Hands (Part 1)

Michael was just pulling his car out of the driveway to head out on a week long business trip when it happened. He suddenly found himself back inside his own living room, sitting down on the couch. He lifted one hand.

It wasn’t his hand.

He recognized the hand. It was the one he had placed a ring on when he had gotten down on one knee to propose decades ago. It was the same hand that stopped wearing that ring after her hands had swollen up while pregnant with their first child twenty years ago.

How was he now have his own wife’s hand? How was he the one in control of it? The revelation hit slowly. It wasn’t just her hand.

Then he heard the crash.

Wily (Part 2)

View Part 1 of Wily.

I may have mentioned that my cat was quite wily. First of all, carrying a ten pound cat down to the basement is an easy feat; getting that same cat in the body of your hundred pound wife down into the basement is a much more difficult task.

It took several hours, and I thought everyone was in position to get my wife and my cat back into their own bodies. But at the last minute, the cat goes crazy -- and I’m the one who ends up in my wife’s body!

It’s not the first time I’ve been stuck in her body. When I first tested the thing, we found it could overheat, so I built in a limit only allowed for two swaps within a twenty-four hour period (this also prevented potential chaos, of course).

I suppose that now gave me a day to figure out how to get the cat in my much heavier body down to the basement to swap back, even as I now had to figure out doing it from inside my wife’s body, which wasn’t nearly as strong as my own either.

Just Keep Working

Curt thought that swapping bodies with his wife was probably one of the better results of the Great Shift. Sure, not swapping at all would have been the best, but at least swapping with a spouse meant most of the details about your life were pretty much the same, and any challenges you were going to face would easily be answered by someone you were close to.

Though his wife Li did have some complaints. She told him that he was ruining all of her outfits at his job. Curt explained that he had to wear something! And he was lucky to be working! Construction jobs had dried up a lot in the immediate aftermath yet he kept going with work as though nothing had happened. His boss didn’t care that he was in Li’s body, and it kept putting food on the table.

He also tried to explain that she wouldn’t be wearing any of these things anymore. When she said that wasn’t the point, he promised to replace anything he ruined once things got back to normal.

Experiment in Empathy

It was meant to be an experiment in empathy, a way to help their failing marriage. It had been three months now since Beth’s husband, Mac, had been turned into an exact copy of Beth. The only problem was that the copy of her body also meant he had a copy of her brain. For all intents and purposes, he thought he was Beth and always had been.

As a result, they often argued about who the real Beth was and who was really Mac. And the fact was, they didn’t really know. Beth began to question her own identity. Maybe she was really Mac, and she just didn’t know it -- though she’d never reveal she thought that to him. Mac (of course) had the exact same thought. So they both kept insisting they were Beth -- the REAL Beth.

Even the scientists weren’t sure which was which, and refused to force either of them to go back to being Mac for ethical reasons. The marriage continued to be just as tense as ever.

Not the Same

Friends kept commenting that Jacquie and Chris hadn’t quite seemed the same as they used to be. It had been going on for months, and everyone was worried something might be wrong in the couple’s relationship. In a way, there was -- but it wasn’t going to break them up any time soon.

But neither Jacquie nor Chris wanted to explain how they had swapped bodies with each other. Technically, they were both acting mostly like themselves, just doing it from the wrong body threw everyone off.

And they continued to stay together as they hoped to find a way to switch back. Breaking up seemed like it would just complicate those efforts -- though they had both talked about it and seriously considered it. However, for the time being, they just tried their best to continue on as each other...

When You Are Over 30 but Still Think You're 18

Refresh

Jeff refreshed again. The site still wasn’t loading.

“Maybe the hotel’s internet is down. Try a different website to see if it’s working.” His wife Lindsay directed.

“Are you seriously thinking I didn’t try that?” He paused before adding, “Wait, are you mansplaining to me?”

Lindsay just stared blankly. Her husband did work as a coder, and here she was trying to give him directions about a down website. She hadn’t felt the slightest guilt in doing so.

“Whatever. Stop over-reacting,” She said again, despite knowing she probably shouldn’t.

“I have a headache. Let’s just go to bed and try again in the morning, okay?” Jeff said with neither of them realizing the website had swapped more than just their bodies...

Seahorses

My wife and I had both signed up for the human-animal hybrid experiments about a year ago. Some people got some pretty cool abilities from the program -- echolocation or amazing night vision and things like that. My wife and I didn’t notice any immediate changes, but our intimate time in the bedroom was more wild than I think either of us anticipated.

I also never anticipated that I would be the one to get pregnant from all those escapades -- but the growing belly was undeniable.

We ended up going back to the lab that conducted the experiments and found out our DNA had been fused with seahorse genes. As it turns out, they are the only species where the males actually get pregnant. So while other people got all these cool traits and abilities -- I got male pregnancy!

It's a Wonderful Wife (Episode 4)

View Part 1 of It's a Wonderful Wife
View Part 2 of It's a Wonderfull Wife
View Part 3 of It's a Wonderfull Wife

Happy Wife, Happy Life

Stop Joking

“Okay, these things are weird.” Jeff said he nervously touched the arm of his wife’s body that he was presently swapped with, “If we take them off, will we switch back to our own bodies?”

“Oh, no. It’ll cause permanent brain damage, and we’ll be stuck like this forever,” Linda replied.

“WHAT!?”

Linda laughed before adding, “I’m kidding! I’m kidding! No, if we take them off, we’ll be fine. We’ll still be swapped, but we’ll be fine. We just have to reactivate them to switch back.”

“Well, let’s do that.”

“Oh, come on, not yet! I want to stay like this for a week.”

“This isn’t funny., Linda Stop joking.”

“I’m serious.”

Double

“Have you come any closer to figuring out to transform yourself back to normal?” She asked what she thought was her husband, “Quite honestly, it’s weird to see another version of me running about the house.”

“Why do you assume I’m the copy?” The other woman responded, equally believing her to be the original.

“Because you are. When your machine turned you into a copy of me, I let you wear my clothes and everything, but you were supposed to be fixing it to get back to your own self, not play psychological games with me.”

“That’s not the way I remember it.”

“Excuse me?”

“You’re the one who invented the machine that turned YOU into a copy of ME. And I’ve been lending you MY clothes.”

“So, we both think...and that means there’s no one even able to fix the machine...even if we could figure out WHO should go back to that life...”

Forget Yourself

Stephanie was a little shocked to see her husband wearing a dress. He hadn’t worn a dress at all ever since they swapped bodies -- and it was a particularly revealing one at that. She questioned him about it, but he returned a blank stare.

Instead of answering anything about the dress, he seemed to be confused. “Swapping bodies? I have no idea what you’re talking about! I think I’d remember if I was actually -- well -- you. Stop messing with me!”

Now it was Stephanie’s turn to be confused. How did he not remember swapping bodies? Did he really forget who he was? Of course, that meant he thought he was her. It was going to get complicated if she pressed the issue, but how could he not remember!?

Work-Life Balance (Part 2)

View Part 1 of Work-Life Balance.

Evan was enjoying his first day in Kim’s body, despite starting off with an argument with his daughter. As noon was approaching, he thought he’d make it up to her by making her a grilled cheese sandwich for lunch. He was taken aback when instead of his daughter, he saw his own body on the floor in the living room coloring with markers.

“Honey?” Evan asked.

“Hi, Mommy! I’m hungry!” He heard his own body say.

Evan’s heart sank. She must have made a wish of her own. And that probably meant Kim was actually in their daughter’s body wandering around midtown somewhere. But if that was the case, shouldn’t she have noticed by now? Shouldn’t she be back so they could sort out this weird body swapping mess.

At least for now though, Evan was going to make a grilled cheese.

Work-Life Balance (Part 1)

Kim and Evan lived a pretty good life. They were married and living in a suburban neighborhood with their 5-year-old daughter. Evan made enough for the family, but Kim had been trying to get back into the work force. It had been difficult with the gap on her resume, but Evan kept encouraging her.

It was likely an idle wish about getting back to work that caused the swap. Kim, now in Evan’s body, was happy to be going into an office and was sure she could do the job with ease. Evan didn’t exactly hate being in Kim’s body either. He was going to finally get some additional time to bond with his daughter before she started school after his hectic work scheduled for the past few months.

It was nerve-wracking to have swapped bodies, sure. But for a little while at least, it didn’t seem like it would be that bad.

Happy Homemaker

Tracy told me I would get the hang of cooking; I’m still convinced I’m going to burn the house down.

I was actually a little worried after we swapped genders that she was trying to force me into her role around the house; it was not something I had ever forced upon her. I made good money, and once we married, she asked if she could quit her job. I didn’t see why not. She tookon the role of happy homemaker, and we planned to start a family.

But we couldn’t seem to have children, and the doctors recommended a radical treatment -- advanced gender swapping therapy. It had mostly been used for transmen and women; a new procedure that could change everything about your fully functional gender. But it was being explored by couples with fertility issues. We decided it was our only hope.

Once she became a man, my wife insisted she go back to work. We were both working for a while, but she told me I needed to focus on getting pregnant. She insisted I quit. We compromised, and I went on sabbatical. Now I’m the one homemaker, though not quite as happy as she was doing it. And, unfortunately, I wasn’t getting pregnant any easier than she had been.

Probably Fine

“It’s probably, uh, probably the wine talking,” Carl slurred, “Your, your body is a total lightweight! This is only, only like, my third glass! But if we were stuck like this, I’m fine like this!”

Margot was breathing a sigh of relief that her husband was finally relaxed. He had been so mad when they first swapped bodies with the Medallion of Zulu. It had been a complete accident, of course. They had heard of what it could do, but certainly didn’t want to use it right before the wedding they were slated to attend!

Carl had suggested they stay home, but Margot insisted otherwise. They did compromise on his outfit -- Margot wanted him to wear a dress, but he talked her down to a jumpsuit. He was grumpy until he started drinking. Now he always seemed content. As as other couples went off to the dance floor, they stayed behind at the bar.

Carl slurred some more about how fine he was with all this. And Margot was wondering how to break the news that she had lost the medallion.

A Moment of Zen

“Are you sure this is going to work?” Angie asked, quite surprised by her own doubt. Normally, she’d be the one embracing the idea that yoga or meditation could reverse the body swap, but ever since she ended up in her husband Marc’s body, she had become quite a skeptic.

Inside Angie’s body, Marc was having the exact opposite experience. Still, despite his change of mind, he couldn’t deny his memories of thinking all of this stuff was hogwash. He knew he had to appeal to Angie’s more logical side.

“Think about when the swap first happened,” He began, “What were you doing?”

“Meditating.”

“More specifically, you had talked me into meditating with you. Maybe there was something about doing it together that triggered the swap. Some sort of connection.”

“This is stupid.”

“That’s exactly what I said before you convinced me. Remember?”

“Okay, fine. So what do we do.”

Marc drew a blank. He had Angie’s body and her belief in the power of all this spiritual meditation stuff, but she had been the one to take the lead in guiding them earlier. He had no idea what he had to do to induce a state of Zen or whatever. And if they couldn’t do that, how could they get back to normal?

A Good Mother

After 10 years of marriage and two kids, Joel and Skye both could feel their relationship was in trouble. The more traditional couple’s therapy they had tried didn’t work, so they both agreed to something more extreme. They sent their kids to the grandparents and underwent a temporary body swap treatment.

The initial swap was both weird for Joel and Skye. Neither felt comfortable in their new skin, but the therapist explained a minor amount of hypnosis would help them adapt. And, sure enough, by the end of the day, Joel felt comfortable as a woman in the wife role, and Skye was fine with being the man and husband. With their roles reversed, they found that they went to bed without an argument for the first time in years.

The next morning wasn’t nearly as quiet.

Skye woke up to an empty bedside next to her. She heard a door slam, and she ran down to follow. Joel was standing there with a doll in his hands.

“What are you doing?” Skye asked.

“Our daughter isn’t well,” Joel said frantically, “I’m taking her to the doctor.”

Skye looked at the doll again before looking at Joel. “That’s not our daughter.”

“Of course it is! I’m a wonderful mother! And I need to take care of her! You wouldn’t understand, Skye! You didn’t give birth to her!”

Skye could only assume this was something off with the hypnosis. She needed to call the center for help, but she also didn’t want Joel to run off like this...especially not while he still had her body.

I Sure Hope So

“Look, Babe, if you can handle my job, then I think I can handle stuff around the house for as long as we’re swapped. I mean, how hard is going to the grocery store and cleaning up? I got this,” Mike assured his wife Yuni.

“But maybe you should put on one my dresses or at least a blouse?” Yuni suggested, “For when you go out and someone might see you.”

“No one’s going to think anything of it. I get that a collared shirt and jeans isn’t your typical style, but it’s not usual for most women. I may be stuck in your body, but that doesn’t mean I have to be stuck in your clothes too. Oh, and you might want to stay quiet at work as your accent will definitely give away that we’re swapped. Don’t worry though. People don’t expect me to say anything; they just want to see the job done.”

“Okay,” Yuni sighed, “Do you still think the medallion just needs to recharge? And that we will be able to swap back when I get home.”

“I sure hope so, Babe. I sure hope so...”