20 to Life

For the better part of his two decades on the planet, George had been a criminal. He had committed countless crimes and gotten away with all of them until he accidentally shot a 40-year-old housewife. In the courtroom, George could’ve sworn he heard the judge say that he was sentenced to “live as the woman” for 20 years to life. It didn’t make any sense. Didn’t the judge mean “live in a prison” for 20 years to live?

Unfortunately, George heard correctly. He was strapped to a table and injected with a shot containing the DNA of the woman he murdered. His body changed quickly. His hair grew out, he grew boobs, he aged twenty years, and soon enough he was an exact copy of the woman he murdered. George wanted to scream and threaten the people that did this to him.

Instead the words only came out, “My goodness! What happened?”

They explained what they had injected him with, a mix of the woman’s DNA and another serum they had invented. He now not only had her body, but he would be unable to act in any way that she wouldn’t.

A few days later, George smiled as he dropped the woman’s kids off at school, wishing them a good day. As he drove off, his smile finally broke, and he took a deep breath. He was finally alone. It was only at these times when he ever felt like himself anymore. Whenever anyone was around, he had to act like the perfect wife and mother; the serum forced him to. But for these few moments when he was alone, he remembered who he was. He remembered George. He wondered if he would still remember when his sentence was over after 20 or so years...IF it was ever over...