Game On

It was my third date with Michelle. We had seen two movies together, which hadn’t really given me a good chance to talk to her, so I thought we should probably do something different. I still couldn’t tell you what I was thinking when I chose the arcade. I had always remembered liking arcades, but she instantly rolled her eyes.

About fifteen minutes in, I was having fun, but I could tell she was bored. A noticed a strange blue light coming from one of the machines, but it disappeared at almost the exact moment I saw it. In that moment, I realized how terrible the arcade was and turned to ask Michelle if she wanted to go shopping at the mall instead.

But she wasn’t there. Instead, she had picked up a gun from one of those shooting games and actually seemed to be enjoying herself. I found just getting more and more bored, and trying to focus on her instead. I realized I wasn’t even interested in her body anymore -- but her outfit. I knew it would look absolutely stupid on my male frame, but I really wanted to wear it. She paused from playing her game for a moment, gave me a smile as if she knew, and said, “We can go to the bathroom and switch if you want. I’m not comfortable wearing this either. I have no idea why I even own an outfit like this, let alone chose to wear it tonight.”

Did the Math

Alvin did the math. There was no way he was going to be able to afford retirement at this rate. He needed more time to earn more, and a new technology seemed to offer a solution -- he could simply buy a younger body to swap into. A thirty year old body would be expensive, but it would buy him decades of more time in the workforce -- enough to recoup the loss from purchasing the new body and save for retirement after that.

Of course, he tried to keep the cost of his new body as low as possible. The budget wouldn’t allow for specific selections beyond age. The head and face were extra, so he opted to keep his own.

In hindsight, he probably should’ve spent a little more for additional specifics as he was quite unhappy with the results of his purchase with the plump, feminine body he now possessed below the neck. He couldn’t even afford to try again, at least not yet. He’d be paying off this body for about ten years, then he could give it another go.

Dimensional

“I thought you called me that you had some sort of explanation as to why we swapped bodies,” Ying said with a scared stutter, “Now you’re telling me this is my body!?”

Gerald sighed, “I did the math. Like I said, we didn’t swap bodies all; we got sucked into a different dimension where these bodies have always been our bodies. I am the Gerald of this universe with the Gerald body. It just so happens that body in this universe looks exactly like you. And visa versa. It explains why your clothes still fit. It explains how almost everyone is dressed.”

“But it feels gross. I still want my body, not some pale nerdy white guy body that has my name. I want to be me again.”

“Like I said, you technically are you...just a very different version of you. But the good news is that this changes how I approach the problem, and hopefully it means I’m one step closer to a solution.”

Big Wish

“Maybe it’s like that movie ‘Big.’” Stephanie suggested, “You know, that kid made a wish and became Tom Hanks? Then he just needed to find the Zoltar machine to reverse the wish.”

“Is there one of those machines even on this Boardwalk?” Tom asked, “I didn’t see one. I certainly didn’t make a wish at one. And I would’ve never wished to be a woman.”

Stephanie was oddly silent.

Tom asked, “What did you do?”

“I’m sorry,” Stephanie confessed, “I just don’t have any female friends. I wished I could have at least one. And you were always my best friend, but I didn’t know it would pick you -- and that’s the honest truth. I’m sorry. But it was my wish, so I’m going to fix this, okay?”

Twinsies, Episode 1 (Facebook version)