I’m starting to get worried. A week ago my father presented his new invention excitedly to my family. He described it as a brain switching machine that could swap the minds and bodies of two people. My mother had already agreed to be one of the subjects, so my brother and sister and I drew straws to see who would be the second. When I got the short straw I didn’t take it seriously, a brain switching machine was science fiction. No way my father built one. My sceptisism remained as my father sat my mother and I down next to each other and put a strange helmet covered in wires on both of our head.
My dad through a switch and I felt a buzzing go through my head as my vision went blury. When I could see clearly again I saw my father and siblings looking at us waiting to see if it had worked. I rolled my eyes and said, “Nice invention, Dad.” Before realizing I had my mom’s voice. Looking down I saw I had my mom’s body, and looking over I saw myself looking back!
The whole family, including myself, was amazed by my dad’s invention. I would have never thought it possible but here I was, in the body of my mom. We both got up and walked around awkwardly, neither of us at all used to our new centers of gravity or proportions. I realized I was wearing a dress, which in itself felt totally different from anything I’d worn before.
“What do you think?” My dad asked as took in the strange feeling of a new body.
“It’s, well honey it’s amazing but…” My mom said from my body, clearly distracted by it.
“This is really weird, can we switch back?” I said, picking up where mom left off, still feeling weirded out hearing my mother’s voice come out of my mouth.
“Sure thing Darli- err, son.” He said as he typed some commands into the machine’s system. My mother and I sat back down, redonned the helmets, and waited as my father booted up the machine and threw the switch. When he did, though, nothing seemed to happen.
“Uh-oh.” He said. My mother and I exchanged a worried glance.
Long story short, my father’s machine had broken down and he wasn’t sure how to fix it.
“Are you fucking serious?” I blustered hearing the news.
“Language!” My mother chided from my body, her catchphrase sounding downright strange with my voice.
“This is hilarious.” My older brother chuckled along with my other siblings who found this endlessly amusing. My father promised to spend every minute he could fixing the machine.
“This is so bogus.” I said, crossing my hands over my chest, the readjusting because I hadn’t accounted for my new boobs.
“Hey, it could be fun!” My mom reasoned. “This is a pretty amazing experience. We can walk a mile in each others shoes! If nothing else you can think of it as a vacation from school.”
“Yay, a vacation where Im stuck at the house in the body of my mom wearing dresses and bras.” I said sarcastically.
“I don’t care what you wear. I have plenty of sweats and t-shirts.” My mom said back.
“What fun. My friends are never going to let me live this down.”
“About that,” My father interrupted. “We better keep this whole thing secret. I don’t want anybody to know about the machine until I’ve fixed it and fixed you to.”
“Wait, so mom has to convince my friends she’s me? Even my girlfriend?”
“Don’t worry hon,” My mom said, “I’ll do my best at being you. I think this will be fun.”
“Easy for you to say. At least you have a girlfriend.”
“Hey, you have a husband.” She shot back, making my siblings erupt in laughter. My face went beat red as my father stuttered.
“V-very funny.” He said, embarrassed.
So like I said, my father agreed to spend as much time as he could repairing the device, but he had to hold down a job that took up most of his days. He assured us that he should have the problem worked out in three days tops. We worked it out so that I would sleep in the guest room, my father in my parents room, and my mother in my room.
“Okay, whatever. If we’re finished here I’m going to get out of this dress.” I said before making my way up to my parents room first to get a set of my mom’s loose clothes and then to the guest bedroom. Locking the door behind me I took a minute to reflect. I caught myself in the mirror and struck a stance, placing my hands on my hips. I was in my mother’s friggin body. I was a woman in a dress with earrings and manicured hands. My dad better fix that machine soon because this is too much.
