The Button

A strange box had arrived one day addressed to Amy and Jeff. The two were roommates who had moved in together shortly after college, but they had never gotten anything that was addressed to both of them before.

Inside the box was a button with a note. The note explained that the button had the power to swap Amy and Jeff with a random pair of bodies. It mentioned the ability to potentially swap with famous people like musicians, athletes, or actors. It could be pressed once a day. Amy and Jeff thought it was a joke. But after a night of drinking, they began talking. Amy laughed that it might be fun to become Taylor Swift; Jeff said he might want to be LeBron James. They decided to press the button. They forgot the note said “random.”

Their first press swapped them into the bodies of a married couple in Tulsa, who were overweight and empoverished. Neither wanted to stay like that, so they pressed it again the next day, and they both became junkies living in a drug house. They kept pressing it day after day, and they were never in bodies that they enjoyed.

After several months, they were set to press it again, but Jeff stopped Amy. “Don’t do it,” He said, “These are the best bodies we’ve been in for weeks. I’m not sure it’s going to get any better.”

“But I’m 50 years old!” Amy protested, “And a guy! I don’t want to be a guy!”

“Do you think I want to be this woman? Or a woman at all? I’ve been nothing but women for the past week! And most of the bodies have been elderly, like 60 or 70. These are the youngest and best bodies we’ve had for some time. If you press it again, the next bodies we end up in could be dead within 24 hours. Don’t press it Amy...Don’t!”