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Description
A Little Stage Magic

By Sally Reynolds

As long as I can remember I’d always been fascinated by carnivals, circuses and especially magicians. The freedom and mystery of the life on the road really appealed to me. I was no stranger to moving around; after my parents died I was shuffled from relative to relative until I felt like I never really had a home. My aunts and uncles took care of me well enough but I never really felt like I was part of a family. So I learned to be a loner, to take care of myself. I also learned how to escape from my real life into fantasies. I think that’s why the illusions of the carnival sideshows and the magicians appealed to me. I really wanted to believe there was real magic! So it really was no surprise that three weeks after my eighteenth birthday I said my good-byes to my family and struck out on my own.

I wasn’t so naive that I hooked up with a seedy sideshow. I had studied all the books on sleight of hand, illusions and escape artistry I could get my hands on. I was sure that a girl with my looks and figure would have no trouble finding work as a magician’s assistant. I’d even made my own costume, with careful attention to show off my long, trim legs and full breasts to their best advantage. My looks would get me my start. I’d learn how to play the audience and would eventually start my own act. It seemed like the perfect plan, no problems.

Well, not at first. After three months of auditions, rejections and disappointments I was down to my last few dollars and just about out of hope. I had no place to spend the night and too little money even for bus fare. Besides I was too proud to go crawling back to any of my relatives after making such a production of going off to find fame and fortune. I was scanning a newspaper in a little greasy spoon when I saw an ad that looked almost too good to be true. But there it was “Wanted: Magician’s assistant, must be willing to travel. Females only please.”

I called the number in the ad, got an address and an audition that afternoon. I just had a feeling my life was about to change. Though I had no idea just how much it was about to change. I showed up twenty minutes early and was so nervous I could barely sit still. The theater was small and kind of run down, not in the better part of town but I was in no position to be too picky. Ms. Contrata showed up twenty minutes late. At that point I was almost ready to give up hope. She had a charming manner, a disarming smile and a vague excuse. A few minutes later we were backstage in the theater.

After some fumbling around looking for a light switch we were standing on the stage, facing a few hundred empty seats. She showed me a room where I could change and told me to meet her on the stage in two minutes. Well, I knew that quick changes are part of a lot of acts so I’d taken the precaution of wearing my costume under my cloths. In less than a minute I was on the stage. Despite the stage lights I felt a shudder run down my spine. My arms were suddenly covered with goose bumps.

I was on stage at last, even without an audience it was exciting. I knew this audition would be different. Moments later Ms. Contrata walked onto the stage, now as “The Amazing Contrata”. This woman, who could have passed for a smoother than average sales woman just a moment before was now a magician. She moved across the stage with complete confidence. I hoped she didn’t notice my shaking! She smiled as she looked me over from head to toe then she had me turn completely around. She seemed very pleased but I was so nervous I thought I’d fall over.

She must have noticed my nervousness because she asked me if I would tell her a little bit about myself and why I wanted to get into this end of show business. We sat on some boxes at the back of the stage and I told her my story. I had only known her ten minutes and she had my whole life story in a fifteen. She was delighted to find that I had such a deep interest in magic and said that it would be very helpful that I wasn’t tied down with a lot of family responsibilities. Opening up to her in that way settled my nerves completely.

Now that I was completely relaxed we went back onto the stage to rehearse. Leonora Contrata was quite the performer, with lots of advice on how to move and play to the audience. Her act was all the usual stage magic, nothing I hadn’t seen in a half a dozen books. Still it was a start and at this point I needed any break I could get. After an hour of going over her act and what my part was we took a short break. I took this opportunity to mention my rather desperate financial situation. She told me not to worry, I was welcome to stay with her until we were on the road and I had some money coming in. I was afraid she was going to suggest something like that. I said I would feel better if she could just advance me a week’s wages.

Leonora smiled warmly and said she would take care of it. Then it was back on the stage to practice the act. Her easy acceptance of my refusal bothered me a little; she seemed to take it almost too easy. There really wasn’t any time to worry about it though, we had a lot of material to rehearse and I had a lot of cues to learn. We worked on a lot of pretty standard tricks, Leonora liked to use a lot of doves so she had a couple of cages, one with three beautiful white doves and one empty.

After a while she said she was ready to show me her grand finale, the only piece of real magic she could perform. She rolled a large, strange looking cabinet from a storage room behind the stage. It was gray, about seven feet high and covered with very strange marking. It looked more like something from a bad science fiction film than a magician’s cabinet. She opened it and removed a box about two feet high that looked more like a model of the big one than anything else. She placed this box on a small stage table beside her top hat and wand, all with a kind of hammy excitement.

The inside of the large cabinet was just as strange and unearthly as the outside. After a few moments fussing with the cabinet and the box she told me we were ready and instructed me to step into the cabinet. I hesitated a bit, unnerved by the look of the thing. A gentle pat on my bottom from Leonora ended my indecision and I stepped inside.

I only had a few seconds to examine the strange interior of the cabinet before Leonora closed the door and I was in total darkness. To make things worse he still hadn’t explained the illusion or what I was supposed to do. All she had said was to step inside and the box would do the rest. I didn’t have very long to wait before there was a bright flash, followed by the sickening feeling that I was in an elevator that had just dropped three floors. My head was spinning and my legs would barely support me, I leaned against the wall of the cabinet and shouted for Leonora to let me out of her stupid contraption. What had she done, dropped the entire thing through a trap door? That was crazy! Nobody did a disappearing act that way. I should have just opened a panel in the bottom and slipped through. As I regained my strength and composure I began to pound on the walls with my fist.

A moment later I heard Leonora telling me to just be patient in her usual soothing tone. I was completely blinded by the stage lights as the door opened and I stumbled outside. As my eyes adjusted to the light I recognized Leonora’s huge face smiling down at me! She looked absolutely enormous. Her face was at least three feet high and her shoulders were yards across. I could only see her from the waist up, as her legs seemed to be beneath the level of the floor. Even so from the floor to the top of her head was more than twice my own height.

As I stepped backwards in amazement I tripped over something on the floor behind me and fell flat on my behind. The giant Leonora face chuckled and told me to be careful. I looked to see what I had stumbled over and discovered that it was a long, shiny black pole. As I sat there and looked about I saw that beside the cabinet I had stepped from was a top hat the size of a barrel. I also noticed that I wasn’t sitting on the hard wood stage floor but some kind of coarse red carpet. Finally I realized that I wasn’t looking at a giant illusion of Leonora. I was sitting on the stage table next to the small model of the cabinet and the pole’ I had tripped over was nothing but Leonora’s wand.

Somehow I had been transported into the cabinet on the little stage table and reduced to the size of a large doll! I sat dumbfounded, unable to comprehend how this could have happened. Finally Leonora leaned forward and spoke. “Well, how’s that for a finale? It’s not everyday that you see a pretty young lady turn into a real living doll.” As she smiled down at me I shivered and started to edge a little bit away from her. “Hey, where do you think you’re going, little lady?” she said, reaching toward me. I scrambled to my feet and tried to run but it was too late. Her fingers and thumb closed on my hips. The table rushed away as she swept me into the air and turned me to face her.

End Part 1

Copyright 1996, 2003, 2014 Sally Reynolds. All rights reserved.

Description
A Little Stage Magic

By Sally Reynolds

As long as I can remember I’d always been fascinated by carnivals, circuses and especially magicians. The freedom and mystery of the life on the road really appealed to me. I was no stranger to moving around; after my parents died I was shuffled from relative to relative until I felt like I never really had a home. My aunts and uncles took care of me well enough but I never really felt like I was part of a family. So I learned to be a loner, to take care of myself. I also learned how to escape from my real life into fantasies. I think that’s why the illusions of the carnival sideshows and the magicians appealed to me. I really wanted to believe there was real magic! So it really was no surprise that three weeks after my eighteenth birthday I said my good-byes to my family and struck out on my own.

I wasn’t so naive that I hooked up with a seedy sideshow. I had studied all the books on sleight of hand, illusions and escape artistry I could get my hands on. I was sure that a girl with my looks and figure would have no trouble finding work as a magician’s assistant. I’d even made my own costume, with careful attention to show off my long, trim legs and full breasts to their best advantage. My looks would get me my start. I’d learn how to play the audience and would eventually start my own act. It seemed like the perfect plan, no problems.

Well, not at first. After three months of auditions, rejections and disappointments I was down to my last few dollars and just about out of hope. I had no place to spend the night and too little money even for bus fare. Besides I was too proud to go crawling back to any of my relatives after making such a production of going off to find fame and fortune. I was scanning a newspaper in a little greasy spoon when I saw an ad that looked almost too good to be true. But there it was “Wanted: Magician’s assistant, must be willing to travel. Females only please.”

I called the number in the ad, got an address and an audition that afternoon. I just had a feeling my life was about to change. Though I had no idea just how much it was about to change. I showed up twenty minutes early and was so nervous I could barely sit still. The theater was small and kind of run down, not in the better part of town but I was in no position to be too picky. Ms. Contrata showed up twenty minutes late. At that point I was almost ready to give up hope. She had a charming manner, a disarming smile and a vague excuse. A few minutes later we were backstage in the theater.

After some fumbling around looking for a light switch we were standing on the stage, facing a few hundred empty seats. She showed me a room where I could change and told me to meet her on the stage in two minutes. Well, I knew that quick changes are part of a lot of acts so I’d taken the precaution of wearing my costume under my cloths. In less than a minute I was on the stage. Despite the stage lights I felt a shudder run down my spine. My arms were suddenly covered with goose bumps.

I was on stage at last, even without an audience it was exciting. I knew this audition would be different. Moments later Ms. Contrata walked onto the stage, now as “The Amazing Contrata”. This woman, who could have passed for a smoother than average sales woman just a moment before was now a magician. She moved across the stage with complete confidence. I hoped she didn’t notice my shaking! She smiled as she looked me over from head to toe then she had me turn completely around. She seemed very pleased but I was so nervous I thought I’d fall over.

She must have noticed my nervousness because she asked me if I would tell her a little bit about myself and why I wanted to get into this end of show business. We sat on some boxes at the back of the stage and I told her my story. I had only known her ten minutes and she had my whole life story in a fifteen. She was delighted to find that I had such a deep interest in magic and said that it would be very helpful that I wasn’t tied down with a lot of family responsibilities. Opening up to her in that way settled my nerves completely.

Now that I was completely relaxed we went back onto the stage to rehearse. Leonora Contrata was quite the performer, with lots of advice on how to move and play to the audience. Her act was all the usual stage magic, nothing I hadn’t seen in a half a dozen books. Still it was a start and at this point I needed any break I could get. After an hour of going over her act and what my part was we took a short break. I took this opportunity to mention my rather desperate financial situation. She told me not to worry, I was welcome to stay with her until we were on the road and I had some money coming in. I was afraid she was going to suggest something like that. I said I would feel better if she could just advance me a week’s wages.

Leonora smiled warmly and said she would take care of it. Then it was back on the stage to practice the act. Her easy acceptance of my refusal bothered me a little; she seemed to take it almost too easy. There really wasn’t any time to worry about it though, we had a lot of material to rehearse and I had a lot of cues to learn. We worked on a lot of pretty standard tricks, Leonora liked to use a lot of doves so she had a couple of cages, one with three beautiful white doves and one empty.

After a while she said she was ready to show me her grand finale, the only piece of real magic she could perform. She rolled a large, strange looking cabinet from a storage room behind the stage. It was gray, about seven feet high and covered with very strange marking. It looked more like something from a bad science fiction film than a magician’s cabinet. She opened it and removed a box about two feet high that looked more like a model of the big one than anything else. She placed this box on a small stage table beside her top hat and wand, all with a kind of hammy excitement.

The inside of the large cabinet was just as strange and unearthly as the outside. After a few moments fussing with the cabinet and the box she told me we were ready and instructed me to step into the cabinet. I hesitated a bit, unnerved by the look of the thing. A gentle pat on my bottom from Leonora ended my indecision and I stepped inside.

I only had a few seconds to examine the strange interior of the cabinet before Leonora closed the door and I was in total darkness. To make things worse he still hadn’t explained the illusion or what I was supposed to do. All she had said was to step inside and the box would do the rest. I didn’t have very long to wait before there was a bright flash, followed by the sickening feeling that I was in an elevator that had just dropped three floors. My head was spinning and my legs would barely support me, I leaned against the wall of the cabinet and shouted for Leonora to let me out of her stupid contraption. What had she done, dropped the entire thing through a trap door? That was crazy! Nobody did a disappearing act that way. I should have just opened a panel in the bottom and slipped through. As I regained my strength and composure I began to pound on the walls with my fist.

A moment later I heard Leonora telling me to just be patient in her usual soothing tone. I was completely blinded by the stage lights as the door opened and I stumbled outside. As my eyes adjusted to the light I recognized Leonora’s huge face smiling down at me! She looked absolutely enormous. Her face was at least three feet high and her shoulders were yards across. I could only see her from the waist up, as her legs seemed to be beneath the level of the floor. Even so from the floor to the top of her head was more than twice my own height.

As I stepped backwards in amazement I tripped over something on the floor behind me and fell flat on my behind. The giant Leonora face chuckled and told me to be careful. I looked to see what I had stumbled over and discovered that it was a long, shiny black pole. As I sat there and looked about I saw that beside the cabinet I had stepped from was a top hat the size of a barrel. I also noticed that I wasn’t sitting on the hard wood stage floor but some kind of coarse red carpet. Finally I realized that I wasn’t looking at a giant illusion of Leonora. I was sitting on the stage table next to the small model of the cabinet and the pole’ I had tripped over was nothing but Leonora’s wand.

Somehow I had been transported into the cabinet on the little stage table and reduced to the size of a large doll! I sat dumbfounded, unable to comprehend how this could have happened. Finally Leonora leaned forward and spoke. “Well, how’s that for a finale? It’s not everyday that you see a pretty young lady turn into a real living doll.” As she smiled down at me I shivered and started to edge a little bit away from her. “Hey, where do you think you’re going, little lady?” she said, reaching toward me. I scrambled to my feet and tried to run but it was too late. Her fingers and thumb closed on my hips. The table rushed away as she swept me into the air and turned me to face her.

End Part 1

Copyright 1996, 2003, 2014 Sally Reynolds. All rights reserved.