Kevin felt very awkard as he waited for Monica’s date. A mishap with the Medallion of Zulu causd them to swap bodies, and now for the next few hours, he was her. He suggested she cancel the date, but Monica begged him to go through with it, saying she really liked the boy and had a hard time getting him to agree in the first place. She just told Kevin to do his best, and that he should try to act like her.
It wasn’t even the date that had him nervous; it was those instructions. In fact, he was pretty sure he was already screwing it up. Monica had crazy dyed hair and often wore just as crazy outfits; he picked out some nice dress pants and a sweater. Than there were the things she said. They probably weren’t problematic for a Black woman like Monica to spout out, but while he may look like a Black woman right now, he wasn’t. And he wasn’t sure he felt comfortable saying many of the things she often did. He couldn’t really act like her, could he? He was going to screw this up.
“What the hell is that?” I asked as my friend Jennifer pulled a weird glowing orb from her bag.
“It’s magic, Dan” She said, “It can literally warp reality.”
“Bull. It’s a prop from that play you’re in.”
“Twenty four hours ago, I wasn’t an actress. I wasn’t even a woman! I was a guy; your best friend, Jason.”
“Come on, Jenn. No way you were a guy. I mean, I hate to admit this, but I’ve had a crush on you for a long time. No way I had a crush on a guy!”
“You didn’t. I’m telling you.It bends reality. Even your memories. But I think that crush was a rather unfortunate side effect that I may have to fix.”
“Fix? What do you mean fix?”
The orb glowed. I was trying to figure out what Jenn meant by fixing the crush I had on her. There was no way I had a crush on her; I mean, it wasn’t like I was a lesbian.
“You know I’m not gay, right, Jenn?”
“Oh, I know, Dana. And we’re gonna have a good time going out tonight to pick up some guys.”
Within moments, Jason was backstage at a fashion show. His makeup and hair were done in a flash and he was put in a dress. Before he knew it, he was walking the runway.
It certainly wasn’t what he expected when he used his device to transform himself in a woman earlier, but he was enjoying the unique experience! He wasn’t sure if he did well, but he walked out, posed at the end, and then walked back. He was thrown into another outfit and then did it again. Finally, he walked out with all the other models.
And, of course, he was told about the after party.
After the Great Shift, the comany Blake worked for allowed employees to work from home for two months, but soon after pushed everyone to go back to the office. But Blake was a little bit concerned about doing so, and scheduled a meeting with June from HR right away. When June arrived in Blake’s office for the meeting, she was shocked to see how large his belly was.
“I guess I need to ask about some additional work from home time,” He asked.
“We have a maternity policy!” June said quite surprised, “Why didn’t you tell anyone!”
“I wasn’t sure what to say! It’s one thing to tell everyone you swapped with a woman, but a woman who was seven months pregnant? The doctors think I’m due any day now though.”
Hunter always thought those few years of college where you were technically an adult but not quite old enough to drink were the worst, especially with all the pressure to have a few brews. Luckily, his friend hooked him and his girlfriend, Tina, up with a guy that made “the best” fake IDs.
But Hunter’s first inspection made him skeptical. The people on the IDs looked nothing like him or Tina, and they had birthdays that made them around 50 years old. The guy just laughed. These weren’t just any fake IDs, they were made with advanced AI. Turn them on before you grab some beer from the store, and you actually appear to be the person on the ID for a few hours.
And the weird thing was that they worked! Hunter timed it out a few times. He’d turn the IDs on, head to the store, grab the beers, and come back to the dorm. He’d always change back after three hours.
But after one time nearly getting busted, Tina insisted they go to the club to drink instead. Hunter wasn’t sure about being out in the older body, even if it was just an illusion, but Tina talked him into it. However, when they finally decided to do it, Hunter accidentally picked up Tina’s ID by mistake. For the next three hours, he’d be stuck as the older woman on Tina’s ID.
He tried to get her to go back to the dorms, but she told him to loosen up and have fun. He tried, but he felt so uncomfortable as a woman on the dance floor. He was just glad he was probably old enough that the guys in the club didn’t seem to be interested in him. But when he finally hit the point he couldn’t take it anymore, he couldn’t find Tina. He ended up sticking around, because the last thing he wanted to do was leave her alone here; they were nearing the three hour limit anyway. But then the three hours came and went, and Hunter still seemed to be stuck, still in the ficticious body of Wei Ming, the woman shown on Tina’s fake ID. Why wasn’t he changing back? It got worse when he went to the bathroom to find that the body wasn’t a mere illusion!
Adam was nervous as he waited outside his girlfriend’s house. Things since the Great Shift had just gotten weird for everyone. He was considering breaking things off with Sophia, considering the body she ended up with, but he was having trouble finding a good time. And maybe she wanted to end things too? After all, he wasn’t the 18-year-old jock/football star he had been when they started dating either. He was now in the body of his own neighbor, a 23-year-old Asian woman who had worked as a programmer -- he hadn’t realized quite how stunning she was until he put on this dress for prom. He knew he was good looking, but what if Sophia didn’t even like girls anymore?
They had already agreed to go to the prom before the Shift happened, so that’s why he was here. Maybe he’d do it right after or maybe next week. He knew he had to do it eventually. His thought was broken as the door opened...
Noah just hoped his roommates were home. He had been spending the day at Coney Island, riding the various rides in the Brooklyn amusement park when the Great Shift struck. He swapped into a body swimming not far away in the water. He couldn’t believe anyone actually swam at that gross beach, but there he was...or rather she was, as he had swapped with a woman. He couldn’t locate her or any of her friends (if she came with any), so he also had no idea where any of her stuff was. He also couldn’t seem to find his original body. They were luckily letting people on the trains free of charge, though they were going slowly due to the engineers likely swapping into new bodies like everyone else. He rode the train with nothing but the bathing suit he found himself in when swapped. He just hoped his roommates (or whoever were in their bodies) were home!
Everyone on staff at your company had all been called to the mandatory meeting for the HR inclusion training. So far, they had stuck the everyone in a room and were now starting to split people up into groups. You ended up having your name called last, so Jennifer from HR asked you over. She had a smile on her face, as she often did.
“So are you excited for this?” She asked.
“For what?” You replied.
“You didn’t read the email?”
You shrugged.
“Well, our company’s inclusivity training is a little different than most. Using the latest technology, we actually all swap bodies with another employee for a week in order to get to understand the challenges of their gender, race, age, and so on! You’re in group 3B, and we’ll just have assign you a room where one of your co-workers will be waiting. You might have a few seconds, but you’ll soon swap bodies with that person!”
“Wait...what!?”
She held out a hat with some folded papers inside. “It’s time for you to pick a room. Pull one out!”
You read the slip of paper, “Room 219.”
Suddenly, Jennifer’s face looked worried. It was the first time you had seen her without a smile. Her brow was now furrow and she looked worried. “That’s this room,” She said, “That means...oh, my God.”
Then you suddenly realized you were now looking at your own face, and it had the same furrowed brow and worried expression that Jennifer had a moment ago. You looked down to see a blue blouse. Of all the people you could’ve eneded up swapping with, you ended up swapping with Jennifer!
“So, remember,” Jennifer said with your voice, “You’re going to be spending the next week in my body. Remember, this is a learning exercise, so try to experience our differences, but...don’t do anything weird with my body, okay?”
“You sound like you were blind-sided by this.” You said.
“I thought the HR staff was exempt from participating, but I guess not! It’ll be okay, though! I’m sure I can cope with being in your body for the week! It’s just...ugh...I’m going to have to send an email to my boyfriend to cancel our date!”
You read the slip of paper, “Supply closet?”
You shrugged and then walked over there. Inside was one of the office interns. You didn’t know her name, but rumor around the water cooler was that she was the daughter of the CEO.
“So can I leave now?” She asked, “Because I have class--”
In the next instance, you were now the one standing there in ballet flats with a lanyard around your neck that clearly identified you as an intern.
“What the hell?” The intern shrieked, “I’m old! And, ugh, I still need to get to class! Or YOU need to get to class! And I have a test today! I hope your a good coder, because if you fail, I’m so going to have my dad fire you!”
It was weird to be yelled at by your own body, but inside the body of the female intern, you felt so weak and unable to stand up for yourself. You quickly asked what university she attended and how to get to the classroom. She gave you the information, and you were off. Once free of the office, you actually felt relaxed. Being in the body of a care-free student for a week actually didn’t seem like a bad deal.
You read the slip of paper, “Executive suite.”
You felt pretty confident to be swapping bodies with the CEO, so you took the elevator to the top floor, and instead found the hot hispanic cleaning lady, Maria.
“Lo siento,” She smiled, “I’ll be finished in a moment.”
But you soon realized you weren’t there to swap bodies with the CEO as the smell of lemon cleaning product soon filled your nostrils and you felt a heavy weight on your chest. And your brain was thinking in spanglish, seemlessly able to pull both spanish and english into your brain. You saw your former body smile, and you smiled back -- but as soon as you did, Maria ran out in your body as fast as she could.
You were worried about where she ran off to, and hoped you’d be able to swap back after a week no matter where she went. You could probably stand cleaning the office for the week, but Maria’s life isn’t exactly one you would have wanted! Which, you imagined, is why she ran. You just had to keep reapting to yourself, “Solo una semana...”
You read the slip of paper, “Conference Room D.”
Conference Room D was almost always booked. You hadn’t known anyone who was able to set up a meeting in there. When you walked in, you found out why. The CEO was sitting there, and it seemed he had set up his entire office in there for some reason.
“Well, this is just perfect,” He said before you two swapped.
You thought being the rich CEO and in charge for a week would be fun. Instead, you felt a pain in your chest and saw your own body give an evil smile.
“It was absolutely perfect timing,” You heard your own voice say but it was starting to sound like it was in an echo chamber, “I didn’t have long to live, and my doctor said this weird swap would surely cause me to have a heart attack. Of course, I wouldn’t be the one in the body at that time. That would be you. Meanwhile, I can continue my work in your younger body. I’m sorry about this, but it’s really just business. And if...”
His voice faded away as everything became black and cold, as you reluctantly accepted death.
You read the slip of paper, “Room 419.”
You took the elevator up to the fourth floor and entered Room 419. The company’s lawyer, Kim Lee, sat there resting her cheek on her hand. She looked depressed.
“I can’t believe I approved this weird swapping week,” She sighed as she looked at you, “Oh, great, I guess I’m swapping bodies with you...”
You thought being a woman as beautiful as Kim would be exciting, but now that you were actually in her body, it was impossible to feel excited about it. In fact, you were struggling with the motivation to feel much of anything at all.
Kim, now in your body, went into a drawer and pilled out a bottle of pills. She was explaining something about her depression or something and how often you needed to take the medicine she was showing you, but none of it was really sinking in. It was hard to pay attention or care, and you really didn’t want to be downing pills every day. But then again...maybe you should?
You read the slip of paper, “Front desk.”
Thinking you were going to be in the body of the receptionist at the front desk, you were pretty excited as you headed down. She was, quite frankly, kind of hot, and you were starting to get giddy at being in her body for week. But she brushed you off, telling you that she where she worked was the receptionist desk, and you needed the front desk.
You headed out another set of doors to see Jan, the head of security, standing there with a smile. It was only a second before you swapped bodies with her.
Your butt felt huge, and you felt quite uncomfortable now that you had her large body. You were sure it was going to be a tough week, but there was a bright spot. Jan was pretty open about being a lesbian but very quiet about who she was dating. The rumor around the water cooler was that her girlfriend was actually quite hot. Maybe when you went back to Jan’s place tonight, you could keep the whole “body swapping” thing a secret. There just might be an upside!
You read the slip of paper, “Room 606.”
Grace worked in the marketing department and was inside room 606. You breathed a sigh of relief. You hadn’t wanted to swap a woman, but Grace was so remarkably average. If you had to be a woman for a week, being a girl next door type like Grace didn’t seem so bad.
She had a slight Mona Lisa smile, but she seemed quite serious as she spoke. “I should probably say something before this whole body swapping thing happens...”
But she was able to get it in. You swapped bodies with her so quickly. You felt a discomfort like you couldn’t explain, but you also didn’t feel as different as you might expect either.
“I’m transgender,” Grace said from your body, completing her thought that she had started earlier, “I haven’t had bottom surgery yet, so you’ll need to keep it taped down. And keep taking my hormone pills! And don’t tell anyone, please! You’re now the only one who knows here!”
You couldn’t believe Grace was transgender, which meant for the next week, you were transgender! As Grace kept describing the things you’d have to do, you hope you’d be able to keep Grace’s secret for her!
You read the slip of paper, “The Pit.”
That was the name for where all the graphic designers sat together on the third floor. Without any more specifics, you were wondering how you were even going to know who you were swapping with, but when you got there, it was empty except for a woman sitting in the corner.
Ye Jun didn’t speak much. She just nodded when she saw you. It was a trip to think you were going to be spending the next week in her gorgeous body!
After sitting together in silence for a few moments, the swap took place. Ye Jun spoke with your body. It was strange to hear your voice and see your lips move without you being the one to do it; it was stranger when you couldn’t make out a word she said. You could tell she was speaking English, but that was about it. The keys on the keyboard had weird symbols.
A sense of frustration came over you. “씨발” You muttered, realizing you were now able to speak Korean, despite losing your English abilities. Suddenly, you were a lot less excited about this week and much more concerned about how you were going to navigate anything without being able to understand it. As Grace kept describing the things you’d have to do, you hope you’d be able to keep Grace’s secret for her!
You read the slip of paper, “Cubicle 10010.”
You rolled your eyes, but you immediately knew you were heading to the IT department -- they had numbered their cubicles in binary. And, of course, that confusing system made it difficult to find exactly where you were supposed to be, but you eventually did.
Cheryl had actually set up your computer when you first started, and she had helped you plenty of other times. She was always pleasant. You shrugged, thinking there were certainly worse people to swap bodies with.
You certainly felt the difference when it happened. You were a little rounder; your pants were a little tigher; there was a weight on your chest. All in all, you realized the week should be pretty painless.
“Before you get too happy about this,” Cheryl warned upon seeing your smile, “I promise you that everyone behind you will underestimate you for either being a woman or being Black or both. And if you think you’ll get a break at home, forget it! My entire family makes fun of me for either being ‘too smart’ or criticizes me for having a job that ‘for white people’ or whatever. Look, I’m not saying don’t enjoy your time in my body, but don’t expect it to be easy either.”
You read the slip of paper, “Room 757.”
For some odd reason, the elevators weren’t working, so you took the stairs up to Room 757. You entered to see Lucy, an assistant to one of the C-Level execs, standing there. She was known as the office flirt, and there were more than a few rumors about her flying around. She seemed genuinely happy to see you, or maybe she was just ready to laugh at how sweaty you were after climbing all the flights of stairs.
“Ooooh!” She squealed, “This is going to be good!”
You didn’t get to reply to that before the swap happened. It was odd being inside Lucy’s body and feeling her curves and wearing her revealing outfit.
“Okay, some ground rules,” She said from your body, “You can experiment as much as you want sexually with my body, but use protection. I expect the same courtesy. In fact, if you want to get curiosity out of the way right now, you might notice that I didn’t wear any underwear today. I know my body better than anyone, so I assure you it would be pleasurable, and it’s probably safest to do it with each other for our first times in each other’s bodies, right?”
You realized you not only had Lucy’s body, but also her libido. You simply nodded; everything she was saying sounded pretty good to you right about now...
Wilson’s luggage was already on board, and he was about to enter the train himself when he heard a shout in the distance. He sighed as he saw his wife standing there, begging him not to leave.
“I can’t do this any more,” He lamented, “I thought I could make it work with us, but the Great Shift swapped me into this woman’s body, and it just feels things. Things I’m not quite used to. I tried to tell myself every day that I was still a guy, and that I should still be attracted to my wife, who is hotter than ever. But this body could just never feel it. It feels jealous by how much more attractive you are than me; it wants a man to satisfy its needs. I can’t tell you how weird this all feels for me; but I also can’t deny it. I had told you I needed to leave; we had discussed it; we had agreed. I’m moving out to a new city, a new life. I need a fresh start; I need to figure out who I really am now.”
His wife hugged him one last time, but Wilson broke free to make his way onto the train. Perhaps what made him feel the worst was that he didn’t feel the sort of sadness he felt he should feel.
Logan sat alone in the stands watching the high school baseball game. The rest of the crowd were parents and recruiters, and he just didn’t want to give a reason why a 40-year-old woman with no relation to anyone on the field was there watching a bunch of 18-years-old play this game. The real reason why, of course, he was sure no one would believe. Logan had somehow swapped bodies with this woman, Angela, and neither knew why or how to swap back. He watched Angela on the field, hoping she would do well enough in his body to catch the attention of the recruiters. He had spent the last few days teaching her everything he knew, he could only hope it was enough. And, at this point, he could only hope they would swap back to be able to enjoy any of this success! As so far, neither could find any clues about how to get back to normal!
For the first few days of his trip on Exchange Island, Richard thought things were going well. He had the body of a supermodel and was living it up. But in a completely unexpected twist, he ended up swapping bodies with one of the maids. In terms of bodies, it was a clear step down. The staff on Exchange Island were eager to make it up to him. While swapping bodies with a worker was not unheard of, swapping in the middle of one’s trip certainly was! It was a clear error, and Richard was offered a VIP pass on a future visit and access to all extra amenities on this trip. He was still pretty upset about it, but there was nothing he could do for now except try to enjoy this new body as much as possible.
The tech bro seemed to waffle between being excited at the success of his invention and sorry for the fact that it caught fire. He gave David and the woman his company’s address and set up a meeting for after the festival to come up with some sort of “mutually beneficial arrangement.”
David knew he was going to be stuck in this woman’s body for the next few days, so he got some basic information from her. Her name was Heather; he found out where her tent was. Every piece of clothing she brought with her was seemingly as skimpy and eccentric as what she was wearing -- given the context of the festival, it made sense, but he was still not happy to be stuck wearing it for the next few days. He couldn’t wait until this was all over, they went to that meeting, this was all sorted out, and he was back to normal.
The remaining scientists couldn’t explain why it happened, and the world was in shock when ever single woman caught a mysterious disease that left men the only gender left on the planet. Luckily, the scientistis also had a solution. The technique was conroversial, but they developed a way to transform men into women. While they had a few volunteers, they quickly realized they needed to recruit many more, so men were drafted.
Isaac ended up as one of those recruits. He was strapped into a chair and injected with the DNA of a woman who had passed. In the next week, he transformed into a copy of her -- though he was thankful his tattoos remained and didn’t magically heal. At first being a woman wasn’t so bad; that is, until the politicians in power decided women needed to be “protected.” They assigned him a husband; he was forbidden from working. He was forced into the kitchen, expected to spent most of his time being a housewife, birthing, and raising children. If he had known this was going to happen, he would’ve done more to resist when it all started...
For the past three days, Connor has been doing his best to adapt to living his wife’s life. Each night, she would go over her lesson plan with his, so he could do her job as a teacher the next day. He thought it would get easier, but, if anything, it was only getting more dificult. The kids were asking more and more questions that he just didn’t know the answer to, and he was sure his wife’s body was going through its monthly cycle. There was also the matter of his own job; he had called in some time off, but he couldn’t keep that up forever. Ultimately, he and his wife both knew they needed to find a way to swap back to normal, but as of right now, they had no idea how they ended up swapping bodies in the first place.
Mark had talked Doug into joining him on Exchange Island. Doug wasn’t comfortable with the idea of spending two weeks in the body of someone else, but Mark told him he would pay and he’d even owe him one if he went along. Doug couldn’t say no to a free vacation, so he ultimately went along.
He really wished he hadn’t.
Doug looked up at the body Mark ended up with; Mark’s temporary body was practically a goddess! Mark tried to downplay how great it was, saying how hoped to stay as a guy, and pointed out a few buff guys over all the volleyball court. But Doug figured Mark was just trying not to rub in his face how bad the body he got was. Mark tried to tell Doug it wasn’t so bad...
As it turned out, the woman Brandon swapped with wasn’t quite as rich as he guessed based on her outfit. She was wearing the nice outfit for a job interview, and took the cab so she wouldn’t be late. Of course, Brandon had no clue when he first swapped, and so he ended up missing the opportunity. Apparently, that job was this woman’s chance to get out of poverty. She had been giving a rare chance, and he was the one that blew it. He expected to be bummed out about all of this, but he was surprisingly happy. Sure, he wore clothes from a church donation bin, took the bus almost everywhere, and this woman was an adult still living with her mom. However, her family was also supportive and loving. He felt like he had a true home. He also enjoyed being a woman much more than he would’ve expected -- though he did develop a desire for clothes he could never afford!
Evan sat by himself in the corner of the nursing home looking out the window. Every single joint in his body ached; well, his grandma’s body but he was the one currently inside of it. He still couldn’t believe his own grandmother would do this to him! He was the one who would come to visit! He was the one that would listen to her when she would ramble on and on with her stories. He was the perfect grandson! Why didn’t she take Emma’s body? His sister Emma was too busy shopping with her friends or going on dates with boys to visit grandma. If anyone deserved this sort of lesson, it was Emma! Not him! How could grandma do this to him!?!?
The fact that Medallion of Zulu was a real thing that could really swap two people’s bodies was mind-blowing. Chris still couldn’t believe he’d be in his girlfriend’s body for the next eleven hours until they were able to swap back. He figured it would be a fun time, but he had no idea the kind of stuff women went through until he experienced it first hand. For starters, as he walked down the street, the comments hitting on him were frequent, more often than he would have ever expected. And then there was one guy bold enough to actually pinch his butt. Well, that was just too much. Chris turned around and chewed him out, but the guy just didn’t seem to care. When it was finally time to swap back, Chris couldn’t wait. There was only one problem -- the medallion had gone missing!
I had already found Jennifer quite annoying from the moment she greeted me so rudely on our blind date, but thanks to the Great Shift, I was stuck swapped into her body. Basically, we were stuck dealing with each other for basic facts about our new bodies, so I played as nice as I could.
The first night, we stayed at each other’s places. When I opened her closet, it looked like she owned dozens of the exact same outfit with only the slightest variation. It was a little too button-up for me, but I coped -- I even managed to do her hair and makeup as she instructed. And I didn’t forget her birth control either!
Over the next few months, it got easier, and that meant not having to see Jennifer nearly as much. I was pretty thankful, but I think it made her worry. I get a call one day asking to meet her for lunch. She gets down on one knee and proposes to me! I rolled my eyes the entire way home. She hadn’t asked me out or asked me to try to go on dates. No, she jumped straight to marriage. I knew she didn’t like me any better than I liked her, but I also knew she couldn’t stand the thought of her body being on its own without her, maybe dating someone else, maybe never seeing her again!
Simon looked at his app to see that every single rideshare service was upping their fees due to congestion, so he signed up for to share a ride with a person going to the same place. He was picked up first, and a woman got in soon after. They didn’t make any small talk as they were stuck in traffic; they both just seemed to grumble.
They both got out in front of the same building. The driver turned to Simon and said, “Have a nice day, Sir.” After feeling woozy for a moment, Simon replied as soon as he was able, “You have a nice day, too.” He suddenly found himself once again feeling woozy.
He didn’t realize he swapped with the driver; he never got a chance to read the journal. It was probably the shortest time stuck in the driver’s body in the history of the magic taxi. But as he now stood on the side of the road in the body of the woman he had just ridden with, he did guess that the swap had something to do with the taxi. He began trying to hail another, hoping to take another ride and trigger another swap. He didn’t want to be stuck as a woman, but he had no clue that not just any taxi would do the trick; it had to be the one specific magic taxi...
Doug kept thinking back to last night, and it kept putting a smile on his face. He had gone out to a nightclub on the advice of his counselor, and he ended up going home with someone! They talked for a while to explain their incidents. Doug talked about how he had been a college aged guy before the Great Shift put him into the body of Professor Katherine Liu. It seems the man was in a similar situation, having previously been a 30 year old woman, she was going by the name Chris -- incidentally short for her own name and the name of the man she became. Their talk turned to passion, as they became intimate. When Chris shouted Doug’s name, he corrected her. He wanted to be called “Katie.” It seemed right now.
And all of that was going through Doug’s mind now -- or, rather, Katie’s mind. Her counselor had been right. She had to embrace her femininity; the fact that she was now a woman. The fact that she was Katie Liu. When she did that, it all fit into place.
Al had been working hard in order to make his way in the world, dreaming of being a famous rapper. He had performed a few local showcases and made several mixtapes, but he never really took off. However, one day, a guy dropped him a business card from a record label and asked Al if he was willing to do whatever it took to get famous. Al quickly shook the man’s hand and agreed to meet him the next day at a studio.
And so he arrived, sat down in front of the mic and put on the headphones. But then Al felt a sharp pain; it felt like his body was morphing from the inside. He saw his reflection in a mirror, a cute Asian girl was sitting where Al once was.
“What the hell?” He heard his now cute voice ask.
“You said you were willing to do whatever it took,” The man said from behind the board, “Female k-pop bands are big. We needed a rapper for the group, so we had to adjust you. I promise you that if you refuse, you won’t have another opportunity.”
It was hard for me to accept that I had always been a woman, but it seemed that’s what everyone told me. Had I really just imagined being a man due to some secret desire? And did I imagine the transformation in order to help myself accept this female body? It certainly didn’t feel real in my head; I was still convinced I had been a guy. But I couldn’t find anything with the name “Samuel;” it was always “Sam.” I had been going by “Sam” for a long time.
It was several months later. I hadn’t thought about it much, and the psychologist I had been seeing suggested a few books. I checked them out at the library along with some old favorites. It was an old book I hadn’t read since the fourth grade, and I’m pretty sure it was the same copy. Despite being updated with a barcode for checking out, the old list of names was still stuck inside the back cover. And with a shock, I saw it. My name as printed by the library on the list of past check outs, in full, and there it was “Samuel.” I hadn’t been imagining any of it, but why did the world remember differently?
When Niti looked down, she saw that she had pale, white, masculine hands. When she looked up, she saw her own body standing there. She had woken up in Brad’s body, and he had woken up in hers. They had rushed to meet each other, and she could obviously tell that Brad didn’t have time to do her hair and just grabbed a sweatshirt; she was impressed he managed to do her makeup well enough though.
“I guess...I’m sorry,” Brad suggested, “I’m sorry for that stuff I said yesterday. I suppose I do have white male privilege. Or I did. It certainly feels like I want it back. I want my body back. You can fix this, right?”
Niti looked at him in shock. “I...didn’t...do...this,” She said pausing between each word, “I don’t know why we swapped bodies. If saying sorry gets us back normal, then I guess I’m sorry too? For...hurting your feelings?”
But the two friends just stared at each other, still trapped in each others’ bodies.
The last few miles were rough. I nearly twisted my ankle several times as my boot’s heel hit a rock at an odd angle. I was lucky that I didn’t. One also got stuck in the mud once. I thought about leaving it behind, but going barefoot seemed like a worse idea, so I reached down to pull it out. The pants were getting very hot, and I had parts of my body sweating that I didn’t even know could sweat -- of course, I didn’t have these parts a few hours ago, so maybe that was reasonable.
Finally, I could see my grandparent’s old home in the distance. Knowing that they had set up some parts of it to be “off-grid” made me breathe even easier. The first thing I was going to do when I got there was take a shower.
Melissa turned to check on her friend to see he had seemed to recover fairly quickly, but she also noticed his hands were glowing again.
“Are you sure you’re ready for another round?” She asked.
“I’m not,” Neil replied nervously, “It’s just that I don’t seem to have control over this any more.”
Neil’s glowing hands contined to get brighter and the glow began to splinter, forming several small dots. Neil could feel what was going to happen. Each dot was a different person, a different soul that was going to be swapped. He was going to be swapping 20 to 30 people at once, completely at random. He had no control over any of it either. He couldn’t stop it, and -- considering his exhaustion from the previous swaps -- he was worried he wasn’t going to survive it.
Dr. Kenneth Wu had to hope for three things right now. The first was that he could figure out what had caused all the men in the lab to suddenly transform into women, himself included. They had locked down the instant it happened. No one was going to be able to get in or out until they could figure out how to reverse the process. A cure was the second hope, as they only had so much food and supplies in the locked-down lab. And the third hope was that they had managed to lock down the lab soon enough, that whatever had transformed them hadn’t escaped to the world at large. As sad as it might be to die in this lab, Kenneth was far more concerned by what could happen to the future of humanity if there were no more men for procreation. As he went to the back to examine a few machines dedicated to AI functions, he noticed a few errant wire strung between them, as if they had somehow managed to haphazardly plug themselves into each other. A new sense of worry arose in Dr. Wu.
When Mihn went off to my job in my body, I just sort of sat around the house in Mihn’s body for an hour. It felt pretty uneventful. But then I got a text message on her phone, offering $90 in exchange for a picture of her foot. It felt weird to do it. However, I supposed this was how Mihn made money, and (as I may have mentioned) weird was sort of Mihn’s thing. I fielded a few more texts like that and realized Mihn probably made more in an hour than I made in a week. After I had done several dozen, I felt a weird thrill run through me -- I wondered if this was something Mihn felt when she did this. It spurned me into an in depth exploration of Mihn’s body, which I hated to admit that I enjoyed every second of. That night, I asked Mihn if we could stay swapped for another day, to which she happily agreed. Then when she was at my job the next day, I threw the medallion into the trash and took the can to the curb. I was loving being the weird and beautiful Mihn, and I never wanted to go back to my old, boring male body. She wouldn’t have a choice either; the garbagemen would be picking up the trash well before she came home!
“I am fully aware that I am now in the mayor’s body, but I was swapped into her body much like the rest of you are swapped into different bodies. I don’t have any answers nor any authority. I get that I look like I do, but I don’t,” Dylan was trying his best to explain the situation, but people didn’t want to listen to him. He was just a 19-year-old guy trapped in the body of their town’s mayor. He didn’t have any answers, but people thought he did! It was frustrating. He hadn’t even had any time to come to terms with the fact that he was now a woman -- and one who was around 50-years-old as well! He had lost thirty years of life, and everyone was coming to him with their own little problems! It was annoying!
While the concert had been fun, living Kim Soo’s life back in Korea was completely surreal for Jason. For starters, her handlers made almost every decision. They told him what to wear and where to go. The schedule with media appearances, parties, and other happenings made the concert seem relaxing by comparison. Security would often keep him at a significant distance from the general public, except for a few select autograph signings and other such events. He couldn’t believe how controlled Kim Soo’s life was, which was now his life, and there didn’t seem to be any way out of it!
