About a hundred different questions ran through your head as you stood there staring at the strange machine, growing all the more excited with each passing second. Being able to switch bodies with someone and live out their live, well it was...it was...it was like some crazy plot line from a comic book, not something that you ever imagined could actually be real!
Finally managing to tear your eyes away from the machines impressive workings, aware that this discovery was just way too big to keep to yourself, you then quickly turned and sprinted back out of the machine shop to find anyone you could to show it to - little caring who it actually was.
Unfortunately you found your immediate surroundings to be pretty much deserted (apart from all the chickens that were milling around your feet), due to it being just after breakfast and everyone having gone off in various different directions. Your dad was out in the far fields somewhere working on a tractor that had broken down the day before. Your little sister, Tara had gone off 'exploring' again with the dog and was probably God knows where. And your twin sister Katy, as far as you were aware, had headed over to her friend Julie's house to do...whatever it was teenage girls did with themselves. That just left your mom, who had the last time you'd seen her been cleaning up all of the breakfast dishes as everyone piled out the door. "Mom it is then I guess," you said with a shrug, realizing that she probably wasn't the most ideal person (and probably wouldn't believe you either), but just needing someone to tell, no matter who it was.
Spotting her through the kitchen window, busily washing dishes as you rushed towards the house, you immediately began shouting before you'd even stepped foot in the door, giving her quite a fright as you did. "Mom! Mom! You're not gonna believe what I just found in the old machine shop! It's totally awesome!"
Getting over her initial surprise, your mother looked at with a rather similar expression of disinterest that she greeted most news about the farm with (not being quite as enamored by the place as the rest of you were). "Don't tell me..." she sighed, returning once again to the dishes, "Is it another old piece of junk that your father is going to spend days fixing instead of doing something useful?"
"Nope. Guess again," you told her, shaking your head, "It's an actual real life, fully functioning body switching machine!"
"A body switching machine?"
"Yeah, you know, like in the movies and stuff. A machine for actually changing bodies!"
Your mom wasn't buying this for a second, scoffing, "Seriously Daryl, you expect me to believe that? I'm your mother remember. I'm not as gullible as your little sister."
"I know you're not, and I'm not making it up. Seriously, come look and see! There's the secret door in the back of the machine shop, it leads right to it!"
"A secret door?" she replied, raising an eyebrow, presuming that you must have somehow been confused. "Are you sure it's not just a store room and this 'body switching...thingy' isn't just some old piece of farm equipment?"
"No, no way! It's way too advanced looking to be farm equipment," you assured her, the machine being leaps and bounds ahead of anything else in the machine shop, "Besides, there's a manual and everything that explains what it does! C'mon, please! Please come and look!"
Letting out a another sigh, your mother finally gave in, telling you, "Oh alright. If it'll make you happy. But you have to finish up the dishes in exchange Mr."
"Sure. Whatever," you agreed, grabbing her the by the hand, "Just come look!"
And with that you quickly led your mother out of the back door and across the yard, towards the machine shop, a place that up until now she hadn't actually stepped foot in. "So this is what your father does with all of his spare time?" she muttered disparagingly as she gazed at all the various pieces of dusty old, half rusted machinery lying about the place, presumably looking for the thing that had gotten you so excited. Ignoring this and instead continuing on towards the hidden door you'd discovered not fifteen minutes prior, you went inside, stopped in front of the two large pods and awaited her reaction.
"What on earth is that?" she asked, stopping in her tracks and staring at the machine with a look of both surprise and confusion, having presumably not expected to find anything quite like this - it being way more advanced than anything else on the farm, what with the many flickering diodes, LCD screens and God knows what else on it.
"I already told you, it's a body swapping machine!" you grinned, unable to repress your own eager excitement as you quickly ran over towards it and grabbed the manual up off the floor, presenting it to her. "See!"
Taking the manual from you and opening it up, you watched as your mother's skeptic curiosity soon gave way to complete and utter shock as she soon realized with her own eyes that it was indeed exactly what you'd been trying to tell her it was. "Oh my God," she gasped, almost dropping the booklet to the floor as she looked back up at the machine, then over at you, then at the machine again, her jaw hanging open, "This...this is incredible!"
Happy that she was in agreement with you and feeling even more excited now that you had someone to share in this amazing discovery, the two of you quickly fired questions and theory's at one another about where it came from and what it was built for, and even if it did indeed work. Surprisingly though, it was your mother, not you, who posed most of these questions before you'd even had the chance, appearing positively enamored with the thing and at the prospect of actually becoming someone else.
"Can you imagine it? Swapping bodies? Becoming someone else? It would be an absolutely incredible experience. Like nothing anyone had ever done before."
"Yeah, it would be totally cool," you grinned, having been thinking about all this since you first discovered it, asking then, "You think we should test it?"
Not even missing a beat, your mom rather enthusiastically replied, "Of course! Don't you want to see it in action, sweetheart? Don't you want to swap bodies?"
"Well, yeah. But I mean, do we know if it's safe and stuff? And I mean, do we really have anyone to swap bodies with? Dad's not here. Neither is Zack or..."
"Daryl, sweetheart. We don't need your father or anyone to try it out. We're both here. Me and you can test it out and see if it works."
"Me and you?" you replied somewhat taken aback, having not been prepared for this suggestion. "You mean us swap bodies?"
"Yes," she nodded. "We can test it out right now and find out for sure."
"But won't that be...I dunno, kind of weird? Me becoming you and you becoming me? You are a girl after all...and my mom."
This fact didn't seem to bother her however, as she glanced over at you and giggled, "And? Don't you want to experience what it's like to be in the body of a woman...to be someone completely different from yourself?"
You supposed this was true, and in all honesty it would be kind of cool to see what it's like to be a girl. Still there was a bit of a difference between being a girl and being your own mother, and you couldn't help but feel a little embarrassed at the thought of having...well her parts, so weren't entirely sure what to say.
"And besides, we're just testing the thing," she continued, clearly not feeling the same, "So what does it really matter?"
Giving in then, figuring she had a point and that you wouldn't be her for long, you told her, "I uh, I guess," reminding yourself again that this was a body switching machine sitting there in front of you and anyone else would give their right arm to try it out.
Happy with this answer, your mother then eagerly smiled, "Excellent. Then hop in!"
Doing as instructed as your mom had a final little read over the instruction manual to make sure you followed everything to the letter, you climbed into the left pod and got yourself comfy (or as comfy as you could). Your mother then set all the various buttons and switches to the correct positions on the control panel and climbed into the other pod, before looking over at you and asking, "Okay, sweetheart, you ready?"
"Ready as I'll ever be," you replied, feeling a nervous anticipation taking over your body at the prospect of actually working and becoming her.
"Here goes nothing then," she said, looking just as nervous and as excited as you were, as she reached over and pressed the big red button beside her.
A matter of seconds later, the machine began to hum, the sound growing impressively louder and louder until it abruptly stopped and a huge flash of blinding white light suddenly shot out from the pods completely obscuring your vision for a second before quickly vanishing, leaving you breathing heavily your pod, unsure of what exactly had just happened...
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