A Friend

When she found herself in her friend Mac’s body after the Great Shift, Diane was initially releaved. She quickly called up her own cell phone and sure enough, Mac now in her body answered. With the number of reports of strangers swapping, it was nice to know she had swapped with a friend. They agreed to meet up to discuss what to do next.

Diane walked from Mac’s home to her own apartment, but when she saw her body sitting outside on the stoop, she freaked out.

She ran up shouting, “What the hell are you doing, Mac?”

“What?” He replied, not even realizing what was wrong.

“That’s my body! You can’t be smoking in my body! Think of what you’re doing to my lungs!”

“Come on, I don’t smoke often. I only do it when I’m stressed. And obviously, being in your body is pretty stressful.”

“Well, now you can’t do it at all!”

“Why not? From everything I’ve heard, they don’t have a way to undo this. That means we’re going to have to get used to the fact that our new bodies are ours now. You can’t control what I do with this body now anymore than you could control what I did with mine before.”

Diane was suddenly starting to think that switching with Mac was the worst.