Genevieve introspection was cut short by the motion of the magician and his co-opted assistant lifting the upper box from the lower one. For a moment, Terry looked puzzled as to where they were going to put the detached part of Genevieve down. He steadied himself and raised his knee to support the front corner of the severed box. Releasing his hand, he put his thumb and finger to his lips and gave a shrill whistle that made Genevieve and Jenny wince. From the darkness of the back stage area rolled another low platform; this one had a glass topped table, similarly to the one Jennifer's upper half was not quite resting on. It was the work of moments to place Genevieve on the table and move both parts so that Jennifer could also confirm the genuineness of the parts sticking out of the two cramped boxes.
Once the stage-manager-prompted applause had died down, Terry took Jenny back to the middle of the performance area.
"OK, Jenny, what do you think happens next?" he asked.
Jenny was taken aback and took a while to think up an answer. "Um, I suppose, um, you put Jennifer and Genevieve back together and we go back to the audience."
"Well, that's exactly what I had planned."
Jenny's face showed a mix of relief and disappointed.
"But..."
Jenny's face added apprehensive to the mix.
"I would have done them the other way round, if I hadn't had an assistant. Because I would have needed the person who was going into the chair to be on the other end of saw for the small box sawing."
Relief re-asserted itself.
"So having an assistant meant that I could do the sawings in the order I did them."
Jenny smiled, feeling that she had done the magician a favour.
"Thank you for being my assistant this evening."
Jenny's smile broadened.
"Of course, that leaves me with a problem, which stems from the fact I don't usually have an assistant; well not a proper one, anyway."
Jenny added puzzlement to the mix of emotions flitting in turns across her visage. Some of the audience were also puzzled, but a few had a feeling where this line of dialogue was leading.
Hesitantly, Jenny asked, "Why is having an assistant a problem?"
"Well, Jenny, If you have an assistant, but mostly perform stuff with audience members, people begin to wonder what your assistant is for; so you are obliged to perform an illusion on her that is more extreme than you have on anyone else. So you see my dilemma."
The relief that had been there vanished instantly. "You mean you are going to do something to me?"
He nodded.
"But, I'm not a proper assistant, just a helper from the audience."
"You helped strap Jennifer into the chair?" She nodded. "You helped saw through Genevieve?" She nodded. "You've been backstage, no matter how briefly?" Again she nodded. "Then you are a proper magician's assistant as much as I am a proper magician. So why aren't you dressed like one?"
Jenny did a passable impression of a goldfish; how could he expect someone he had pulled from the audience to be in the right costume?