Body Shop

Old? Ugly? Just plain bored with your body? It didn’t take technology very long to be able to genetically engineer beautiful bodies and grow them to adulthood without any functioning thought; couple this with the development of brain transplantation and a whole new industry was born.

Bill had been the advertisements for a while, but he had been hesitant. He was getting older, but buying a whole new body was just so expensive. The discovery of a tumor resulted in his doctor giving him a prescription, which meant insurance would now cover it. Suddenly, the cost of getting a new body was a whole lot cheaper.

When he arrived at the office, Bill was a little creeped out. Next to the woman at the front desk stood a few sample bodies. They were flesh and blood, breathing humans, but without any thoughts, they simply stood there motionless. As he filled out a few forms, the receptionist explained that there were plenty more bodies in the back, but if he was interested in any of the ones out front, they could easily swap his brain into one of the bodies as he looked around.

He thought about quickly bolting out of the room, finding the experience weird. Instead he pointed timidly and said, “That one.”

The swap was instant and painless. The woman simply put a helmet on his head, a few moments later, she removed it -- only now it was no longer on the same head. Bill stood in a slightly different position in the room, now looking at his own body standing lifeless. He looked down to see the striped shirt, ripped jeans, and purple heels that he had seen on the body only moments ago. He picked a woman’s body out of curiosity, thinking he’d pick a male one as his final decision after looking through the back rooms.

He was lead back and allowed to explore on his own. He did so in silence, with only the clicking of his heels on the floor making noise. He didn’t approach any of the bodies too closely; it was still too weird seeing real human beings just standing there unable to act. In fact, it was hard for him to believe the body he had now had been one of those lifeless beings just moments ago. He almost felt a little bad if he was to abandon it to that fate. Plus, after walking around for a while with it, the body simply felt...comfortable. As he made his way through the last of the rooms, he smiled. He had made a decision. He was going to keep this body. He had given it a test run, and he liked it. Sure, it might be a little weird to be a woman from now on, but it hadn’t been so bad so far. Granted, it had only been about fifteen minutes, but how much could he possibly have to learn about being a woman?