Now is she still alright? I looked at Veronica and waited until she opened her eyes again. She breathed a sigh of relief, and recomposed herself. She started to smile again, almost triumphantly. I didn't have to ask her, she seemed to be telling me that the magic trick worked just fine. Veronica turned to the audience and gave them her biggest smile that she could manage at the moment. She also moved her feet for the audience to show that her legs were still alright. Her feet fluttered and danced happily at the end of the box. Veronica and her legs and feet had just survived being cut apart, yet each part of her still moved normally.
"I'm glad the sawing part is over," Veronica said as she looked up at me, making eye-contact again, and smiled at me appreciatively.
The magician brought out two metal dividers and instructed me to insert them into the box, because if I didn't, he said, Veronica's insides might fall out when we pulled the boxes apart. Veronica laughed on cue, leading the audience to laugh as well. It was a pretty gruesome joke, I thought, but I complied with the instructions and put the dividers in.
The head and feet halfs of the box were then pulled apart to prove that Veronica had indeed been sawn in half. The volunteer holding her ankles confirmed that it was her feet that he had been holding onto this whole illusion. He looked surprisingly at the pair of feet before him, moving around as normally as they did when they were connected to the girl in the other half of the box.
The boxes were put back together, and the dividers were removed. The magician coached me about how to wave my hands over the box magically, and to say the magic words, Abaracadabra, so that Veronica would be restored.
Abaracadabra!