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Exchange Amongst Friends By Allen W. Author note: This isn't my usual type of story, but was inspired by some of the reviews of my last story and also with some instant message conversations I had from people wanting me to write something a little different. So here it is...something a little different. If you like it...leave a review. If you don't like it...leave a review and maybe it will inspire me to write a different type of story too. I would like to thank Steve Zink for editing the story. *********** "If you could switch minds with someone, like you go into their body and they go into yours, what would you do? Oh, and say you could switch back after, say, twelve hours or so," I asked my friend Kate as we sat in having lunch. Kate and I had been good friends for many years. I had met Kate and her husband Arnie when they had moved in to the apartment next door to mine. The three of us all instantly hit it off and became close friends. Kate was truly beautiful. She was petite, standing about five foot three, with a very shapely and fit figure. Her blonde hair was shoulder length and she had blue eyes. I thought that she was probably a B cup, which suited her body perfectly. And even though we were friends, I couldn't help but notice that she had a really cute, tight little butt. We were such good friends in fact, that she even told me when she first found out that she was pregnant, even before she told Arnie. They had a cute little girl named Maggie, who in the blink of an eye was already four years old. I was really bummed out when they finally bought a house and moved out. Kate and I still would meet for lunch from time to time and I would go over to barbeques at their house, usually about once a month. "And where would their mind be?" she asked me. "Inside your body." "Oh. Yeah, I guess it would depend on who I was going inside, though," she replied. "Okay, say we traded for twelve hours." "Well, I guess if I were you, it'd just be interesting to see what it's like to, say...be tall. And be male." I had to laugh at this since I was six foot three and always seemed to tower over her. "Being tall is okay, but wouldn't you want to do something or go somewhere?" I asked. "I guess so...it'd just be hard to think of where to go, what to do as...not me," she answered, deep in thought. "You could go places and see what it's like to be there and not be you." "Yeah I guess, but what if I ran into someone you knew. It'd be hard to try to interact with that person, without them thinking something weird was going on." "Yeah, but you could either pretend to be me, or if you wanted to interact with someone, you could try and meet someone new. Or you could go tell someone you already know, who you really are." She laughed. "That'd be funny." After that she seemed lost deep in thought. I had to get to the reason I was asking, but wanted to lead the conversation a little bit further before I did so. "If I were you, I know what I would do," I said. "What's that?" "I would go to the gym and see how things were different, or maybe a bar. That way I could see how people looked at you differently and how they acted toward you." "Yeah, that'd be fun," she said with a wicked smile. "It'd be interesting for you to go to a bar as me." "Why? What typically happens at a bar?" "Well, if you were to just go alone and you dressed fairly cutely...you'd probably get a lot more attention than you'd normally get as you." "I'm sure I would," I said, smiling. She had spent a lot of time after she had Maggie getting back into shape, and she had completely regained her previous figure. "And you'd probably feel really creeped out by it, because it'd be a whole different kind of attention." "No doubt," I replied. "You'd see the female perspective...it's a little scary at times." "So would you go to a bar as a male?" "Maybe." "I'm sure you would find it a different experience, too. Not too scary, actually it's really kind of blase." I could tell she was getting a little bored with the conversation so I had to bring her into it. "I might go out to a dance club, but that would probably be just too weird." To that she had a big laugh. "That'd be trouble, unless of course you went with a bunch of other girls. Or a guy." And then she winked at me. "Club men are very aggressive if you're there alone." "I bet!" I said. "And if we did switch, I would be freaked out by Arnie and Maggie. I wouldn't know what to do if they were around." "That's true," she said. "Maggie would be chattering away, expecting you to know all our little rituals and routines. And you know Arnie, so you could talk to him, but you would probably be weirded out when he felt up your breasts when you were doing the dishes." "That would be scary. I wouldn't know what to do. Probably just stand there in shock and try not to overreact." "It's funny to just look at your own life and imagine how it'd be perceived by someone else. By someone who just found themselves in your body," she said. "Since I'm living alone, you could do pretty much whatever you wanted." "Yeah, it might be somewhat easier for me to get away with being you, than you being me, especially with Arnie." She laughed. "Just imagine waking up next to him in the morning. He's ready for some action and the next thing you know, you're really having the ultimate female experience." "Well, I would...uh...run and hide, be sick, I would think of something, but I guess trying to avoid him would probably be really bad for you when we switched back." "You're a guy. How would you feel if a girl got out of bed and ran from you? Just be really tired. That would probably work." "Well, I'm not going to have to worry about that," I said. "Yeah, too bad we can't really switch bodies," she said introspectively. This was the moment I had waited for, why I had started the whole conversation in the first place. "Well, what if I told you we could. Would you actually be willing to do it?" "What do you mean?" she asked. "Be willing to switch bodies for twelve hours or more. To see what it's like to be male, while I see what it's like to be female. You'd be me and I'd be you." "Are you really serious?" she said skeptically. "Remember my Uncle Frank who passed away a few months ago? He left me something, an artifact, and a letter explaining how it works. According to the letter, it allows a woman and a man to switch bodies. I know it sounds crazy, but I would really like to try it, and who better to try it with than one of my best friends." "You're pulling my leg, aren't you?" "Not at all," I said. "But we wouldn't be able to switch back for twelve hours, otherwise I would say lets go try it out right now." "Okay," Kate said with resolve. "I'm willing to give it a try...when?" I couldn't believe she had agreed to it, and I just sat there dumbfounded for a moment. "Well, obviously on a day when neither of us has to go to work, and since I will be you, on a day when Arnie and Maggie won't be around," I said, and then added, "Just so I can have the freedom to go out and do whatever I want to do as you." "You don't want Arnie to know that we've switched bodies?" Kate asked me. "Not really. I think it would be too weird if he knew we were going to swap, especially if it doesn't even really work." "Well, if those are your only conditions, then how about this Friday? Arnie's heading out to his Mom's house and will be taking Maggie with him. Arnie's Mom and I still have that friction thing going on, so I wasn't going to be going along. And I already have the day off from work, I was going to stay home and do some cleaning, but I don't really need to do that much of anything. If you can get the day off too, we can switch first thing in the morning, then we can switch later that evening or even wait until Saturday afternoon. And Arnie and Maggie won't be home until Sunday afternoon, so there's no problem there." "I'm sure I can get it off," I said. "That's perfect. We could spend a whole day as each other. I can't wait till Friday." * * * The next few days dragged. Time seemed to be standing still, but I couldn't help but plan out some things I would do when I was in Kate's body. I would do some of the things we talked about, maybe go to the gym. I decided I wanted to go shopping. Check out some cool things at Victoria's Secret. That would be a lot of fun. Finally Friday came. Kate showed up at my house first thing in the morning at eight o'clock. I had trouble sleeping so I was awake and ready to go. "Hurry up and open the door, it's freezing out here," she said, then rushed into my apartment. She was wearing a cute little floral patterned sundress that clung to her body and revealed a hint of cleavage. "You should have dressed a little warmer than that," I said, looking her up and down. "It's supposed to rain today." "I wish I had known that. It just started sprinkling when I pulled up here, but if this thing works, then you can go back to my place and change into whatever you want." "Yeah, I kind of figured the same for you here," I said, since I was only wearing a T-shirt and some blue jeans. "So where is this thing?" she asked, looking around. "Right over here," I replied, walking her over to my kitchen table. On the table sat a stone tablet about the size of a large dinner plate. It was a yin/yang symbol, but it looked authentically ancient. According to the instructions, the male would sit on one side and place his palm over the black circle and the female would site on the other side and place her hand over the white circle. His letter explained that, for whatever reasons, the change could only take place between a male and female, and that you couldn't change back for at least twelve hours. "Well, it doesn't look like much," she said, sitting at the table and placing her hand on the white circle. "So I just put my hand here?" "Are you ready to try it?" I said, now starting to feel a bit nervous. "If it works, then we'll have an adventure, if it doesn't, then we'll have a laugh and watch a movie or something." "Okay." I sat down at the table across from Kate and placed my hand on the black dot. "Now close your eyes and relax," I said as I closed my own eyes. I was waiting for some type of strange feeling of displacement or disorientation, when I suddenly felt a little chilly. "God, it's cold in here," I said aloud, and then my eyes snapped open at the strange sound of my own voice. Even though I had believed it would work, I was still surprised to see my body sitting across from me. "Ron? Is that you?" my body said, looking at me. "Oh my god, it really worked!" And then he jumped up and ran to the bathroom mirror. "Oh my god, it did work," I said, looking down at my little body. I could feel the light material of the sundress I wore against my body. And I felt the strangest sensation and realized that I was now wearing a bra. I slowly touched one of my breasts and registered that they were indeed real. "Wow," I said, and then stood up and followed Kate into the bathroom. When I stepped into the bathroom I was a little taken aback by how large my real body now seemed. When you're 6'3", you run into people who are a little bit taller than you all the time, but you almost never run into someone a foot taller than you, and that is now how I felt looking at my old body. Kate stood a foot taller and it was a little freaky. And not only that, but everything else just seemed bigger, too. Everything was indeed bigger, because I was now a foot shorter. I now looked at myself in a different light than ever before. I was 6'3", about hundred and ninety pounds, pretty good shape, brown hair and green eyes. I then caught site of myself, or of Kate's reflection, in the mirror and was mesmerized. It was surreal. I mean my body was standing right next to me, towering over me in fact, but it wasn't controlled by me. Instead, the cute little blonde next to me...was now me. It was weird. "This is so freaky, Kate," I said, looking up at my old body. "I know. This is unreal," she replied, looking back down at me. "But you're Kate now and I guess I'm Ron. At least for the next twelve hours or so," she then said. "This is so cool," I finally said. "Now that I'm in your body, I don't even want to go out and do things, at least not today. I would just rather stay home all day and look at myself." "That's a great idea. I think I'll stay home today too, and see what it's like to be you," Kate said while leaving the bathroom. "Be sure to drive safely. I wouldn't want you wrecking my car." "Oh, yeah," I said, realizing that this wasn't my apartment any longer. Kate and I talked for a little while, but it was a little disconcerting seeing someone else operating my body. Watching it moving without my control was beginning to give me a bit of an anxiety attack. I final had to go when Kate decided that now that she was a man, she could take her shirt off and walk around topless. This by itself was okay, but the fact that she kept reflexively putting her hands over her new flat chest was getting on my nerves. Finally I decided to go. I raced out into the rain to the parking lot, looking for Kate's car. I really should have asked her where she had parked, as by the time I found it I was nearly completely drenched. I got behind the seat of the '98 Toyota Tercel and shivered. It was a bit of a mess in the car. In the back seat there was a child's car seat, a large amount of kids toys, papers, some juice boxes, a bottle of water and one of Maggie's sweaters. I picked up some napkins and wiped the rainwater off my face. "Oh well, now the adventure begins," I said as I turned on the car. My left foot had reflexively reached for the clutch, but didn't find one. Kate's car was an automatic. "How fancy," I said as I started the drive toward Kate's house. I parked in Kate's garage and went into the house. It was a nice little starter home that Kate and Arnie had put a lot of work into fixing up. They had totally renovated the kitchen and the bathrooms, put in marble countertops, repainted the whole place and put in new carpet. It was now truly a beautiful home. I looked out the front window and the rain was now really coming down. I was a little disappointed by the abysmal weather, but since I was planning on staying in until it was time to go switch back, it didn't really matter that much. I was fairly well drenched and decided that a quick change of clothes was in order. I also wanted to get naked and see what Kate's body looked like in the nude. I figured by this time, she already knew what I looked like, and other than peaking down her top at the red lights on the way over here, I hadn't gotten to see very much. I rapidly unbuttoned the dress and let it fall to the floor. I stood looking in the mirror at Kate's body, just wearing a bra and panties. "Delicious. Now to get a look at these babies," I said as I started to slide the bra down. That's when I heard the sound of the door from the garage opening and closing. "Kate!" I heard Arnie's voice call out. "Kate, honey. We're back." 'Oh my God!' I thought in a panic, as I pulled the bra back into place and frantically looked for something to put on. I found a pair of jeans and started quickly pulling them on. "Mommy! Mommy!" Maggie called out, and I heard her running down the hallway. "Oh shit!" I muttered silently as I grabbed a T-shirt and pulled it on. It was a cute little blue T-shirt the clung to the curves of my body, but I couldn't appreciate it at the time, because just as I finished pulling it on, Maggie came bounding into the room, threw her arms around my legs and hugged them tightly. "Mommy! I waz so scareded," Maggie said. She was the cutest little blonde four-year-old girl you could imagine. She had her father's brown eyes, but her face resembled that of her mother. She was thin, energetic and smart as a whip. I didn't know what to do. Maggie thought I was her Mother, but I wasn't. She wasn't even supposed to be here. I had been a regular guest over at their house many times and played with Maggie on almost every occasion, but I didn't really know what I was supposed to do now. "There, there, sweety," I said as comforting as I could, and I knelt down to give her a hug. "Everything is going to be okay." "Kate, the rain was coming down so hard that I decided to just turn around and go out to Mom's another time," Arnie said, coming into the bedroom. He was about my normal height, so he now stood an intimidating foot taller than me. He too was blonde, with brown eyes and was in excellent shape. He was a triathlon sportsman and kept in phenomenal shape. "The roads are a total mess. Besides, Maggie wanted to make sure that her Mommy was okay. Isn't that right, Maggie?" "Yes, Daddy," the little girl said, then threw her arms tightly around my neck and hugged me with all of her might. "I missed my Mommy," she said and then gave me a kiss on the cheek. As sad as it sounds, my first instinct was to make a run for it. I had to get away from these two before they figured out who I really was. I knew there was no way that they would even suspect such a thing, after all I was in Kate's body, but I still felt like an intruder and wanted to get away before I was found out. They could both probably already tell something was wrong. "Ah," Arnie said, squatting down and hugging us both in his big arms. "That's my girls," he said, giving Maggie a kiss on the forehead and then me one. I sat there in surprise, not knowing what do say or do. "Mommy, you know what you always need to watch out for?" Maggie said with a fiendish little grin on her face. "What?" I said, still in the realization that Arnie had just kissed my head, but then lightened up a little to keep up my pretense of being Kate. "What's that, Maggie?" "The tickle monster!" she shrieked, and then started trying to tickle my sides. I caught her hands reflexively and was holding onto her when suddenly my body went spasmodically wild and I let out a shriek of surprise. "And the father of the tickle monster," Arnie said, tickling my sides with a perfected technique that I was helpless to avoid. I had instantly let go of Maggie's arms and was thrashing around helplessly as Arnie had me semi-penned to the floor. Uncontrolled laughter billowed out of me as I desperately tried to catch my breath. "Mommy, I'll save you," Maggie said. She tried her best to do so, but with in seconds she was next to me and we were both laughing wildly and gasping for mercy under Arnie's merciless tickling assault. "Daddy, I need to use the potty!" Maggie screamed, and he stopped tickling her. She got up and quickly ran out of the room. I was gasping for air, grateful that the tickling had stopped, when it suddenly started up all over again. I squealed in surprise as my body was once again out of my immediate control as it frantically attempted to spasm its way free from Arnie's grasp. The tickling sensations stopped and I sighed for a moment's relief. The moment quickly passed however, when I realized that Arnie's hands had moved from my sides and were now resting on my chest. His hands were now foundling my breasts. "Oh!" I said in surprise. It was a very strange sensation, but it also felt really good. "I'll go put in a DVD for Maggie and we can have a little alone time," Arnie said with lustful look on his face. I was completely dumbstruck. He wanted to have sex with me, or more precisely his wife, which at that moment was who I appeared to be. The thought of that snapped me back to my senses like a splash of cold water on the face. I had no idea what to do, but I wasn't, I couldn't let that happen. I was trying to think up some excuse when I heard the phone ring. Arnie got up to answer it. "Hello?" he said. "Oh, Hi Marsha. Yeah, she's right here," he said, handing me the phone. 'Who the hell is Marsha?' I thought as Arnie handed me the phone. "Hello?" I said nervously. "Oh, Kate. Thank God you're home," the woman said desperately. "Brenda's car broke down and Debbie's home sick. Is there any way you can come in to work today?" 'Oh God,' I thought desperately. Kate worked at a daycare center a few blocks away, and of course my first instinct was to say no, but my fear of Arnie wanting to have sex with me made me say yes. "Oh, Kate, you're a real lifesaver," Marsha said as she hung up the phone. Arnie was disappointed, but understood why I needed to go in to work. Maggie's usual daycare was to go in to work with Kate, so she wanted to go with me, but Arnie said that he would watch her since it sounded like we were already short handed at work. I had to admit, I thought that was really cool of him to do. Maggie on the other hand started to cry since she wanted to be with her Mother. After promising to watch a DVD, with popcorn in a blanket fort with her, Maggie finally agreed to let me go. The rain was still coming down, but now I had a warm jacket and an umbrella. In the car I called my home number and waited for the beep of the answering machine. "Hello, Kate! Pick up the phone, it's me," I said. "Hello," I heard my male voice say. "You wouldn't believe all the things I've been doing. Peeing standing up is awesome and I-" "Arnie and Maggie came home," I said, cutting her off. "Oh, boy," Kate said. "And Arnie started tickling me, then started to feel me up and wanted to have sex." "Oh, God." "And then your work called and I got out of having sex with Arnie by going in to your job." "Oh, jeez," Kate said, and then added after a few seconds silence, "You just should have had sex with Arnie." "Oh, very funny," I said. "I haven't had a chance to do anything as you that I wanted to do. I have been going nonstop since I left my house, I haven't even gotten to take your top off yet." Kate laughed. "Well, I got to see what all the fuss was about...if you know what I mean?" "What do you mean?" I said, pulling up in front of the daycare center and parking. "I had an orgasm," she said sort of embarrassedly. "It's always messy, isn't it?" "You...you already knocked one out?" I said, slightly jealous. "I want to try one," I moped. "Well, you can have the 'real' thing if you want when you go home tonight. Arnie will still be up for it." "Yuck! No way," I said, disgusted. "How about we switch back at eight tonight and we switch again another day when I can have some time and privacy." "Sounds like a plan," Kate said. "Well, I'm at 'your' work, so I had better get going." "Wait, be sure to take some of the chocolate cookies home for Maggie, I always do, but she can't have any until after dinner." "Okay, you got it," I said and then added, "I'll see you at eight o'clock sharp." After fifteen minutes of mayhem at Kate's job I came to a frightful conclusion. 'Kate was right! I should have just stayed home and had sex with Arnie,' I thought as my senses were overloaded by the two-dozen or more kids who were screaming and running around the large room. Finally Marsha and I, mostly Marsha, got the kids under control and working on various projects. My biggest problem was that all the kids knew Kate, but I didn't know any of their names. I had to fake it for a while, until I could get a handle on most of the kids' names. I was sitting with a group of girls coloring pictures of My Little Pony, when a little boy name Brad gave me a Dinosaur picture he had colored red and drawn a big heart on it. "Kate, I drawed this for you," Brad said, and then ran to the other side of the room and hid his face in his hands, embarrassed. Shortly after that I had to break up a fight between two boys who were fighting over a toy car. And then I had a holla hoop contest with some of the older girls. I was never any good with a holla hoop, but thanks to my new thinner waist and rounder hips I was able to do okay, although I let a five-year-old girl win in the end. I found myself then needing to use the restroom. I was exhausted from non-stop action since I got there and when I looked in the mirror I noticed I had a smudge of blue paint across my forehead from when I was helping a young boy, Rick, painting a picture of the sky. I must have had some on my hand and wiped it across my forehead without thinking. Going to the bathroom was a new experience, because I reflexively stood in front of the toilet, lifted the lid, unzipped and then reached for something that wasn't there. It was a little shocking, but it almost seemed funny how programmed we are in are daily routines, that I didn't think of sitting down. As I sat there, I looked down at my breasts and then gave them a quick squeeze to remind me they were real. I had wanted to take off my shirt and look at them, play with them a little, but I just couldn't bring myself to do that then and there. I was at a daycare center, for God's sake! So after I cleaned myself up, I went back out into the play area and saw that it was time for lunch. "Kate! Sit with me," a girl named Marcy called. "She sat wit you yesterday. Sit here," a girl named Michelle said. Since we were short handed there, I didn't even get to sit down until it was naptime and the kids drifted off to sleep. Thankfully it had stopped raining, but dark clouds loomed in the distance and the weather report said more rain was on the way. I got to finally relax for a few moments, at least until the kids woke up from their naps. I had a cold individual pizza that was left over from the kids' lunch and washed it down with a box of grape Juicy Juice. This day was really not what I had expected at all. I had planned to go out shopping, maybe try on some clothes, definitely play around with Kate's body a little bit, and now all I had to look forward to was getting to switch back to myself in a little under eight hours. The kids started waking up from their naps, and I was ready to start all over again frantically trying to be twenty-four places at once, but was relieved and a little disappointed to find out that it was DVD time. Marsha put in a copy of Sleeping Beauty and most of the kids were mesmerized for the entire movie. The rest of the day seemed to fly by after that, until eventually parents started showing up to pick up their kids. It was pushing six o'clock when Marsha came over to me. "Thank you so much, Kate. You're a real life-saver," she said exhaustedly. "Glad I could help out, Marsha," I answered, wrapping myself in Kate's warm jacket and then started out toward her car. I got halfway there, then turned and headed back into the building. "Forget something?" Marsha inquired. "Cookie's for Maggie," I replied, picking up a little box of chocolate chip cookies and slipping it into the pocket of my jacket. "See you Monday," Marsha said. "And thanks again." "You're welcome," I said, and noticed that the rain was starting to come down once again. It was only six o'clock, according to the clock, when I sat in the car. I had two hours to kill and no real options of things I could do, so I put the car into drive and headed 'home'. The roads were getting a little flooded as I pulled into the garage of Kate and Arnie's house. I had wanted to go back to my own place and wait until after eight o'clock so that we could switch back, but I knew that the real Kate would have gone home, so I had no option but to play the part until eight and then make an excuse to go out so that we could trade back. "Mommy, mommy!" Maggie screamed as I walked in through the connecting door from the garage. "Dinner's almost ready." I knelt down and hugged Maggie tightly. "How was Mommy's little angel today?" I said, recalling how Kate had often greeted Maggie. Her little face lit up brightly and she again threw her arms around me and gave me a big hug. "Did you bring me anyding?" she said cutely, but was eyeing my expectantly. "Oh," I said and made a sad face. Maggie looked a little crestfallen for a second, but then I pulled out the box of cookies from my jacket pocket. I tapped her playfully on the head with the box and held it in front of her. Her eyes lit up with a child's enthusiasm over the simple treasure. "Mommy, you twicked me?" she said, giggling excitedly, and then she reached for the box of cookies. "Not until after dinner," I said, and Maggie made a pouting face. I gave her a quick kiss on the cheek and headed toward the kitchen. The smell of dinner instantly made my mouth water. "Hi, Hon, how was work?" Arnie asked, stirring something in the large frying pan, as I took off my jacket and hung it over a chair. "Not too bad, but it was a long day," I said and before I knew what he was doing, Arnie leaned over and gave me a quick peak on the lips. I tensed up a little bit, being surprised by being kissed by someone unexpectedly. And not just someone, but a man, I just had to remember that I was still Kate and not freak out. "Can I have a cookie before dinner?" Maggie asked longingly. "You can have some after dinner," I said, putting the cookies on top of the refrigerator. "Go wash up, dinner's ready," Arnie said. I took Maggie into the bathroom and helped her to wash her hands, and then we went and sat at the table. The dinner was amazing! A four course Chinese meal, with sweet and sour chicken, fried rice, homemade wantons and egg rolls. It was delicious. After dinner I cleared off the table, while Arnie and Maggie started making a fort out of blankets for us to watch a movie. They took some chairs from the kitchen and then it sounded like Arnie was moving the couch to make a little extra room. I quickly started the dishes and looked over at the clock. It was barely seven o'clock now, so I would watch part of the movie and then make up an excuse to go out so that I could switch bodies back with Kate. I was lost in thought about what would be the most believable excuse for me to go out, when I was surprised to feel a pair of hands on my breasts. I suddenly tensed up as I felt Arnie's hands foundling my breasts. "What's the matter, Hun, did I scare you?" he said, gently playing with my nipples, which were now suddenly hard. It felt incredibly strange, but also strangely erotic. "No," I replied, feeling slightly light-headed. "I just had a really stressful day at work and am not feeling myself right now." "Well, you feel good to me!" he said, giving my breasts a gentle squeeze that sent an electric tingle through my body. "Maybe this will help?" he said, moving his hands up to my neck, where he started to message my shoulders with his strong hands. I moaned helplessly at the wonderful way he was touching me and felt a peculiarly warm, loosening sensation below the pit of my stomach. I felt a few tender kisses on the back of my neck and felt goose bumps begin to run down my spine. My hands forgot all about the dishes and were now firmly planted against the counter top, acting as support for my suddenly weakening knees. I closed my eyes and all thoughts of what was happening drifted from my mind. I felt as if I were floating on a cloud and I wasn't aware of any rational thought. "Mommy! Daddy! It's time to start the movie," we heard Maggie call from the other room. Suddenly the kisses on my neck stopped and the massaging hands were gone. My body sighed with both relief and disappointment. My vision once again cleared and my higher brain functions quickly returned. "Be right there, Princess," Arnie called to Maggie. Then he gave me a kiss on the cheek and headed out into the living room. "Oh, Jesus," I whispered. "I don't think I ever felt like that before," I said, still feeling some of the tingling effects Arnie had on my body. "Come on, Kate, we're ready to start the movie," Arnie called. 'What the hell just happened?' I suddenly thought as I realized how turned on I had just been a moment ago and was thoroughly freaked out by it. 'Arnie really knows how to push the buttons on this body, but I just have to be careful and will switch back in a little over an hour.' I couldn't help but notice as I walked out in to the living room that my knees still felt really weak and what was worse than that, I felt a wetness down between my legs. I wasn't sure if I should just ignore it or go 'clean up' somehow. I decided to leave it for Kate to deal with when she got her body back. "Mommy, look," Maggie said, pointing at the fort. "Wow!" It was quite impressive, with a number of pillows and couch cushions forming the base, the chairs and the couch forming some of the walls and a number of blankets and comforters making up the other walls. It looked perfectly built for three. "Come on, Mommy!" Maggie said, sitting next to Arnie in the fort. I crawled into the fort to the spot that was left open for me, which thankfully put Maggie between Arnie and myself. Arnie pushed play on the DVD player remote and I had to laugh when Sleeping Beauty started to play on the television. We were part way through the movie when Maggie had to go 'potty' again. "So what chores do you want to work on tomorrow?" Arnie asked me. "Oh, I don't know," I said, trying to think of something. "Laundry?" "I wanted to clean out the garage and get our camping gear out, but with all this rain, we'll have to do it next weekend. I hope Maggie likes camping," he added. "I'm sure she will," I replied, trying to remember if Kate mentioned that they would be going on some type of camping trip. Just then we heard a dragging sound coming out of the kitchen. "What are you doing in there, Maggie?" Arnie called out. "Nothing!" she called back. He gave me a concerned look, but I just sat there staring back at him, not really thinking anything of it. Suddenly we heard a loud crash, which was instantly followed by Maggie's crying. We both sprang up, knocking the blankets to one side and raced into the kitchen. At the foot of the refrigerator, one of the remaining kitchen chairs was tipped over on its side and Maggie sat on the floor with her hands clasped over her chin. Tears were streaming down her face and her crying burst in to a deafening bawl. "It's okay, honey," Arnie said while springing over to Maggie. I stood transfixed for a moment when I realized that she had blood on her hands and that there were spots of it down the front of her shirt. I snapped out of my trance and grabbed a clean hand towel off the countertop. "Let me see, honey," I said as I squatted down on the other side of Maggie, but she only shook her head. "Maggie, please let me...please let Mommy see." Maggie lowered her hands and some blood ran down her chin from where she must have hit it when she had fallen. "That's going to need some stitches," Arnie said as he got up to get his shoes. I held the towel over Maggie's chin and she whimpered. To the side of the chair I saw the box of cookies that I had brought home from Kate's work. Once Arnie was ready, I pulled on my shoes, grabbed my jacket and we were off. The rain was once again pounding down on us as we drove to the hospital. Thick sheets of water fell across the windshield and were brushed aside by the wipers. I sat in the back seat next to Maggie, who was in her child seat. I tried my best to comfort her, but she sobbed all the way to the hospital. At the emergency room of the hospital we were quickly admitted and were waiting to see a doctor when Kate's cell phone rang. I looked at the caller ID and saw that it was my phone number. Maggie, who now seemed to be more afraid of the hospital than she was of the pain in her chin, was now sitting quietly with Arnie. I took the opportunity to quickly step a few feet away. "Hello," I whispered. "Ron? Where are you? It's after nine?" I heard my normal voice say. "I'm at the hospital. Maggie fell and-" "What! Oh, my God! What happened?" Kate said desperately. "Maggie was climbing on a chair to get something and fell. She split her chin open and now we are waiting for the doctor to give her some stitches." "Stitches! Oh, my God!" Kate said frantically. "I'll be right there!" "Kate! Just stay at my place. Maggie is fine. We can switch back later and you can see her then." "I need to be with my daughter. I'll bring the tablet with me and we can change in the hospital. I'm on my way." "Kate! Wait," I said, but she had already hung up. I went back over to Arnie and Maggie just as the doctor was coming over. Maggie tightly held my hand the whole time the doctor was examining her, and in the end she didn't even get stitches. Instead they used some type of medical adhesive and they placed a small bandage over her chin. I looked at the clock and saw more than half an hour had passed and was sure that Kate must be out in the waiting room by now. The nurse had given some instructions about what we needed to do and she was talking to Maggie about being careful, when the emergency room doors burst open. "Car accident victim in critical condition," one paramedic said, rolling the gurney in to the room. The attending doctor raced over. From where sat we could see that it was a man that they had brought in. He had bandages over his forehead and his face was obscured by an oxygen mask, but for some reason I couldn't take my eyes off of him. I experienced a surreal moment looking at the man when I saw his feet. The funny thing was that I noticed that he had tennis shoes exactly like mine. 'That's strange,' I thought as I was still looking at his feet. My mind seemed to fixate on that fact and wouldn't let me see anything else, but in an instant that defense system failed and I everything lurched into place. I realized that that had to be my body over there, and once I had established that piece of reality, my mind had no other way of dealing with it, other than fainting. A burning sensation stung my nose and my eyes snapped open. A nurse stood in front of my with a package of smelling salts. "Are you all right, Ma'am?" she said. "Ma'am?" I said in confusion as I looked around realizing I was in a hospital. "Mommy?" I heard Maggie say, and saw Arnie holding her. "I'm fine," I finally said in reply. What we shortly found out from the nurse on duty was that Ron, or I should say Kate, had been driving and lost control of the car in the rain. The nurse told us that he had received a major head injury, but was alive and was in the intensive care unit. We would be able to find out more tomorrow. I saw one of the paramedics and asked where the accident had taken place. Arnie, Maggie and I were driving toward home and I asked to go by the accident scene. Arnie hadn't wanted Maggie to see it, but she had quickly fallen asleep, so he agreed to drive by it. My car had slid off the road and smashed into a tree. The front driver's side window had a crack in it, which I had to assume had been made when Kate's head had collided with it. There were no cops around, but I knew a tow truck would probably be out soon to tow the car away. I had Arnie stop and before he knew what was happening I threw open the door, ran to the car and started to frantically look for the stone tablet. I knew that it must have been shattered in the crash, but I had to see it for myself so that I could know for certain. The rain was still pouring down and I was now completely drenched. I looked around the wreckage of what once was my car and saw it. To my utter amazement it was still intact, lying in front of the front passenger seat. I scrambled to open the door, quickly wrapped it in a towel I kept on the back seat and took off back toward the waiting car. "Kate, what's going on? What do you have there?" Arnie said, concerned. Maggie still slept silently in her child seat. "I...I'll explain when we get home," I said. For the rest of the way home we rode in silence. I desperately tried to think of what I was going to tell Arnie when we got back to his house. The truth was far too strange, but I couldn't think of one plausible lie. We pulled into the garage and Arnie carried Maggie into her room and put her to bed. I looked around and found a safe place to put the stone tablet. Now I realized that I was shivering from the wet clothes I was wearing and was quickly stripping them off in hopes off finding something else to wear before Arnie was done with putting Maggie to bed. I stripped off the shirt and dropped it to the floor. In a flash I had unbuttoned and pulled off the pants. The bra was also sopping wet. I hesitated in a moment of indecision, but then realized my body probably was quite used to doing it and reached back and unclasped it, then pulled it off with no problem. I looked down for the first time at the naked breasts on my chest and just at that moment Arnie walked into the room. I had planned to put on something else, but now that he was here, I just grabbed a blue silk robe out of the closet and quickly pulled it on. "Kate, what's going on?" Arnie said with a look of apprehension on his face. I didn't know what to say. So I walked over numbly and sat on the edge of the bed. I wanted to tell him, but I couldn't get my mouth to move, so instead I just sat there looking up at him for what seemed like forever. "This isn't easy for me to say, and I am sure you won't believe me." "What is it, Kate?" he said while sitting down next to me on the bed. "I'm...I'm not Kate. And that wasn't really Ron Miller in that accident tonight. I mean, I'm Ron in Kate's body and she..." I started to sob. "She was in my body." "What are you talking about?" "We switched bodies using this stone tablet my Uncle left me. I know it sounds crazy, but you have to believe me." Arnie sat looking at me like I was telling some type of cruel joke. I explained in detail about my Uncle's letter, my discussion with Kate about switching bodies, how we thought he and Maggie would be out of town today, and how I was going to switch back tonight. Arnie sat unmoving the whole time I explained all of this and just stared. He never asked a single question or said a single word. He just stared at me, until finally I finished and he just sat there like a statue. "Arnie...I am so sorry," I said, and again started to cry. In a flash he had grabbed me by the shoulders and shoved my back down against the bed. He was on top of me, straddling me and I saw his arm cocking back and his hand in a fist. I closed my eyes and tensed up, waiting for the blow to hit my face...but nothing happened. I looked up and saw Arnie still sat straddling me, his hand still in a fist, his arm cocked back, but his face had softened and a tear ran down his face. "Oh God, Kate," he said, bring his hands up to his face, sobbing. He slowly got off of me and collapsed next to me on the bed. He faced away from me, but his whole body was shaking with grief. I crawled over to him and put my hand on his shoulder, but he pulled it away. I laid down next to him and put my arm around him. He tensed up for a moment, but then began to cry again. I held him that way until he had fallen asleep. 'I think I know how I can make it all better,' I thought to myself as I held Arnie. It was at that point that I made the decision, which although it frightened me, was the only possible option I could think of. I may have drifted off at some point in the night, but I didn't sleep long and got up before the sun. I quickly got dressed in a pair of jeans and a long sleeved T-shirt, I didn't know where Kate kept her bras and that was one of the last things on my mind, so I didn't wear one. I went out into the kitchen and started to write a letter. I originally started it with just Arnie, but crossed it out and started with a fresh piece of paper. I instead started the letter with Dear Arnie and then wrote the following: Words can't express how sorry I am for all of the pain I have caused you. I never meant for anything like this to happen, and I will do what I must to set things right. I have a theory that if I take the tablet to my body, and put my hand and Kate's hand on it, we will switch places and hopefully she will be restored to you. I don't know if it will work or not, but I have to try this, no matter what it does to me, I have to do whatever I can to restore Maggie's mother to her. Maggie needs her mother and if it means that I end up paralyzed or even dead, as long as her mother comes home to her, then it will have been a small price to pay. Again Arnie, I am so sorry, but I hope that you can forgive me. Ron I went and got the stone tablet from its hiding place and was heading for the front door when I heard a voice. "Mommy?" Maggie said, sleepily. "Maggie, you need to go back to bed, sweetie," I said, walking her back to her bed. I put her back in her bed and tucked her in. "Where are you going, Mommy?" she said as she was falling back asleep. "Don't worry, Maggie," I whispered, and then I kissed her on the forehead. "Your Mommy will be home real soon." I put on Kate's coat, went out to the garage and got in the car. I was then off and headed toward the hospital. It was about seven- thirty when I parked the car and walked into the reception area. I asked what room Ron Miller was in. The nurse asked if I was family, so I told her that I was Ron's sister. I found out that my body was still in intensive care and that there were no visitors allowed. I begged the nurse to make some type of exception, just so I could see my 'brother', just for a few moments, but she couldn't help me. I was hoping to see the nurse who had been there the night before, and maybe I could talk her into helping me, but she had gone home hours ago. I then found where the intensive care ward was and was planning to sneak in, find my body and just used the tablet to switch us back. "Kate!" I heard a voice call out, and I turned around to see Arnie running up to me. "Arnie, what are you doing here?" I said in reply. "I can't let you do this." "What?" I couldn't believe what I was hearing. "I have to do this. This is the only way to get Maggie her mother back. It's the only way to restore Kate to you." "What if you use this thing and instead of Kate coming back, you are lost as well, and Kate's body is left empty. Then Maggie's mother will truly have been lost." "But I at least have to try," I said in desperation. Kate...Ron, we'll go talk to the doctors, find out what's the status of...your body. Once we have some more information, then we can act. Okay?" "Okay." We spoke to a doctor that told us that my body had sustained a serious head trauma in the crash and was now legally brain dead. He talked on for a while, but I couldn't hear anything else he said after that. Arnie explained to me later that my body was being kept alive artificially. "Where's Maggie?" I asked as we were walking back to the car. "Marsha owed you...I mean Kate, a favor, so she's looking after her." Again we drove back to their house in silence and for the first hour neither of us could say anything. "What am I going to do?" I finally said, but felt incredibly selfish for saying that. "I don't know," Arnie said with pain in his eyes. "You can stay here. You can sleep on the bed and I'll sleep out on the couch." "No, I'll sleep on the couch," I said. The next few days were extremely difficult and painful. Luckily Arnie's parents were able to come out and get Maggie for the week. I don't think we could have kept her from seeing the pain that we were both in. Both Arnie and I were in mourning. He had lost the woman he loved and I had lost my body. We both took the week off work. I could see the pain in Arnie's eyes every time he looked at me. I was the living reminder that his wife was gone and we exploded into screaming matches of blame on several occasions. I didn't know what I could do. I had to face the fact that my own body would be dead soon. I had left instructions with my Mother that if anything like this ever happened, that I be taken off life support and have my organs harvested for transplantation. My body would be dead soon, and I didn't know how I was going to handle its death. And I felt so guilty for what had happened to Kate, that I had trouble sleeping at night. I knew Arnie was having trouble sleeping as well, because I would hear him up at night in the bedroom. Finally on Wednesday night at six-thirty-five, my body was taken off of life support and was pronounced dead. I went into the bedroom to tell Arnie and both of us broke down crying. Emotional wrecks, we collapsed onto the bed and held each other for hours. Emotionally exhausted, we lay holding each other in the dark. What happened next might be hard to believe, but I could only attribute it to the fact that my own body now laid dead in some hospital morgue and I needed to feel. As for Arnie, as well as myself, we both needed a release from the pain, some way to escape it, if only for a little while. So that night we made love, and as our bodies joined to become one, we succeeded in relieving one another's pain, at least for a little while. Three years later Things were not easy after that night. If anything, after we made love, things were worse between the two of us. I had trouble coming to terms that I had sex with a man and Arnie felt like he had cheated on Kate's memory. More time was spent out on the couch, and when Maggie came home she didn't understand what was going on, but in the end she was a steadying force. We told her that I was sleeping out on the couch because Daddy snored, but kids are smart and she may have seen more was going on than just that. I had no choice but to keeping doing Kate's job at the daycare center. The family expenses were pretty tight and 'we' couldn't afford for me not to work. I enjoyed working with the kids and of course Maggie was there the whole time. Finally as the weeks rolled by, Arnie and I began to rely on one another more and more. First it was just about taking care of Maggie, then it came to helping each other around the house and then finally we began to deal with the loss of Kate. We couldn't really go to therapy to deal with this problem, who would believe such a thing, so we had to rely on each other. Once we got a lot of those issues out into the open we began to heal. Then, either through desire or perhaps sheer loneliness, we developed a physical relationship. At first it was difficult for both of us, each of us suffering from our own guilt, but eventually we couldn't keep our hands off each other. Soon I wouldn't go out and sleep on the couch 'afterwards', instead I would stay the whole night in the bed and we would be wrapped in one another's arms. And then, as if from nowhere we suddenly discovered that we had developed an emotional bond as well. And it was a good thing that happened, because I soon found out that even with all the precautions that both of us took, I somehow had become pregnant. So nine months later Maggie got a little brother named Steven. So now I was a mother of both a daughter and a son. It was a full time job taking care of two young children, but it was also very rewarding. Time quickly passed as I took care of the needs of Maggie and Steve. Arnie too had a lot of needs that I quickly and adeptly learned to fulfill, as he already knew how to fulfill mine. As for the dammed stone tablet, we put it up in the rafters in the attic. I had wanted to destroy it. I would have taken a sledgehammer to it myself, but Arnie wanted to keep it, maybe as some type of remembrance of Kate. I never wanted to see, let alone use that thing again. It had placed me in Kate's body and with what had happened, I decided that I was going to live out the rest of my life as Kate. In time, Maggie started the first grade and Steven hit the terrible twos. Arnie and I, when we had the time for it, continued to have a wonderful sex life. In so many ways I was different than the person I was before, but at the same time I was still the same. I don't think that I will ever truly be over the guilt that I feel for what happed to Kate, but I am learning to deal with it as best I can. The End...of a new beginning