Rather excited by this prospect, having always wondered what it might be like to be a grown up (and not be pushed around by her big brother and sister all the time), Tara grinned and grabbed Boots, before quickly scampering out of the machine shop and across the farm, towards the house on a mission to find her mother.
Liz meanwhile was standing at the kitchen sink, washing up the lunch dishes and singing away to herself, when out of the window she spotted her youngest daughter running towards the house clutching hold of that mangy old farm cat and scaring away all the nearby chickens in the process, her face lit up with a childlike enthusiasm that only a ten year old could possess.
"Ah to be young," Liz smiled, finding her daughter's energy and excitement amusing, wishing that she could derive that much pleasure from running around exploring and playing with the farm animals as Tara did. She really had taken to the move the best, every new discovery in this new house or on the farm being like a new adventure for her, which Liz had to admit, made her feel slightly envious. Still feeling like this move wasn't the right one for her, having left so much behind and being unsure of what her place was now. Kyle, her husband had his own job, as well as the farm work and enjoyed spending his days off out in the fields, having always wanted this kind of life since he was a small boy. Daryl, her son was very similar to his father in that respect, also enjoying living out in the fresh air of the country side, having already made close friend's with a young boy named Zack and even gotten himself a girlfriend who lived not too far away. Katy, her daughter she supposed was the only member of the family in a similar position as herself, not really having taken to her new surroundings at all, having always been a popular girl who was very much missing her friends.
"If only I could be as young and carefree as Tara," Liz thought, thinking that perhaps would be the answer to her problems, and would stop her worrying about all the things she was missing out on in the city and just enjoy the admittedly rather picturesque and beautiful countryside around her.
Just as she was thinking this, she watched as Tara, almost tripping on a mound of dirt, headed straight towards the house and a moments later appeared, flushed and a little out of breath in the doorway. "Mom! Mom! You're never gonna believe what me and Boots found!" she cried, dropping the cat to the floor, her eyes wide with excitement.
Chuckling again at her daughter, Liz turned away from the sink and asked, "Oh, and what's that? Not another magical portal into the fairy realm? (referencing Tara's last major 'discovery' in the corn fields)."
"No, it's even better than that! It's a body swapping machine!" she yelped, grabbing at the bottom of her mother's blue, flowery dress, "Come see!"
Rolling her eyes a little at this, wondering to herself what else her youngest daughter's overactive imagination was going to conjure up next, Liz replied, "Oh wow. A body swapping machine? Really?" playing along, not liking to shatter the illusion, "And did you use it?"
"No, not yet. But I wanna!" Tara said, glad that her mother was on board.
"Are you sure? This isn't Boots I'm talking to is it?" Liz smiled, pointing to the cat that was now sitting licking it's paws underneath the table, "And that's Tara there?"
Shaking her head at this, Tara adamantly told her, "No, I'm me, mom. I'm Tara!", not being entirely sure how her own mother could confuse her for a cat, as she explained, "I haven't used the machine, I've only looked at the manual. But I need someone to test it on, so come look!"
"I'd love to sweetheart, but I'm in the middle of the dishes."
"It'll only take a second. Please mom. Please!"
With her young daughter pleading with her and pulling on her skirt again, Liz finally relented, deciding to humor her for the moment and get back to the washing up after. "Oh alright then. Lets go take a look at this 'machine'."
This pleased Tara no end, and grabbing at her mother's hand she led her out the back door and back across the way she'd came, towards the machine shop beside the main barn. Liz, unlike her husband, her son and Tara hadn't really done too much exploring around the place as of yet, and had never actually been inside the machine shop, not thinking that there would be anything much of interest to her there and being somewhat right as the walked in through the door. "Well I guess this explains where she got the whole 'body swapping machine' thing from," Liz thought as she looked at all the old pieces of farm equipment that littered the place, most of which was all rusted and covered in dust. It not being such a huge leap for Tara to make up stories and pretend what some of this machinery actually was.
"Oh, is that it there?" Liz asked as they headed towards what looked like the seat of an old tracker that had been ripped out, with some of the levers and an old gearbox sitting beside it.
"No. It's through here," came Tara's reply as she rushed right past it, towards the secret door at the back that she'd only just discovered about fifteen minutes prior. Entering the room again, the light being still left on from before, Tara then stopped and grinned, pointing at the two large pods before her. "This is it. This is the body swapping machine," she beamed, looking back round at her mother's reaction as she stared at the thing with a look of surprise.
"My goodness," Liz said, having certainly not expected to see something like this, the strange object in front of her looking far from the old piece of rusting equipment she thought it would be, "What is that?"
"I already told you, it's a body swapping machine."
Liz however still didn't buy this, presuming that it was a machine alright, but not entirely sure what kind. Something the previous owners of the farm must have left behind. It didn't look like anything for the farm however, and seemed way more modern and advanced than anything else in the machine shop; containing flickering diodes and LCD screens and God knows what else.
"Can we try it now, mom?" Tara asked excitedly as her mother began examining one of the large pods, still trying to figure out exactly what it was, "I wanna see if it work."
"Sweetheart, I don't think it's actually a body swapping machine somehow," Liz replied, looking back round at her daughter, not particularly wanting to spoil her game, but being a little more concerned now that if she played around with it she might get hurt, seeing as it obviously wasn't an old piece of junk that no longer worked as she thought it might be.
This made Tara slightly upset, realizing that her mother didn't believe her, and so grabbing the instruction book she'd discovered earlier, she marched over to where Liz was still curiously looking and held it out in front of her. "It is a body swapping machine. It says so right here!" Taking the notebook from Tara, Liz gazed rather curiously at it, before opening it up and reading what was inside, getting a more than startling surprise when she realized that what he daughter had been telling her was the truth all along; this thing, this machine was created for body swapping!
"Oh my God," she gasped, looking back up from the pages and over at the machine, being totally blown away by this discovery, having never imagined that such a thing could actually exist.
Seeing this, Tara smiled and folded her arms rather smugly, telling her mother, "See, I told you it was a body swapping machine."
"I'm...I'm sorry, sweetheart," Liz stuttered, still trying to take this all in, being entirely swept up in her own new found amazement, "This...this is incredible!"
"So can we test it now?" Tara asked, her enthusiasm once again returning now that Liz was fully on board, "Can we try and swap bodies to see if it works?"
This question slightly flummoxed Liz, having always been the straight and sensible type, and yet being totally amazed and excited by this discover, just the same as her daughter, feeling an intense curiosity building within her to actually give it a go. "I...I don't know. Should we?" she said, becoming more than a little flustered, allowing the responsible, adult part of her brain take over for a moment, "I mean is it...is it safe?"
"Looks safe to me," Tara replied anxiously, having no such concerns as she began pulling at her mother's skirt once more, "Come on. Please, mom! It'll be so cool if it works."
Liz thought about this, being of course very curious what swapping bodies might actually be like; especially with her young daughter, whom only minutes ago she'd wished she could actually be more like...
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