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James' First Magic

by Vaughan

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James grew up fairly normally until the age of thirteen. He had loving parents, and a sister who he actually got on with, more in the spirit of lacking anyone else to be a close friend. The family lived on the edge of a small village with no other children of approximately their ages, Kelly, his sister, was sixteen months older than James. All their friends they made at school lived in the town and so were not available for play in the evenings or weekends.

Six months ago, a new family had moved into the village. This family had a boy and a girl between James' and Kelly's ages; they were called Mike and Natasha ('Nat' for short). As luck would have it this family moved in next door, which in this village meant that the houses were less than a quarter mile apart. The space between the houses and out the back was a wood, which was considered by both sets of parents to be safe enough to allow the children to play unattended so long as they remained in ear-shot.

James, Nat, Mike and Kelly (in ascending order of age) soon became firm friends and, chores permitting, they played together in the woods as much as they could. While being eldest Kelly was nominally in charge, Mike sometimes used his superior physical power to get his way. In their games they invented elaborate worlds, their favorite was a heroes and sorcerers fantasy where the main object seemed to be the rescuing of princesses and the slaying of a vast amount of mythical fauna. On those days when rescuing princesses was the game, James all too often was forced to be the baddy; some evil magician, who, because of a lust for power or some other twisted reason, had kidnapped the princess and the other two would come to the rescue, slaying the magician in the process. While resenting the fact that he rarely got be a rescuer, he had had it pointed out to him by his father that he could consider this a compliment, because if he was no good as the abductor he would not be asked to do it as often; so James played the role to the best of his ability.

On this particular day, Kelly had opted to be the princess in need of rescue and, of course, James was the evil magician who had captured her; the other two were to come and do the rescuing. James' first order of business was to tie Kelly to a tree, so he did not to have to worry about having to recapture her. This was achieved by a couple of turns of rope round the tree and Kelly's waist tied in a simple knot in front of Kelly; the rules said that Kelly was not allowed to untie herself unless real danger threatened or their parent's called, otherwise she had to be released. After about five minutes they were both getting bored with waiting for the others to turn up, so the conversation turned to what they should do next. The usual thing to do was to change location, leaving an obvious trail to be followed. As usual, when James untied Kelly she made a bid for freedom, but James was fast enough to tackle her to the ground in a soft pile of leaves and tickle her into submission. Handing the end of the rope to Kelly, James told her that her hands were tied. He led her off both dragging their feet to make a
recognizable trail. Initially, James did not have any ideas of where he was relocating to, until he noticed the wood-shed. The wood-shed was the ideal place for a magician to hole up, once it had been converted in the minds-eye into a fortress stronghold. There was the big main door and a smaller backdoor so that he could, if he felt he was losing, escape and try to capture someone before the party got back to base.

James opened the doors wide and switched on the light. Next he looked for somewhere to tie Kelly and saw the crate their father had used to transport his guns when they had moved here.

"Ok, Princess Kelly," James sneered, in his best evil sorcerer voice, "Get in the crate."

"I won't!" objected Kelly, "It's full of filth and spiders and things; I'll get my dress filthy. And it's too small; I can't fit in there." She was right on both counts.

James saw that Kelly was right so he 'tied' her to a chair. After a minute or so tickling his sister palled and his thoughts turned back to the crate. He thought of the possibilities for future adventures it presented; his imagination pictured the fun he, as the sorcerer, would have, terrorizing Kelly or Nat by threatening to saw them in half once he had them in the crate; and it would add a new urgency to the rescuing party. Of course, he would never consider sawing either girl for real, he knew better than that. He turned to the crate. With some effort he lifted the sturdy box onto the workbench so that he could work on it. The first thing he
realized was that it was definitely too small to get either of the girls into, but it would work if it was longer, so he took up a hammer and started knocking out the ends of the box. It did not take long to knock the ends off the box and add a bar across the top of each end to prevent a struggling occupant from bursting out the walls of the crate, then he checked that the lid still fitted, which it did.

Kelly was a bit bored of waiting to be rescued and there was little point in trying to escape if James was not paying attention to make it fun. "What are you doing, James?" Kelly asked, mainly to get his attention.

Without turning round James paused in his hammering and said, "I'm just making this crate so you can get in it."

"Why?" asked Kelly, hoping James would get back into his evil wizard character and do some gloating, which she knew to be the downfall of a lot of the villains on the television and in films.

James caught the tone of voice that Kelly was using and turned to his sister. "Well, my sweet princess, the box you see before you," he said, stroking her jaw with the hammer he still had in his hand, "is to imprison you while I saw you in half so you can not interfere with my plans to take over the kingdom."

It was Kelly's turn to drop out of character and shriek, "What?!? Mum and dad would never let you."

Hardly skipping a beat, James sneered, "The desires of the king and queen don't matter here. You are my prisoner." James then said as himself, "Besides I wouldn't do it for real, 'cause I would get in trouble and you would get hurt."

"So what are you doing?" Kelly asked again.

"I just thought something like this would add some excitement and danger to the game. So until the others turn up, I'm going to fix up this box. Can you see something to sweep the dirt and spiders out with?"

"Sure, there's a brush over there," Kelly said pointing, which was a breach of the rules of the game, but forgivable.

It turned out that there were two brushes, so James picked the small hand brush and swept the dust and cobwebs from the inside the box. Soon the inside of the box was almost cleaner than the chair Kelly sat on and certainly would not significantly add to the dirt already on Kelly's pale blue sun dress and the whitish T-shirt underneath from rubbing against the tree and rolling in the leaves.

James stood Kelly up and moved the chair so that its back was against the work bench. "Right, up you go! I'm not going to wait for the others." He helped Kelly step up onto the bench and lie in the box, because she needed to shuffle down the box so that she could shuffle back up it with her head under the bar holding the sides together. At Kelly's insistence James arranged her hair and helped tuck her feet under the bar at the other end. James picked up the lid of the box and pushed it firmly into place. Kelly brought up her knee and tried to knock it open but James was able to hold it shut, but it gave enough to make Kelly happy that she could get out if necessary. James looked at the tools and selected the largest handsaw he thought he could handle. Looking Kelly in the eyes, James addressed the crate with the saw and made his first tentative stroke, until a splinter on the edge gave way and the rasp of saw on wood was heard. A more strokes and James was getting his stride, when the tip of the saw caught on the bench and sent a shudder up his arm.

Caught off guard by the sudden stopping of the sawing, Kelly asked, "What happened? Why did you stop sawing?" She was hoping that Natasha and Mike had turned up or that James had had a better idea of something to do.

"I just caught the saw on the bench and jarred my elbow. Give me moment for my arm to stop tingling, then I shall start again," James explained.

"You had better be careful, James, or Dad will give you such a shouting at for damaging his bench," observed Kelly.

James looked at the saw, the crate and the bench, then asked Kelly, "So how am I meant to saw you in half without marking Dad's bench?"

Kelly took a moment to look around and pointed out the sawhorses. James got the idea straight away. It did not take much time to move a sawhorse into position and drag the box so that the foot end rested on it; the head end remained on the bench. It took little while longer to adjust the situation so that where James wanted to saw was beyond the edge of the bench and make Kelly comfortable and settled again.

James put the saw into the shallow slot that he had started to make. "I can't see what's happening in there; so tell me if I'm getting too close, I don't really want to hurt you and I'd probably get in trouble if I snagged your dress, even by accident."

Kelly did not particularly dislike the dress, but it was not her favorite; so she planned to let James catch it with his saw, thus giving her something to hold over James for next few weeks. Her plan was to wait until he caught her dress with the saw, before telling him to stop. She nodded to James.

James went to the task with enthusiasm now that he thought his sister was going to keep an eye on where the saw blade was. Soon the slot in the box went from half way down the side to half way across the top and James' sawing had taken on a comfortable rhythm that he could keep up forever, it seemed. Kelly took a look down her body check on the progress of the saw and reckoned that two more strokes would bring the teeth of the saw into contact with her dress and a further two stroke would create the gash in her dress that she was scheming to achieve. After the first two of these strokes James shuddered to a halt again. Kelly was disappointed, because while the saw touched her dress, there was not any damage that could not be easily blamed on brambles.

"You've stopped again. What wrong this time?" asked Kelly frustrated that her plan for a hold on her brother was not coming together.

James leaned over the box and looked to see what had stopped his sawing. "I think there's a knot in the way. It'll just take a bit of extra force to get started again." James paused, then asked, "you alright in there?"

"Yeah, I'm alright. You'd be surprised how small I can scrunch up, when I need to."

"Ok, but tell me before I get to you, because I'm sure it'll hurt and we'll catch it from Mum for ruining your clothes."

Kelly gave James a reassuring smile. James made several attempts to get the saw started through the knot. Suddenly the knot gave way and the saw slipped. The saw skittered forward and the leading edge of the blade dropped nearly two inches. Kelly let out a scream; more of surprise at the sudden movement than from pain, but she did feel some pain as the teeth of the saw bit into the soft flesh just above her hips. James joined Kelly screaming. It took them some moments to calm down.

An expression of worry took over James' features. "I'm sorry! The saw slipped. Are you alright?"

Kelly lay completely still, for fear that she might make whatever had happened to her worse. In a small voice she said, "I don't know." James gave her a blank look. "Well, I definitely felt the saw cut me, but it doesn't hurt; it's more like a tingle. And if I was cut I feel sure I would be bleeding horribly, but I can't feel any blood; you know how if you get cut you can feel the blood well up and then flow down, well I can't feel that." Kelly, feeling a bit less nervous, raised her head to see if she could see what damage, if any, had been done. When she looked, she let out a little squeal of terror and froze again.

"What is it?" asked James concerned, because his sister was suddenly frightened again.

"Come and have a look and please tell me I am not seeing it," Kelly begged.

"Seeing what?" enquired James as he came to the head of the crate in which his sister lay. When he looked down the tunnel of the box, he saw what had so frightened her and could feel panic rising in himself. The view down the box might have been the normal view had it not been for the fact that a smallish piece of the saw was hidden in the bulge of Kelly's hip. James was not sure what to do, except to advise Kelly not to move. He scuttle to the other end of crate and looked in in the hope of discovering that what he had seen had be an optical illusion, but exactly the same amount of blade was hidden.

"You know, Kelly, I think I've cut you with the saw. How come you aren't screaming blue murder, 'cause that must hurt."

Kelly paused for introspection before replying. "Like I said, it doesn't hurt, just tingles. Perhaps you should take it out."

James returned to the middle of the box and thought for a moment about the best method of removing the saw-blade from his sister's hip. He decided on drawing it smoothly and slowly from the box straight towards him. He started this process and stopped again when Kelly giggled.

"Kelly, hold still will you! because I might do more harm if you are jiggling about," instructed James.

"But it tickles," complained Kelly.

After few abortive attempts to move the saw with provoking a giggle, James experimentally pushed the saw instead and heard it cutting into the wood again, but Kelly did not laugh and much to his surprise she did not scream either. "How did that feel?" he asked.

"Well, I don't know how to describe it. It didn't tickle or hurt, but it sort of tingled in the middle and prickled at the edges."

James went back to the head end of the box and had another look at the saw blade that penetrated his sister's middle. He saw that the blade had dug deeper into Kelly than it previously was. He was worried that the only way he had found to move the blade that did not tickle her deepened the cut.

James sat on the chair for a moment wondering what to do. His dilemma was that he could either try removing the blade, which caused Kelly to jiggle under the blade and possibly cause her more injury; or he could continue sawing which did not seem to hurt her, but seemed to store up other terrors. After pondering this tricky problem for a couple of minutes, he decided to ask Kelly for her thoughts.

Kelly expended several more minutes thought on the trouble they seemed to be in. "Well, it seems to me that you are being a magician, and some of the magicians I've seen on tele cut their assistants in half and then put them back together again. So I'll stay as still as I can and you keep sawing, because the magic is obviously working."

"But," objected James, "I'm not a real magician."

"Neither are the magicians on the TV; they aren't REAL magicians, they just know the trick of sawing someone in half and putting them back together," Kelly pointed out.

"But I don't know the trick of sawing people in half or putting them back together."

"You seem to have the sawing people in half right, otherwise I'd have bled to death by now, so carry on. I think it might be kind of neat to be in two bits."

"Are you sure?" asked James, "I mean if Mum and Dad discover that I cut you in half, you will back me up, won't you?"

Kelly nodded. "This will be our secret. We won't tell them about it at all. You know if they find out, they are bound to get the wrong end of the stick and go loopy about it."

James gave Kelly a questioning look, which said that he wasn't sure that trusting his sister in this was going to be a good idea, but she smiled and nodded again. He moved back to the saw handle which swayed because Kelly was not keeping totally still. He grasped the handle in a positive grip.

"Are you ready?" he asked. "Keep still and tell me at once if it feels different or worse or whatever."

After the Ok from his sister, James began to saw through the box again. Kelly craned her head up to see what was happening as the blade sank deeper into her flesh with each stroke. James was soon sawing at an easy pace which did not tire his arm much. Kelly watch the saw cut into her hip by stages. The saw was making a steeper angle in the box as James sawed further. When the edge reached the edge of Kelly's spine James slowed down a bit.

"Why have you slowed down?" she asked.

"It's a bit harder," commented James. "Am I sawing something that's harder?"

"I think you've just hit my backbone."

James grunted and carried on. After several strokes James' pace picked up again. It was not long after that that he began sawing the side of the box and the angle of his sawing became shallower again. Shortly after that he completed sawing through his sister, but went on sawing the wood.

"Your through. You can stop sawing," Kelly informed James.

"Yes? Oh good. I'll just finish sawing the box."

"Why?" asked Kelly.

James paused to think of an answer that sounded reasonable, because he was only carrying on sawing because it felt right, which he did not believe Kelly would understand. Having gathered his thoughts, he said, "You were saying I was doing it like the TV magicians and they saw right through, besides how else an I going to get the saw out without doing more damage." James continued sawing.

As James sawed through the last piece, the half of the crate containing Kelly's legs suddenly became unsupported except by the sawhorse under the end that her feet stuck out of. Gravity did its work and the lower half of the crate toppled to the floor. James was the first to scream, when he saw it start to fall. Kelly quickly joined in when she felt the jolt of the box hitting the floor.

"What happened? What happened?" asked Kelly urgently. She wanted to know what had occurred, because she had felt her legs tip up and then felt and heard the crash as the hip end of the lower half had landed on the floor.

Kelly continued to ask what had happened, while James gaped in disbelief and terror at what he had done. On the bench James could see the upper half of the crate with Kelly's head visible at the far end. At the near end at the now open middle of the box he could see an oval of skin fringed by the frayed edge of Kelly's dress. Below, between the end of the bench and the sawhorse, was the upturned lower half of the crate with Kelly's feet waving out of the top. A glimpse down the box gave an unusual view of Kelly's legs, but her hips were obscured by the way the skirt of her dress had fallen.

At last, James surfaced from the deep places of fear and astonishment. "I think we should have had another of those trestle things supporting the bottom of the box, 'cause when I finished sawing through it fell down."

"And what's happened to me?" enquired Kelly in a sharp tone that told James that she did not care what had befell the box.

"Umm, I think I sawed you in half, you know, completely," James hesitantly said. "You seem to be alright in the top half, but your legs are in the bottom half, on the floor."

"You what!" screamed Kelly.

"I was only do what you told me. You know, sawing you in half like a TV magician, like you said," complained James in an attempt to deflect the blame. "But things didn't go the way they usually do in the tele."

"Well, get me out of here and put me back together, pronto, before Mum or Dad catches us."

James pointed out that the magicians he had seen do not usually take their divided assistants out of the boxes. Kelly countered by pointing out that proper magicians, even TV magicians, do not drop half their assistants on the floor. Despite protests from Kelly, he started by pulling the legs out the box. It took care and coordination, but eventually Kelly's legs were hanging by their knees from James' shoulders with his arms wrapped round her thighs to prevent them falling off. He moved the chair back to where Kelly could see it and with some effort managed to sit them on it.

"Are those my legs?" asked Kelly in wonder.

"I suppose so. You seem to control them in a sort of way and I know you can feel them, because you complained about that splinter I had to take out."

She thought about that for a moment, then said, "My legs are getting cold, where's my dress? I'm almost nude."

"I think you're still wearing the top half, but the bottom half is still the box." James tipped the fallen half of the box and extracted the fabric that had been the skirt of Kelly's dress. He held it nervously and asked Kelly what he should do with it, because it did not look as though it would be much use as a dress any more.

Kelly did not answer that question but demanded that her upper half be released from the confines of the crate. With a quick motion that took Kelly by surprise, James lifted, turned and twisted the box so that Kelly was upright without falling from the box.

"What did you do that for?" asked Kelly in a tone that indicated that she had been surprised, but tried to disguise it under offense.

"Well, I thought it would probably be easier to sort out the box once you were upright and could help a bit," justified James. Kelly proved him right by bursting the lid from the box. It clattered on the floor. James picked up a hammer and advanced on the encase Kelly. He raised the hammer and brought it down. He used the claw to free the piece of wood that he had fitted to stop the sides bursting out. Free of this restraint, Kelly quickly collapsed the remainder of the crate.

Kelly checked herself. Half her, from about an inch below her navel upwards, was upright on the workbench, while the rest of her sat cross-legged on the chair six feet away, facing her. From hip to hip stretched an expanse of bare flesh. Experimentally she twitched a foot, then she tried the other foot. She changed the way her legs were crossed. She became fascinated to see her legs as other people saw them, instead of foreshortened, when she looked down, or reversed, when see looked in a mirror.

In her concentration Kelly did not notice what James was doing. When he made a tickling attack on the cut area at the top of her hips, she was helpless to do anything but squeal, squirm and giggle. In the melee that followed Kelly's legs fell off of the chair and landed quite hard on the floor.

When sanity was restored, James helped return Kelly's legs to the seat. "Now what?" James asked.

Kelly looked at her watch and replied, "It's nearly lunch time; perhaps you should put me back together, before Mum and Dad find out."

"How?" asked James, puzzled.

"The TV magicians just put their assistants together and let them out of the box, whole."

"But you aren't in the box. In fact you broke the box."

Kelly instructed, "Just put this half," indicating the majority of her torso, "on that half," pointing at her legs.

"OK," said James dubiously, "But what if the halves don't line up?"

"Don't worry. They'll line up. They've got to line up."

It was quite a struggle to lift Kelly's body from the workbench and across the gap to her waiting legs, but James managed this. When Kelly's waist sat above her hips it was quite obvious that the two parts had not joined. James suggested that she move about for a while until she got every thing back where it used to be, maybe then it would merge together.

They were interrupted by their mother calling them in for lunch.

"What are we going to do? We can't let Mum know you've been sawn in half, she'd hit the roof," observed James in a minor panic.

"Are you sure you can't fit me back together?" asked Kelly.

"I don't think I know. I certainly can't think how, now."

"Then we will have to hide it."

With panic setting in, James' brain was not working at all efficiently. "That's no good. If we hide your legs, it will be dead obvious you're in two bits."

"No, you idiot. I mean, hide the fact I'm in halves, by acting whole; if you see what I mean."

"You mean, like, you go in to lunch with your top half balanced on your legs, then we try and sort this out afterwards, right?"

"Exactly, James. I'm sure I can do it."

"But what if you lose balance? You'll end up falling apart."

"That's why I need your help. You are going to have to hold on to me so that I don't come apart."

"And you'll have to change when we get home, 'cause your dress is a mess."

It did not take long for James to get the hang of half supporting, half carrying his sister and they discovered that with care Kelly could stand still, but not walk unaided. The journey back home was tricky, but otherwise straight forward enough. Getting past the watchful eye of mother was less easy, but they made it in unseen by going in the side door instead of the back door. They nearly lost Kelly's legs going up the stairs, but once at the top they breathed a sigh of relief.

"Kelly? James? Is that you? Dinner's in ten minutes" called their mother.

"OK," they replied in unison. James added, "We're going to change and wash our hands."

"Alright Dears. The first one ready can lay the table," their mother called back.

"What am I going to wear to cover the cut?" whispered Kelly to James.

"I don't know. You'll think of something. But it had better hold you together as well as covering. You know it would be embarrassing if you top half fell off at lunch."

James helped Kelly into her bedroom and sat her on her bed and then darted off to change his jeans and shirt. He did a cursory wash of his hands and then looked in on his sister.

"How's it coming?" enquired James.

"I've got it worked out, but I can't reach what I need from here."

"What do you need and where is it? I'll get it for you and then go and lay the table for Mum so she doesn't get suspicious. I'll come back after that to help down the stairs. OK?"

Kelly said she was going to wear one of her one piece swimsuits to hold her together and cover that with a dress. James pick the required clothes from the drawers and cupboard, then went downstairs.

It was a struggle for Kelly to fit first her legs and then her torso into the swimsuit, but once her arms were in the arm-holes, she could get up and move about if she was careful. This allowed her to put the dress on over the swimsuit, but she still did not feel particularly stable and could quite imagine herself falling backwards off her legs, which would be such a give away. A little thought presented a solution. I took a few moments to hunt through her collection of accessories to find her widest belt, which she tied round her at the level of the cut. It made her feel a lot better. When James got back, she was in the bathroom washing her hands.

A quick whispered conversation, established an excuse for James helping Kelly, then they went down to eat a meal with their parents. Kelly managed to walk to the top of the stairs then lost her nerve, so James helped out. When asked what they were doing, James said that Kelly had tripped on a root, but she would be alright. The meal was nerve-wracking, because of the guilty, but the half hour that they spent sitting around 'digesting' was worse. Finally they were allowed to go out again, but Kelly was warned to watch where she was going.

They went straight to the place where they usually met Mike and Natasha. When James and Kelly arrived it was obvious that the others were hiding behind a particular bush, so James picked up a stick and lobbed it at the bush and shouted, "Seen ya!"

Slightly sheepishly, Natasha and then Mike emerged from behind the bush.

"Where were you?" She pointed at James, "He took me to the wood shed and sawed me in half."

Mike ignored the comment about what happened and launched into an excuse about chores not done and being called in to complete them.

Natasha stared at Kelly in disbelief. "Are you serious, that James sawed you in half? or was that just in the game?"

Kelly ran a couple of answers through her head before replying. "Yeah, he really sawed me in half, Nat." Natasha looked skeptical. "He really did."

"Your kidding!" Nat exclaimed.

"No, serious. Cross my heart and hope to die."

Natasha turned to James. "Did you really saw Kelly in half? with a real saw and everything. You know like the magicians on the tele."

James looked her straight in the eyes and nodded confirmation.

"Can you do it to me? I've always thought it would be frightfully glamorous to be sawed in two by a wizard." Natasha was getting giggly in her excitement.

"I don't know. I, kind of, sawed Kelly by accident, and maybe I should learn how to put her back together before I start on anyone else."

Mike chimed in. "How can you saw through someone by accident? It doesn't make any sense."

Between them, James and Kelly described the events of the morning as they all wandered to the woodshed.

By the time they arrived at the scene of the morning's strange occurrences, the question had turned to was Kelly really still in two pieces.

James helped Kelly sit down. Kelly was carefully not to sit on the skirts of her dress. "I'll show you that I'm definitely still in two parts," said Kelly. Kelly pulled one arm up through her sleeve and unhooked the shoulder-strap of the swimsuit and pushed it back down the short sleeve. She repeated the process with her other arm and also moved the costume further down her body. "Ok, Now you two lift my top half onto the bench," she instructed, indicating Mike and James.

Cautiously, the boys took an arm each and lifted. To the astonishment of all present, they succeeded in raising Kelly while her legs remained sat on the chair and occupying the lower part of the swimming costume. Mike was so surprised he let go. Fortunately Kelly grabbed his arm and held on until he recovered. With a bit of to-ing and fro-ing they between them got Kelly's bottomless torso comfortably positioned on the workbench. After his exertions, Mike went to sit on the chair only to realize that Kelly's lower half was still sitting there. He went and sat next to Kelly's top half, by putting the lid from the top half of the crate across the upturn lower half making himself a seat. Natasha had found a moderately comfortable spot on the tarp that covered the wood pile. James looked around and settled for the stump used for splitting wood on. Silence descended, except for minor fidgeting and the small sounds from the wood outside.

At last, Kelly found the silence too oppressive and said, "Shouldn't we be trying to figure out how to put me back together, instead of gaping and staring into space?"

"I suppose so," conceded Mike, "but I don't know anything about magic or whatever. I seen some on the TV, but it doesn't show how it was done. I always thought that it looked a bit fake, but I never thought it could be real, that would just be impossible."

"So, you think the fact that I'm here and over there is impossible," challenged Kelly.

James could sense a pointless argument brewing so he stepped in to calm the situation, "I'm sure he didn't mean that." He paused to check Mike and Kelly's reaction to this intervention. Mike seemed to about to tactlessly clarify his statement, so James ploughed on. "Discussing whether we believed in magic before this is pointless. We need to get Kelly whole again, before our parents find out; so we can keep it a secret." James looked pointedly at Natasha and added, "And I am not going to try anything else, until my sister is fixed."

It went quiet again, while they thought about the possibility of being able to do magic, if their parents did not find out, and how to reassemble Kelly.

"I don't know. In fact how are we meant to know how to unsaw a person?" said Mike.

"Umm, well. I thought we might be able to work out what went wrong when I was doing it and then think of a way of sort of sorting that out and that might fix Kelly," replied James.

"In that case, we had better go through what you did and see if we can spot what you missed out or did that you shouldn't have," suggested Mike.

"Why don't you demonstrate on me?" suggested Natasha.

"That might be a good idea, Nat, if we knew he could do it again. And even if he could, we would have both you girls on halves and we wouldn't be any further forward, now would we," reasoned Mike, who seemed to be in charge at the moment.

James described how he had made the box so that Kelly could get into it. They came to the joint conclusion that there could not be much wrong with the box, because what James had done to prepare it had been so simple. The things that they could think of that might be wrong with the box were the fact that is was a great deal more solid that most magician's boxes and it was not designed to be divided in two, but neither of these items seemed to be the cause of Kelly's circumstance.

James and Kelly went on the tell how James had got Kelly into the box. James emphasized that Kelly had got in of her own free will. The consensus was that these factors probably were more likely to have helped in preventing harm than causing it. Natasha pointed out that nearly all the magicians she had seen had used neck and foot stocks. They agreed that this was something that James not done. They pondered how that would have any effect on the outcome and concluded that it probably it would not. James also suggested that they might be to prevent the victim from getting up quickly, in which case the battens of wood he had added across the ends may have served that same function as the stocks inadvertently.

The four of them argued good-naturedly about whether the saw James had selected had been the correct blade for the job. Natasha thought that he ought to have used a power saw, but James pointed out that they were very dangerous and anyway his Dad kept it locked up in the tool cupboard. Mike observed that, of all the saws available, the saw James had chosen was noticeably the sharpest. He also told them, that when he had been given a penknife for his birthday, his father had insisted it be kept sharp, so that when he did eventually cut himself, it would heal better. The implication was that by choosing the sharpest saw James had increased the chances of healing Kelly.

The fact of how the accident that had started this mess had happened did not seem to have much relevance, because the sawing had to start somehow. The boys thought the feelings and sensations that Kelly had experienced during the sawing were not
germane to what had gone awry, but Nat pressed the point. Natasha's motive for asking these questions was to find out if being sawn hurt so that she knew what to expect if and when she got the chance to try it.

Discussion turned to the separation. Mike and Natasha both pointed out that all the magicians they had seen, without exception, had put separating blades in place before parting the two parts of the assistant. This seemed to be the fundamental error in the actions that James had performed; the rest of what had occurred only compounding this first oversight. The friends speculated wildly on why blades might be necessary. The theory that they held in the assistant's innards, was soon discarded as flawed; firstly because if the sawing went like Kelly's the cut was skin covered and did not need holding in; and secondly, as James pointed out, they had never seen any leakage of blood or anything else from the parted halves of a magician's box. Kelly proposed the hypothesis that somehow the presence of blades aided the process of making the assistant whole again afterward.

The next problems that they thought about was that of finding some blades to try it out, and supplementary puzzle of how to use them if they could find them.

"So we're looking for some blades to, sort of, make the separation official, so that it can be undone," clarified Nat. "But what kind of blade and how many?"

"All the blades I've ever heard of were metal," remarked Kelly, who was feeling a bit left out.

"Reckon we are going to need two and they're going to need to be big enough to cover the cut," added Mike. "Any ideas?"

A quick hunt about, did not uncover any sheets of metal and even the largest of the saws was too narrow. A gloom descended, until Mike brightened up; "Nat, do you think Dad's got some metal in his workshop?"

"Great idea," agreed Natasha, "You and James go and borrow some and I'll keep Kelly company."

This being the obvious division of labor, nobody objected. While James and Mike went to find some metal, Natasha and Kelly talked some more about what it had been like being sawn in two. Then Natasha confided her secret desire to be a magician's assistant. "You know, ever since I saw my first magician, I've want to be the
glamorous assistant. I think it's the thought of having unusual things done to me; like being sawing into pieces, or having swords stuck through me, or vanishing and reappearing somewhere else. But I want to see it happening; you know not be
hypnotized. And I worried that it might hurt. If James can really do magic and it really doesn't hurt that much, I'd love him to saw me in half or whatever."

Kelly thought about Natasha's fantasy and had too agree it sounded interesting, but, at the moment, she was worried that she would remain in two halves forever; a prospect that she did not relish.

It took the boys about ten minutes to return with a couple of thin steel sheets.

"What did you tell Dad, when you borrowed those?" asked Natasha.

After a short embarrassed pause, Mike said, "Nothing, he doesn't know we've got them. Besides, we'll get them back before he notices." Natasha shot him a look that told Mike that if they were found out, she would deny knowing anything about it.

"Ok, shall we get on with this, please," encouraged Kelly. "Anyway, How are we going to do it?"

There were blank looks all round. Finally Kelly suggested, "Let's put one sheet on top of my legs and put the other under me here and then you can carry me over there and reunite my halves; OK?"

This seemed as good a plan as any, so they folded down Kelly's swimsuit and carefully placed the first sheet of steel on the flat expanse of skin where her belly should have been. It took a while to get the steel in place, because when Kelly fidgeted the slope of her cut changed and the steel threatened to slide off. "Will you try and keep still, Kelly," James admonished. Positioning the second blade took all four of them; Mike and James lifted Kelly's torso, Kelly raised her dress so that it was out of the way and Natasha slide the steel into position underneath, so that the boys could lower Kelly onto it. With the plates in place, the next stage was the carry Kelly to her legs; to do this the lads picked up the steel from the workbench and, with a little extra support from Natasha to keep it level, so that Kelly did not topple off, they struggled the few feet to the chair where Kelly's legs sat. Lowering Kelly onto her hips left them all feeling the strain in their arms. They took a breather before trying to line Kelly's top and bottom.

"Now that we've got the blades in place and you're as aligned as we can make you, Kelly. How do we take the blades out without mucking all that up?" queried Natasha.

Mike and James exchanged puzzled looks. The stunned silence continued until Kelly said, "I know! Nat, you hold my waist, while Huey and Dewey here pull out the blades."

Natasha, Mike and James got into position and on a count of three from Kelly, they all pulled. The blades came out smoothly until they were resting on top of Kelly's thighs. Unfortunately, all they had succeeded in doing was transferring Kelly's torso onto her lap.

"I'm sorry, but I just couldn't hold on. I wasn't ready," apologized Natasha.

"That's alright," reassured Kelly, "I didn't really expect it to work, but I had hoped." Kelly paused to examine the feelings she had felt as the steel blade had moved against the skin covered cut. "If what I felt is anything to go by, I think we're on the right track."

"What did you feel?" asked Natasha.

A puzzled expression crossed Kelly's face, "I'm not sure, exactly. I don't think I can put it into proper words. It, sort of, felt like the expectation of good feelings."

"If you're right," observed Mike, "we've just got to find a way of pulling the blades out without putting you out of alignment at the same time."

The four friends considered this. Natasha was the first to speak. "We've been following how TV magicians do this, haven't we. So why not carry on? The assistant is always made whole while still lying in the box."

"It's a bit late for that," chipped in Kelly.

"I wasn't thinking about the box bit of it, but the important thing is that they are lying down, which helps here as well," countered Natasha. "If Kelly was flat, we wouldn't have to hold her in place and the blades would be much easier to take out."

Between them they cleared a patch of floor and with some care arranged Kelly, holding her divided halves apart with the two metal sheets. Taking precautions to avoid dropping it, Mike lifted the first thin rectangle of steel from Kelly. Under the anxious gazes of James, Mike and Natasha, Kelly smiled and commented, "That feels right. Now pull the other blade out and I'll probably be back together."

"Well, here goes," said Mike taking a firm grasp on the second blade and beginning
to pull.

As the blade was gradually raised, Natasha took the opportunity to see what was happening. She could see that, as the blade was withdrawn, the space that it had occupied was now flesh that joined Kelly's upper and lower halves. Kelly's reaction was causing James and Mike more concern. Kelly's smile grew broader and broader and then she began to laugh; at first a tightly controlled laugh but that grew louder and wilder, until the only description would have been hysterical. At this stage the blade had been totally removed and there was no obvious evidence on Kelly's exposed flesh of her ever having been cut. Mike turned and put down the blade. Kelly continued to laugh and giggle like a maniac. James took the action he had seem in many movies to bring hysterical people to their senses; he slapped her on the cheek.

Instantly, the laughter stopped. "What did you do that for?" asked an aggrieved Kelly.

"You were hysterical," stated James. Natasha nodded her agreement.

"It felt so good I just had to let it show," said Kelly, in an attempt to justify her loss of control. As she calmed down she reached her hands down to the area where the division had been to check for herself that she was now complete. "Am I really back together?" she asked, not totally believing her senses.

"It looks like your whole. Do you feel whole?" asked Natasha.

"I'm not really sure I was ever really felt divided," commented Kelly.

James knelt down and kissed his sister. "It's good to have you back in one piece, Sis," he added.

"Don't just leave me lying on the floor. Help me up!" demanded Kelly. With a nagging fear that Kelly might fall apart, the other three help her upright. Once up she turned round and adjusted her clothes. "That was quite an adventure," she remarked. "What next?"

"Can I be next?" asked Natasha, who having seen Kelly's reaction was even more sure that being a magician's assistant was something she wanted to try.

James looked worried, "I don't know," he said. "I'm not really sure if I can do it again; it's not as if I've been practicing for years. And don't know exactly what I did, what with doing it by accident, and all. Besides, we haven't got a box. And I don't thing there's time as we've got to get the metal back to your dad's workshop before he misses it." James was trying to find as many reasons to not do it again before he could think about what he had done and had had time to come to terms with it.

Natasha pulled a sour face of disappointment. This made James feel guilty. "Well, as we haven't got time today, I promise if I can still do it tomorrow, I will do it to you." While still disappointed, Natasha's expression lightened. She agreed to the deal.

It took a little while to tidy up the evidence of their activities in the woodshed and carry the metal plates back the Mike and Nat's place. It was then time for tea.

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Each of the friends dreamed of there experience. Kelly's dream was warm and fuzzy; heavily influenced by the pleasure she had felt when being restored. Natasha's dream was more about the possibilities of being sawn in two and being able to do strange stuff. Mike's dream involved sawing his least favorite teacher in half, which felt perversely satisfying. James' dream soon turned into a nightmare, as he was surrounded by a mob of the girls at school all complaining that he had sawn them in half and not put them together right. He woke up screaming and found it difficult to get back to sleep.

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