Jamie sat down at the computer. "Go out to him," she said as she sat down at the computer. Alex and Miranda nodded and waddled out; as the whiteface Jamie was the unquestioned leader.
Jamie giggled as she typed into the computer what she wanted. It sure would help for them to have a small animal act for the party tomorrow, and this Chronivac was just the way they'd get it!
Tucker was leaning against the cabinet of Doom, smoking a cigarette. "Oh, there you are," he said as Alex and Miranda came into the garage. Here stared at them for a couple of seconds. "Sorry. Jamie told me you;d both be in costume but I guess I forgot."
Tucker opened the door to the cabinet. "OK, now come here Alex." Alex waddled over to Tucker's left. "Now I assume you're going to be the magician, since you're the guy." Alex nodded, not saying anything; Tucker figured he and Miranda were imitating Harpo Marx. Tucker took the cigarette out of his mouth with his right hand-and held it facing Miranda. Tucker and Alex leaned toward the rear of the cabinet, Tucker not noticing Miranda take out a pair of scissors from one of her clown dress's pockets and snip the cigarette right in front of his fingers. "Now see that knob at the back? Turn it counterclockwise." Alex did as Tucker said. They then looked back in the cabinet, and saw back had fallen open revealing a hidden compartment.
"OK, now Miranda," Tucker brought his cigarette back to his mouth-and saw it was now only a little stub. He looked at Miranda and her scissors-and the little burning end of his cigarette on the garage floor.
Instead of getting mad, Tucker just laughed softly. "You two really are clowns, ain't ya?" He reached for where he'd put his pack-and hadn't noticed Alex replace them with a very similar looking pack.
Taking out a stick and lighting up, Tucker then turned the knob clockwise. The wall hiding the compartment reappeared. "OK, now you guys try," he said as he stepped into the Cabinet and closed the door. Luckily for him the Cabinet of Doom was very well ventilated so he could smoke. The wall to the compartment dropped open, and he stepped back. He took a drag and sighed at the wall came up again to give the illusion that the cabinet was empty.
"Turn the cabinet around," Tucker called from the compartment, about three too for times."
The two clowns did so. But as the finished the fourth spin, a tiny explosion sounded from inside the Cabinet.
Alex opened the cabinet and turned the lever. With a dazed look and smoke smudged on his face and the stub end of the cigarette in his mouth, Tucker wandered over to what he thought was his pack of cigarettes. He picked it up, looked at it, then glanced at Alex. "Are these those exploding cigarettes that you bought from my folks' shop last week?" Alex said nothing, but nodded and honked his bulbous red nose.
Tucker threw back his head and laughed. "Instead of the Cabinet of Doom, you made it the Cabinet of Boom! If you can pull that off at the party tomorrow, you'll get plenty of more offers for gigs."
"Now there's a thought."
Tucker looked and saw a female whiteface clown step into the garage. He stared at her for several seconds. "Jamie? You're a clown too?" Jamie nodded. "Why didn't you tell me?"
"I joined the act just a few minutes ago," said Jamie as she held up a device that looked like a computer camera. "Just as you're about to."
A rainbow beam shot out from the device, hitting Tucker square in the chest. Suddenly his clothes seemed to grow up all around him and he fell on his butt on the floor.
Tucker struggled his way out of his enormous clothes and looked around. Everything was so big-wait a minute, everything wasn't big, he had shrunk! And he was walking on all fours!
Looking at as much of his new body as he could, Tucker realized he'd somehow been turned into a toy French poodle. And while most dogs were colorblind, Tucker could see his fur was pink-and he had that haircut that mad poodles look so stupid!
'What did you do to me?' Tucker tried to shout at the three big clowns. But the words came out as little yips; he couldn't even make a decent bark!
"Sit Tucker!" Jamie shouted. Tucker immediately sat. Why had he done that? Jamie leaned over her transformed boyfriend and picked him up. Holding the little pink poodle only a few feet away from her face, she went on, "You're going to be doing tricks to help entertain the kiddies tomorrow. Do a real good job, and we'll change you back-maybe." She smiled a big clown smile at him. "It won't be so bad. I'll even let you sleep on my pillow tonight."
Tucker felt was strange moving sensation at his rear. He looked down and saw his own pom pom tipped tail wagging.