Johnny initiated the sequence, hearing the familiar whirr of the laptop. He felt the hair stand up on the back of his neck. He felt Cheryl reach over and grab Johnny's hand, needing some reassurance. There was a palpable electricity in the air as the probes on his head began to heat up. The sounds grew louder as the fans tried to keep the CPU cool enough to continue operation. The intensity of the heat increased and increased.
A slight tinge of pain shot through Cheryl's head. Ouch, thanks for the warning, Johnny she thought.
The activity of the machine increased, with the cooling fans working overtime to keep the increasingly warming hardware from overheating. That's when it happened. Both Johnny and Cheryl's vision blurred, and they both temporarily lost consciousness. Then it went black.
"Ugh… my head," Johnny heard a familiar voice say.
As his mind began to clear, Johnny knew his device had worked. He opened his eyes slowly and looked down at his hands. His tan skin ran down to his manicured nails. A far cry from the calloused hands of a teenage boy, for sure. Absent was wedding band on his left finger, as Cheryl's husband left her years ago during one of many indiscretions of marriage. A few light green a blue veins ran from his knuckles back over his wrist bone, and eventually faded underneath a layer of skin. His arms were smooth and hairless. His touched his forearms with the opposite hands, rubbing them slowly up and down, getting used to their feeling, embracing the new sensations from his body.
"Is.. is that you," Johnny heard again. This snapped him out of his exploratory state.
He looked over and was greeted by the sight of his own body. "Cheryl, it's me Johnny," he said, hearing her voice from his mouth for the first time.
"This is so weird," she said, looking over her new temporary abode. She flexed her bicep, rubbing it with the other arm's hand. "Woah. This is actually happening, isn't it? I'm really in your body."
"It's as real as could be, Johnny. And get used to that name, it'll be what people will be calling you for the next few days. Think you can handle that," Johnny said.
"You know it, Ms. Wall," she replied in jest. Still checking herself out, "so what's the plan?"
"Well, I think we can call this experiment a success. Frankly, we can switch back whenever one of us is ready. So, first and foremost, thank you for your willingness to help me test the new and improved Swap Shack. Now, why don't you enjoy some time off. Do whatever it is you want. Is there anything I need to cover today?"
Looking up at the ceiling, trying to remember if there was, Cheryl let Johnny know that there wasn't much going on today. "Oh, Paul will be home between 9 and 10pm."
"So, I guess that's that, huh?"
"I guess it is," she replied.
"Well, we probably should get going. Don't want the neighbors thinking anything weird is going on with us back here," Johnny suggested.
"Uh, yeah. Good call," Cheryl said in agreement.
The switched-up pair made their way out of the shack, one with a new lease on vacation, the other with a new lease on experiencing life. It was difficult to determine what Johnny's motivation was, but for now, it had seemed he had perfected the Swap Shack technology, given Paul's mother the break she wanted, and ended up in the body of another mature woman. Sure, he might try something new in the future, but the glow he saw from his mother after her time in his body really made him feel like he was doing Cheryl a solid.
As they approached the back deck, Johnny turned to Cheryl. "This is it. Head on in. Carla already knows, so she'll help you out with anything you need."
"You told her?!" Cheryl said, very surprised.
"Of course! She's the only other person that knows about the Shack. I thought she'd be able to make sure everything went smoothly for you."
"This is going to be interesting. Living in my friend's house in the body of her son…"
"You'll be fine," Johnny said, trying his best to reassure her. "Remember, we can swap back whenever we need to."
"Thank, John… err, Cheryl. Ms. Wall. Just… thanks," she said as she scurried off into the house.
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