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The woman in blue turned to her partner, threw him
a mysterious, confident smile, slipped off her shoes
and walked to the front of the stage. She dipped like
a ballerina and then jumped. It was as simple as that.
Except she didn't land, she just kept rising into the
air.
James gulped in relief. The flying was another magic
trick. It had been insane to imagine that Sue could
be in the show, but she made no secret of the fact that
she worked in the evenings, and so many insane things
had happened in James' life recently that he was beginning
to find it easy to embrace them. It was less trouble
that way.
The woman rose elegantly to a height of maybe ten feet.
She arched her head backwards and her body seemed to
follow. She looped around slowly until she was upside
down with her head pointing directly down to the stage.
She bent her neck again to look at the audience. Her
chin almost brushed the stage at the bottom of the loop.
And then she was upright again, but with her toes a
few inches above the stage. She hung there for long
moments and smiled around the auditorium. Then she dropped
gracefully back to the ground and made a soft landing.
The audience began to applaud, but not loudly. James
saw that Ben was staring at the stage, clearly believing
that he'd truly seen someone fly. James, who had seen
someone fly, was less impressed. Like the rest of the
audience, he was looking for the wires.
Debbie turned to say something but then a gasp from
the audience pulled their attention back to the stage.
The woman had taken a step back and then run forward,
diving off the stage into the air with her arms pointing
ahead of her, palms and fingers pressed together.
People in the first few rows reached out to catch her
but she never fell. Instead she rose slowly, climbing
higher as she moved away from the stage. She stopped
above the sixth row, where James sat. She seemed to
be standing in mid air, a few feet above their heads.
The room was now silent. Slowly she rose into the air
until she was closer to the paneled roof than to the
seats below. She opened her arms so that her body formed
a T shape in the air. Then she opened her legs into
a splits, and grabbed her ankles with her hands. James
was looking directly up at her. He had feelings of awe
but there were other strong feelings mixed in with them.
It was, of course, a deliberate trick, to attract attention
where it could do least harm while the real sleight
of hand happened elsewhere, but James felt guilty anyway.
For distraction he tried to work out how the stunt was
done.
The woman straightened again, began to tip slowly to
one side, and then seemed to fall headlong towards the
rows of seating. People screamed as she dived directly
downwards but she pulled out of the dive at the last
moment and flew upwards, very fast, and passed through
a series of hoops suspended from the ceiling on wires
just a few feet long. Then she swooped down again from
the back of the auditorium, climbed over the stage,
hovered beside her partner, and then landed gracefully
again beside him. The applause started the instant her
feet touched ground, the curtains swung closed, and
the house lights blinked on.
"Wow," said James.
"Told you it was good," Kath grinned.
Sue needed the bathroom so she turned herself visible
and stood in line. Walking back to the auditorium she
met James.
"Hey, what are you doing here?"
She grinned. "I was bored and I wanted to see
the show."
"Where are you sitting?"
"On the stairs in the Dress Circle. It's a great
view. Hey, what did you think of that flying girl?"
"She's good. How does she do it?"
"That's just the thing," Sue said. "I
don't know. It really looks like she's flying."
"Oh, come on, this is a magic show. No one really
can fly." James stopped, realizing what he had
said. He stared for a moment. "Can they?"
"Careful. Your wife's coming this way."
James turned and caught Debbie's eye. Sure enough she
was walking right towards him. He began to think of
a cover story to explain how he know Sue but she was
already gone so, instead, he tried to form his features
into an easy smile and kissed Deb as she passed.
"You fraud," said a voice in his ear. "I'll
go inviz for the second half and take a closer look."
"No?" he began, but he felt the air swish
as she flew away. "Be careful."
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