Stuck in the Middle With You

“Welcome back. Let’s address Drunken Beauty over there. Their transformations are not the best shown till the day breaks tomorrow, and she is awake. However, for the audience’s knowledge, the majority voted for Please Unzip Your Pants and Enjoy. Undoubtedly, you want to see some action and hope to convey that through this choice. Well, we’ll see.”

Justine clapped her hands. Some peach lights appeared, floating around the sleeping Mia before entering her mouth. Mia snorted a little before peacefully slumbering on.

“How will she handle it when she is awake? That’s for you and me to see. Thomas?”

“You don’t have the decency to wake her and tell her about her transformation?” He said, shaking his head.

“O Tommy, that would spoil some of my fun. Besides, I think she’ll figure it out right quick.” She said, wagging a finger in his direction.

She turned her head towards Tatiana. She bared her teeth and made a come-hither motion with her finger. Tatiana, already standing from her seat, moved languidly to the stage. She stopped a couple of steps away from Justine. Justine swiftly bound over to Tatiana and put her hand on Tatiana’s shoulder.

“Now we move on from Snoozing Beauty to a more interesting arrangement. For you, my dear, the choice is pretty clear. With over two-thirds of the first-choice votes, I have the honor of splitting you in three. With our previous transformations being such a bore, let’s go more snazzy here.”

Justine lifted her hand off Tatiana's shoulder and snapped her fingers. The butler promptly appeared with a box as tall as Tatiana. An outline of a person is on the door of the box. He rolled it near Tatiana and proceeded to open it. A plush midnight blue fabric lined the inside of the box.

“Are you familiar with the Zig Zag girl trick?” Justine uncovered Tatiana’s mouth.

Tatiana furiously spat. “No! What on …”

Justine gave an airy chuckle. “Well, my dear, you're the main course, so if you would.”

Justine shoved Tatiana into the box. Tatiana threw her arms forward, attempting not to smash face first in the box. Justine slammed it shut as Tatiana turned to get out of the box.

Justine walked back and forth in front of the box. “I like to have your attention. I just put Ms. Popov into a soundproof box. While I will perform a magical trick tonight, the only thing magical about this box is its oxygen generation. We don’t want our friend here to die. Anyway, I would put your attention towards these little trapdoors on the box. I will open them to show that dear Tatiana Popov has not disappeared. Here is Tatiana's face. Oh, hun, there's no use trying to say anything. No one can hear you. Anyway, here is her chest. Do you reckon she has a big heart that goes with those melons? Last but not least is the stomach area. If you would pull your attention to these other two identical boxes.”

The butler wheeled out two other boxes of similar construction to the first box. Both were open. One of the fabrics was rose pink, and the other was leaf green. The butler then closed both of them and split the two stacks of boxes into six boxes.

“As can be seen nothing is in them yet and they can be separated into smaller containers. Now to my twist to this classic by adding a different classic.”

Justine pulled out two square flat blades and waved them towards Thomas and the others.

“And to prove that these are not trick blades.”

The butler produced an apple and a watermelon. He threw them into the air and she sliced them in twine with the blades.

“With that demonstration out of the way, we insert these like so.”

Justine took one of the blades and inserted one into the spot between the heart and stomach. The other one she shoved into the neck region. Justine waited a second before pulling the top box off. The butler appeared to pull the middlebox off the stack leaving the bottom box by itself.

“And voila, the original three are fully separated. We now put each of these boxes into a separate tower.”

Justine and the butler reassembled the boxes so were three towers of boxes again.

“For those who miss it, we have put the separated pieces of Mrs. Popov in separate piles. Now, let’s open each of these boxes together.”

The three boxes open simultaneously. Out of step three people were spitting images of each other besides the color of their dress. One wore a light green affair, one donned a rose pink, and the third was ocean blue. They all dumbly stared at each other. All three moved their arms at once. The one in light green folded her arms above her stomach as it gave a low growl. Rose Pink started wringing her hands over her chest. Ocean blue rubbed her temples.

Justine grinned, “And there you have it folks. I have turned one Popov into three Popovs. I’m sure they’ll figure out what to call each other soon. And while those three get acquainted, here’s how their transformation works. Their minds are constantly sharing memories and feelings between them. They can recall anything that the other could do. We made each different by primarily putting a different reasoning method in each. Or we split what Mrs. Tatiana Popov already has, into three separate beings. Anyway, that’s a wrap for explanations. Dr. Haywood, pull that stupidity off your face and tell me what you think.”

Looking at three Popovs, Thomas vaguely muttered “What on Earth?”

Justine's smile grew tight, “Changing you, Dr. Goldstain, and Dr. Quirke to be younger was less shocking than this? Oh, producers, why is this type of person even possible?”

Justine snapped her fingers and the butler appeared to escort the Popovs off the stage. The three looked at each other and slowly sat on different parts of the lawn chair.

“Anyway, we’ll be right back after these messages.”