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The second half was more impressive than the first.
The tricks became progressively cleverer and harder
to explain, leaving the impression that the spectacle
might just grow forever. The couple were accomplished
at showmanship but they were accomplished at other things
too. Marketing, for instance.
The most impressed member of the audience sat alone
near the back of the auditorium, unnoticed by anyone,
not even by the few people who happened occasionally
to look at the spot where she sat. She knew quite a
lot about trickery and deception and she found it hard
to see how these tricks were done. She definitely wanted
to get a closer look at the flying if they did it again.
She had to wait until the end of the show. The man
handcuffed the woman's ankles together and fastened
a second pair of handcuffs to her wrists behind her
back. Both the performers rose into the air to hover
at each end of the front row of the Stalls. They faced
each other. The man produced a paper plate and held
it vertically before him. He let go and the plate floated,
almost motionless in the air. He leaned forward and
gently blew it. The audience watched as a drifted across
the stage and stopped directly in front of the girl's
eyes.
The man pulled a revolver and aimed it at his partner's
open mouth. To build the tension he kept the audience
waiting before he pulled the trigger. The gunshot was
loud. The bullet ripped through the paper plate which
fell into the audience. The girl's head seemed to recoil
with the impact but she did not fall. She turned and
spat the bullet onto the stage where it fell with a
clatter. Then she gave a lovely smile to the audience
who, understandably, must have been wondering about
her teeth.
Sue stood motionless. She sensed that the show would
soon end so she padded carefully down the stairs that
divided the two halves of the Dress Circle and willed
herself to climb into the air. Obediently her body rose
over the barrier and she floated high above the Stalls.
She drifted forward slowly, a little worried. Surely
there must be concealed wiring all around the room.
Still she could not see it but it must be there. Something
must have held the woman up.
The two performers stood like statues, still facing
each other while applause filled the room. On an impulse
Sue turned in the air and drifted backwards now towards
the stage. She had not stood on a stage since her last
graduation and she was curious to see what a rapturous
Broadway audience looked like. The sight that met her
eyes exceeded expectations. The vast sea of faces was
frightening and she quickly spun again to face the stage.
Like synchronized swimmers the performers each raised
their right arm and spun on their own axis to face the
audience. Though Sue was some distance from them she
found herself looking right into the man's eyes. She
looked down at her hands to check that she really was
invisible but deep down she was already sure. This happened
from time to time, purely by chance, in the street for
example. It didn't mean anything.
But this time it was different. The man's features
changed. The look of triumph and command was replaced
by one of disbelief and incredulity. Suddenly he fell,
maybe four feet. The audience gasped but he regained
his composure and slowly rose back to his original height.
Sue had no doubt why he had fallen. Both of the performers
were now looking directly at her, maintaining stage
smiles with visible difficulty.
She didn't know what to do so she simply flew forward
until she was over the stage itself. As she had expected
there were no wires at all. The two people were truly
flying just like herself and they could see her. She
flew around the woman, then over her, to make absolutely
sure. The woman's stage smile slipped even more but
she didn't move.
Sue could tell that she was bothering them so she let
herself out the stage door and was almost home by the
time the audience began to leave the theater. She had
some serious bits of thinking to get on with.
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