistful again after the show broke up and they continued walking.  “So you think she was really in half?” she eventually asked Lance.

“No doubt about it.  I got a good look at the feet while you were talking to her head.  Not a prop.”

Janine shuddered delicately.  “That would be so weird.”

“Could be a lot weirder, really.  All kinds of strange fantasies can happen, now.  Look at this place, for example.”  Lance gestured to the storefront they were passing, declaring itself ‘Fantasy Escorts’.  Posed in the front window was what looked like a stylized mannequin, except that it had a real woman’s face on it and she was chatting with a couple of curious shoppers.  A sign beside her declared that lovedoll conversions were half price this week.

“What do they mean, free delivery?” asked Janine.

“Suppose you wanted to be my lovedoll for the weekend.  They’d box you up and bring you over as part of the deal.  One of the students in my department did that on a dare, once.  I tell you, finding a woman on your doorstep like that is something else...”

Janine shook her head, but the tiniest little grin was showing, too.  “Did she know you were gay?”

Lance laughed.  “Apparently not.  My boyfriend found it terribly amusing, and teased me about it for weeks afterward.  Then one day, he showed up in a box.  Mmm, that was a fun weekend.”

“Really?”

Lance laughed.  “Kidding.  I’ve been trying to get him into a Venn Machine for months now, no luck.  Yet.  Still, Katie’s been fun to have as a guest.”

Janine blinked at that.  “Wait.  Wasn’t Katie the name of the cat you’re sitting...  Oh my god.  Was that one of your students?”

Lance put his hand over his heart in an overdramatic gesture.  “I would never take such liberties with the teacher-student relationship.”

“Good.”

“She’s one of Doctor Clancy’s students.”

“Seriously?”

Lance nodded.  “Theatre students will try anything.  She wanted a quiet weekend of being pampered, so I offered her a weekend as a cat.  She jumped at it.”

“That’s bizarre.”

Lance laughed.  “Says the woman with the cat-ear hood.  Sure you wouldn’t like to spend a weekend as a pampered kitty?”

Janine bit her lip.  “Maybe.  If the right person asked.”

“And I’m not the right person.”

Janine sighed.  “Nope.  A cute redhead with a bondage fetish, though...”

Lance laughed.  “Do tell.  Come on, let’s go get some lunch.”

At the food court, Lance bought food for both of them while Janine found a table.  They ate for a time in silence, then Lance pointed a fork at Janine and declared, “You look even more depressed than before this little expedition.”

“All this talk has made the hole in my life yawn even wider,” Janine moped.

“I’d guessed as much.  Right then, time to fix that.”

Janine stared in horror as Lance stood up on his chair, then stepped up onto their table.  Eyes all over the food court were turning toward them.  “Lance,” she hissed, “What are you doing?”

“Attention please,” called out Lance, projecting over the crowd as only someone with years of theatre experience can.  “There’s a lovely lass here who’d love to meet up with a bondage-inclined lesbian.  Any takers?”

That caused a stir, indeed.  Mostly laughter, and some catcalls.  Lance smiled, thanked everyone for their time, took a brief bow, and stepped nimbly down to chair and floor once more.  Janine was curled up in her chair in a little ball of mortification and embarrassment.

“Hello?” came a soft voice.  “Were you serious about the... offer?”

Janine uncurled enough to take a peek at the person asking.  Her eyes widened.  A cute willowy woman with stunning red hair was approaching the table.  Janine thought she looked vaguely familiar, but she was sure she’d have remembered that face with that hair.  Janine tried to answer, but her voice betrayed her and the only thing that came out of her mouth was drool, and a little bit of her salad.  She managed a nod, though.

“Janine, say hello to the nice woman.”

Janine shook herself out of her stupor.  “Hi.  I’m Janine.  Oh, right, Lance covered that.”

“I’m Andrea,” said the willowy woman, fidgeting with her hair.  A wisp of blonde hair peeked out from under the red.

Janine’s eyes widened.  “A wig?  The wig?  Wow, I was right.  It looks beautiful on you.”

Andrea dimpled.  “Thanks.  May I sit?”

Lance gestured to the unoccupied chair next to Janine.  “Be my guest.”

The two woman sat next to each other and started to make small talk.  Lance nudged the conversation once or twice, and soon Janine was bouncing with glee.  “You’ve read my stories?  You liked my stories?”  She turned to Lance and grinned.  “She likes my stor... wait a minute.”

She looked from Lance to Andrea, and then peered more closely at the hair under the wig.  “You were following us.  And beside us at the magic show.”

Andrea looked to Lance, who shrugged.

“You know each other!” Janine accused.  “Lance, you set me up!  I don’t believe this.”

“I may have pointed her to a certain website.  No more.”

“And the wig?”

“Looks very cute, as you said.”

“Lance!”

“May I speak in my defense?” asked Andrea, softly.

Janine stared at the table, then after a few moments nodded, once.  “I guess.”

“I fit Lance’s description.”  She set a small bag in front of Janine.  “Early birthday gift.”

Janine peered into the bag then started to blush.  She drew the purple collar out of it and stared at it in wonder.  “But...  I...  Why?”

“Because you’re cute.  And blush prettily.  And I think it would go well with your eyes... though perhaps not today.  It’d clash horribly with that dress.  Still, I should like very much to put it on you at some point.”

“Really?”

“Really.”

Janine closed eyes that had started to leak tears, and then buried her face on Andrea’s shoulder.  “Thank you.”

Andrea mouthed a soft, “thank you” to Lance, who was grinning at the two of them in far too smug a fashion.

A moment later, an older woman approached the table.  She saw Andrea and Janine’s arms about each other and sighed.  “As always, I’m late to the party.  Already taken, is it?”

Lance looked up at her with a start.  “You...  Heard what I said?”

“Honey, everyone in the food court did.  I wish I could be so brave.”

“Betty?” came a voice from behind her.  “What are you doing... you’re answering too?”

“Mary?”  Betty turned around, and started to smile.  “Well.  I would never have guessed, not in a million years.  You married Billy right out of high school.”

“Trust me.  After thirty years and three boys...”  Mary shook her head.  “Nope.  No guys for me any more.”

Betty and Mary walked off arm in arm as Lance watched, stunned.   He turned back to Janine and Andrea, and they were watching him with eyes sparkling with humour.  “Didn’t plan that, did you?”

Lance shook his head mutely.  “I wanted to show that putting yourself out there worked...  Maybe I should have trusted in fate after all.”

“I’m glad you didn’t,” said Andrea softly.  “I might not have been here.  C’mon, Janine.  Let’s see how you look in kitty ears.”

Janine smiled and let Andrea lead her away.