1 Chapter 1: The Exchange

On a hot, sunny Friday, I looked into the cold river. What a current! I turned back, took a running start and took off. The board was moving, I was in the air but I forgot about the person, a woman, who was swimming in the water below me. So I hit my head from hers. A few seconds later I opened my eyes, with her unconscious in the water. The light appeared through the water where I could see her face. Soon the end came. The grate forced people to jump out of the water. I couldn't imagine letting a person die just like that. How would I feel when I woke up and noticed all that water rushing by. I held the unknown to my hands and dove to the surface. With one hand, I tried to get out of the water. We were too heavy. We couldn't both make it. It was either her or me. I grabbed the bar but missed as a person then reached out to me. It was the lifeguard who had saved us. He took the girl out of the water, carried her up, whereupon he dropped her. He massaged her heart, pressed on her chest between her breasts, while I watched from the side. She spat out water, regained consciousness. The lifeguard was relieved. After she stood up and thanked him, he left. She, on the other hand, ran to me as I was slapped in the face in surprise. This flattened me. For hours afterwards, this still hurt me. "Thank you for almost killing me!" she said angrily, turning her back on me as she walked away. "I saved your life when I pulled you out of the water!", I retorted back to her, but she was distant or didn't want anything more from me. She didn't know how I felt when we were still in the water, should I have let her die? From an ungrateful brat I did not spoil my mood. Despite everything, I went home. I couldn't go on. The matter troubled me for a long time. Should I really have let her die? I lay in the dark while I thought about it.

I was suddenly in water that was cold, although the sun was shining. I looked around and I noticed how I was swimming under the bridge. I was aware that it was a dream, but that it seemed real? I never thought it would. A shadow passed over me. Someone hit my head, fell into the water, and I had no air. No matter how I tried, I couldn't reach for the oxygen. I was holding onto my neck, wriggling around, when something pulled me into the abyss by my feet from below. Bubbles of oxygen came out of my mouth. It wasn't long before I passed out.

Suddenly I woke in my bed, breathing rapidly. Was I forgetting to breathe? Was the dream real? Question after question I couldn't answer. I fell into the thoughts so that I forgot that I was sitting on my bed and had a view in my room. A room that was not mine. It was a small room, smaller than mine. To my right, a wall. In front of me a small closet that was next to a door. In the other corner there was a cello looking at me. Next to it was a large white table with a computer and several pens on it. In front of the big table were her clothes on a brown chair. And when I glanced next to me, there was a nightstand with a phone on it. Even before I got up, my neck itched. No matter what it was, I couldn't get rid of it. I grabbed it and pulled it forward. It was my hair, long black hair. This is not real! This is not real! This is not real! I'm not a caveman, where hair grows over night! And my hands? Why do they look so small and why are my fingernails painted red? A thought popped into my head that I'm ... not possible! I jumped out of the strange bed. As I did so, I felt my chest jump up. I stood in the middle of the room, looking down, where I had a bulge on my chest. I quickly pulled my pants wide and my penis was gone. My best piece was lost. Instead, I had wild black hair that was crooked. I touched my bulge and felt two breasts. B cup! Every handle I could feel. They felt knotty and could be compared to a sponge that could be squeezed. It seemed too real to be just a dream. If I hadn't heard footsteps, I would have continued massaging my breasts. A woman in a gray outfit stood in front of my room, looking at me with her blue eyes while cranking her brown hair, which was short, down to her neck, with her finger. She was probably the mother of the owner of the body. She was nervous. "What are you doing?" she directed her eyes at me in horror. Should I say, hi, I'm Mike and I'm in this body. "Just got up," I shot out of fear of being discovered. "I'll meet you at the entrance in ten minutes." She really believed I had that much time. I really had better things to do. "I made an appointment with a friend!", I told her. She was furious. "Anika, didn't I tell you that you were coming with me to the theater for today?" she asked, disappointed. What kind of mother? "Tell your friend that you don't have time today. Me and you will be together today!" She turned away and went back. I took the phone that was on the nightstand, whereupon I tried to decode it. Of course I couldn't know her password, she didn't have a FaceID or a PrintID. I had no choice but to follow the mother. I changed my clothes, had had a small glimpse of her whole body in that short time. What a beauty, her curves. I pulled my breast holder first, which I had to adjust in the front because it scratched my breasts so much. By the time I tied it up, it was taking too long. Otherwise her blue jeans and blue shirt. I put on her white socks last, before I went to the entrance. Confused about the many rooms that passed by the way, I soon came to the front door where the mother, actually her mother, was waiting. "Where are you, Louise must be waiting for us!", kept looking at the clock. What an impatient woman! As soon as I put on my white all-star shoes, which was next to the mother, she opened the door, put the key and went outside. Thank goodness I never had a mother like that! I closed the door, came outside, looking around for the mother. Without looking for her daughter, she kept running. I ran after her all the way until she stopped at a bus stop. "My keys!" she opened her hand. I gave them to her as she returned my thanks. It wasn't another five minutes before the next tram came. We got on and rode a few stations . I looked through the windows. I didn't live far from here. After a few minutes standing, we got off. "Where is she?" the mother spoke to herself. We waited. The mother looked tensely at the phone. Suddenly a heavily pregnant woman came, wearing dark blue shorts, a blue striped blouse and her blond-brown hair was knotted as if on her head. She greeted the mother. Her big, round belly got my attention. "Let's go!" the mother gestured, entering before her friend and me. "You go ahead," she told the mother, who just nodded and disappeared through the door. Afterwards, the pregnant woman stopped, looking to me. "I know you're not you," she told me. Finally, I could breathe a sigh of relief. I thanked her, "I didn't know how long to play it for you. The woman is exhausting," I pointed with a thumb. "But how did you know?", I asked her. Early in the morning she was called, it was an unknown number, it was my home phone number. I, that is Anika in my body, told that she was in another body. Subsequently, she came to her. "Although not believing in magic, Anika, in my body had known all the information about me that I would not confide to everyone. There was no choice but for me to come here and tell you that you must come to me now." "How can I come with you when Anika's mother is waiting for me inside?", I asked her. She handed me a phone after entering her PIN code. It was all pre-planned. "Call her from my phone. Tell her that I feel bad and to take me home." I pressed the call icon as I read a caption: Anika's Mother. I pressed it and suddenly she was calling. Just before I got the mother on the phone, I asked the pregnant woman what her name was. "Hello?" "Hello mother. Louise isn't feeling well." "Let me talk to her!" she replied to me, handing her the phone. "I'm not feeling so well," she said in a sobbing voice that she tried to stop in her throat. No, it's fine. Anika will help me get home. Okay. I'll tell her to do it. Thanks. See you soon!" She hung up the phone. "Problem solved," she said to me with a smile. We walked down the street. It was a short time before we entered an older building. Once on the third floor, she opened the door and we entered. I put my first step in her apartment when I saw myself. It was Anika in my body. She was pacing around the room, biting my fingernails. "Who are you?" she asked me. "I'm Mike Smith and you're...", I asked her. "Anika Klausen", she answered me. We shook hands. She looked at Louise, who she then introduced in passing. She smiled at us. "This is our mother's friend. Her name is Louise and she's six months pregnant," pointing to her big, round belly. I nodded. "I know how we swap bodies back," I told her as she adjusted the, my eyebrows. "Really!" she was amazed. "I went to a psychic. She had been able to guess. I just need to concentrate and think on my body. Then it should work." "Do it now!" she told me, realizing she was commanding me to do so, she added, "please, I don't want to be in this body anymore!" "Do I want to?", I asked her the same question. I closed my eyes concentrated on my body. On Anika, who was in my body. Then, when I opened my eyes again, I was suddenly standing. "Mike?", Louise asked me. "Yes, I'm me," I said to myself in a surprised voice. "Anika also suddenly opened her eyes." She looked at her painted fingernails. "It worked." The psychic was really right and that I will switch bodies with her again. Although they seemed genuinely happy, I only interrupted them with an "um." They had had their attention back on me. "I think we're going to switch bodies again," she had shared with a disappointed face. They too were startled and speechless. Anika had to realize that she will swap bodies with me. When that will be, will be a question, but it will happen. It took a long time until she let a word out of her mouth. "And between the three of us, we don't want anyone to know that we will switch bodies," Anika said. We all agreed. If this got out to the public, we would be in the psychiatric hospital. She came towards me, to which she told me her code of the phone and I hers. We said goodbye to Louise. On the way to the exit I talked to Anika about her mother. And in fact, I learned that she is not like that at all. She only looks like that when she is stressed. We said goodbye to each other and went our separate ways. I spent the evening in the swimming pool, where I had once met Anika. It was not at all clear to me why I had these powers. Did I really have to practice how I swap bodies? I guess I had no other choice. I sat on the dock, closed my eyes and concentrated. Suddenly I saw every person who was around me. A woman walked through next to me, stumbled and fell on me. I wonder what could have happened wrong again!

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