Work, Work, Work

On the third night of his vacation, Paul had decided to explore the nightlife of the southeast Asian city. He tried to hit on a few women by buying them a drink, but they all either didn’t speak english or pretended to not be able. He was just about to call it a night when a woman approached him. She spoke english, but with a thick accent. He could still communicate well enough, and they danced and drunk for hours. He brought her back to his hotel room, but he wasn’t able to remember much after that; he certainly didn’t remember the odd medallion she had shown him.

He awoke only two hours later to a blaring alarm. The room around him was small, neglected, and in need of repair. He looked in the mirror and saw the reflection of the woman from last night. She looked much more plain without the thick makeup and clubbing clothes she had worn the night before. At first, he thought she must be standing near him until he realized the reflection was his own; somehow, he had swapped bodies with her. Then there was the note by the mirror.

It explained how she had stolen his body and his life. It explained all about the body swapping powers of the medallion. The note continued explaining the life that was now Paul’s. Her name was Anh Li. She worked 14 hours each day in a factory assembling electronics. Yesterday was one of only two days off each year that she gets off. Paul looked at the clock, knowing he’d have to get to Anh’s job, but he noted before he left for the day that she had left the medallion for him. As he worked her excruciating long day, he didn’t even have time to think about the fact that he was in the wrong body; he just thought about how bad the work was, how much he missed his vacation, and how he could use that medallion to escape this.