After a short break, the trio came on stage again, and Foxglove spoke, “I promised Tammy she’d get to star, and now she will. Indeed, I’m going to make her more famous than George Washington. Tammy, if you’d just stand over here…”

Tammy went over to the centre stage, somewhat reluctantly. “But he’s dead! This isn’t going to hurt, is it?”

“You won’t feel a thing!” Foxglove said, not entirely reassuringly. She stepped up beside Tammy sideways on, and crouched. She was holding one wing out in front of Tammy to cover her lower legs, and the other wing behind. Then she started to stand up. As the lower edges of her wings left the ground, the spectators were surprised to see, or rather, not see Tammy’s feet.

Her head, tail and shoulders were still in place, but as Foxglove stood up fully, it appeared that the rest of Tammy had vanished. Foxglove had now raised her wings to above Tammy’s shoulders, so now all the was left visible was her head, and the top half of her big bushy tail which stuck up directly behind it.

The squirrel clearly tried to move her head to look down, but couldn’t. “Whoa, I feel kinda numb in the…”

“That’s alright.” Foxglove interrupted. “Gadget, could you fetch the tables, and put one to each side of me.”

“Roger Wilbury!”, Gadget said, and went and brought out two of the mini-tables from earlier, each of which now had a quarter resting on it. The coins were elevated initially so they could be seen clearly, but they quickly lay flat when the tables were moved into place.

Foxglove turned her back to the audience and spread her wings out, and a remarkable thing occurred. Tammy’s tail spun a half turn round and started moving across from behind Tammy’s head to Foxglove’s other wing, acting like a periscope. Tammy, of course, couldn’t turn her head to follow it. Eventually you had her head resting just on the tip of one wing, and her tail, sticking up proudly from behind the other wing tip.

“Hey, what’s going on!” Tammy exclaimed. “Gadget, what’s happened?”

“Oh, I really can’t say, that would be telling tails.” The mouse replied, giggling.

Foxglove dipped one wing to cover one table, and left Tammy’s head resting on top of George Washington’s. Then she did the same to the other table, and left Tammy’s tail sticking proudly from the centre of the eagle. Foxglove finally took pity on Tammy and moved the head table so Tammy could see the other one, which did something not often observed, it rendered her speechless.

Foxglove stood back. “And there you have it, everyone. I said Tammy would be famous, and now she has both her head and her tail on quarters. And that’s about as famous as you can get. Even George Washington only has his head on it. So she’s more famous than him. But let’s have our audience take a closer look.”

She picked up the head quarter and carried it to the edge of the stage, passing it down so each of the guys could hold it. Gadget, following her cue, did the same for the tail.

“Waaah! I think I’m getting sea sick!” wailed Tammy’s head.

Dale, in the middle, ended up with both coins at the same time.

“Whoa!” He said, trying to balance both at once. “I can’t make head or tail of this.”

The head he passed over to Chip, who found Tammy’s head resting in his paws, looking up at him with big soulful eyes, and a slight grin. She’d clearly gotten over her surprise and was starting to enjoy the view of chiply, chipmunk chest. “You can leave me here for as long as you like, Chipper.”

Of course Chip immediately passed the head back to Gadget.

A box had appeared on the stage while everyone was examining them close up. Foxglove and Gadget brought the two coins over and put them on opposite ends of the top of it. Foxglove then stepped up behind the box and, with a swift movement, pulled out the coins from underneath the head and tail, which stayed where they were.

Tammy found she could move again, and got up out of the position she found herself in, on her hands and knees. The top of the box split open along the centre line as Tammy stood up and staggered somewhat unsteadily out of it.. Gadget and Foxglove both helped her out.

Foxglove wasted no time. “For my next illusion, I’d like to do a little something called ‘Water way to go!’”

She spread her wings and flapped hard lifting herself into the air, an launching herself up to the ceiling, one and a half (6 inch) stories above. She inverted and clung to the ceiling as she reached it, hanging down, and spread her wings again, this time to make passes with her wand. A rolled up curtain ran out in both directions from behind her outstretched wings as if on an invisible runner, following the front line of the stage.

She glided back down, and stepped behind the line of the curtain, which fell behind her, covering the stage, but only momentarily. After a few seconds the top edge fell, and revealed on stage was a big Pyrex baking dish, a foot wide and about 5 inches deep, full of water. At this point ‘Under the sea.’ from the Little Mermaid started to play.

Foxglove was now dressed in a bikini, though she still had her top hat and wand. Gadget and Tammy came on stage, carrying a step ladder made of combs, which they pushed up so it was over the edge of the bowl. Tammy was still in the same bikini as before, but now Gadget had joined in. Her bikini was modest by the other pair’s standards, but it was definitely showing her rarely exposed midriff.

Foxglove smiled and chanted, “Water, water everywhere, before you all could blink. Now it needs inhabitants, Gadget, will you sink?”

“Golly, I hope not.” Gadget replied, but at Foxglove’s gesture, climbed the comb, and stepped carefully over into the water side. As she lowered herself into the water, it seemed to bubble for a moment, and when it cleared, her bikini bottoms had gone. So had everything else below her waist, to be replaced by a crimson scaled fish tail with orange gold flukes. Mermaid Gadget looked down at herself in surprise and tried moving her tail, which worked perfectly.

The change had left her completely submerged, so you couldn’t hear her when she spoke, but the onlookers could guess that she’s just said, “Golly!” She drifted away from the edge, lazily flicking her tail, a small trail of bubbles trailing from her mouth. However, she certainly didn’t seem bothered about coming up for air.

Meanwhile, Tammy had exclaimed, “Wow! That’s so cool!”, and swarmed up the ladder like a squirrel (which made sense), and bounded over the top to splash into the water on the other side.

The bubbles formed around her and subsided, but she wasn’t made of fin. Her lower half was multi-legged with hard shell sections, making her a sort of lobster-taur. She looked down, and then looked shocked. She glared at Foxglove, clearly thinking about battering herself a bat. Gadget on the other hand… fin? was holding her sides and rolling about in the water, helpless with laughter.

Foxglove snickered and said, “You shouldn’t have jumped in before you were told to. The magic punished you. I think this is a warning not to be so ‘shellfish’ in future.” Tammy continued to glare.

“Okay, no need to get crabby about it!” Foxglove shrugged and waved the wand again. The bubbles formed and disappeared, and Tammy now had a fish tail to match Gadget’s, but in green. She looked much happier about that.

The bat herself flew up and dived over the edge, to join the others. When the bubbles cleared, her body had taken on the sleek, inverted delta shape of a manta ray with her head perched on top. The three of them swum round, clearly perfectly happy with their new environment.

The guys were all applauding by this time. Dale called out, “Way to go, Foxy!”

“We got ourselves a regular bloomin’ aquarium, mates.” exclaimed Monty.

Dale turned to Chip. “I guess there’s only one name for Gadget as a mermaid. Ariel, or possibly Antenna…”

Chip was just staring, his mouth slightly open. He didn’t respond to Dale’s witticism, and the red nosed one tried to get his attention. Zipper flew overhead and waved a hand over the brim of his hat to no avail.

Dale spoke in a sing song voice. “Chip… oh, Chi-i-ip, Fat Cat’s just stolen the Devil’s Eye and set fire to your fedora…”

Chip finally seemed to come to himself. “Huh, what…”

Dale chuckled. “Thinking of doing a little fishing for a certain mer-mouse?”

“Just zz long zz ze dozn’t uzze me!”, said Zipper.

Chip spluttered and tried to cover up a blush. “No… no… I was just thinking how useful that trick would be if we ever had to go on an underwater mission, like against Captain Fin.”

Monty rumbled. “I dunno, Chippah. I can’t see meself exchanging me own tail for one with fins.”

Dale piped up. “Well that’s okay, Foxglove can give you the same form as her. Then that would make you a ‘Manta Ray’ Jack.”

The three mermaids stopped swimming and lined up at the front edge of the dish to watch the odd sight of Dale being pelted with kernels of pop-corn by the other three.

Foxglove swam for the surface at full speed and as she breached through the surface of the water, she turned back into a bat and flew up the rest of the way. Then she flapped down to the top of the steps, and held a wingtip down, to help first Tammy, then Gadget out. As each broke surface, they changed back.

Eventually Foxglove and the other two were standing in front of the tank, and

The damp trio once again took a bow to tumultuous applause.

Part 3 – A Dried Foxglove

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