Same slop. Different day. My life feels like the offal of someone else’s glorious life. Today took it out of me. Keeping customers happy on a hot, summer day always provides it challenges, but not a single customer showed empathy or gratitude. When my shift ended, I waved goodbye to my fellow penitents of retail Hades and rushed to my car. Too weary to do anything else, I wriggled into my comfiest pajamas and crawled under my comforter.
“With any luck, I’ll be someone else tomorrow.” I mumbled into my pillow as my eyes drifted closed.
Sunlight tickled my eyelids, insisting that I must awaken. I sighed and threw my arm over my face. As if to thwart this effort to garner a few more minutes of rest, an alarm went off. The unfamiliar beeping made me rise from the cocoon of quilts. After slapping at buttons until the noise stopped, I took in the room.
“What in the…” The question died on my lips as I look around. “Jane?”
I recognized her country cozy style. Despite working at a high-paid law firm, my best friend insisted on living in a house that should belong to an aged farmer who still cans her own corn and beans. I didn’t remember how I got here, however. I stood up slowly and made my way to the ornately framed mirror mounted on the wall beside her door.
My mouth dropped open as her brown eyes looked back at me from my reflection. I slowly closed my mouth and offered myself her sweet smile. As I marveled at how well-rested she looked, my favorite song erupted from the bedside table.
My head swung toward the noise to find Jane’s phone sending off a blue glow as music filled the room. I picked it up, noticing my own name listed as the caller.
“Hello?” I answered hesitantly.
“Eve, is that you?” My own sleep-roughened voice filtered from the speaker.
“Jane?”
A heavy sigh of relief preceded a long string of demands.
“Stop!” I finally released that solitary word.
She breathed deeply but the flow of words slowed. “Come on. I can’t lose my job over whatever this is.”
“What is this?”
She sighed. “I already explained that I don’t know what is going on but you have to be your best version of me today or I will lose my job.”
“In that case, you need to give me a second to find a pen and paper and then start over. Slowly.”
“I already sent an email. I have been up for a couple hours, but I knew you’d sleep until noon if I let you. Go get to my work.”
She ended the call on that note. Someone who didn’t know her as I do would have been offended. Instead, I felt enlivened. My day was off to an unexpected and unwanted start, but she had given me purpose. I would focus on keeping her job rather than whatever got us in this situation. I breathed a sigh of relief, certain she would do more for us on my day off that I would have. As I sat before her computer, suddenly realizing I didn’t know her login password, circumstances reminded me that my tech savvy friend planned for contingencies even she couldn’t anticipate. The screen showed a silhouette for a moment and then informed me it knew my face. Moments later, I printed out Jane’s lengthy email and started working on the task list it contained.
The morning breezed by, mainly because my own voice echoed in my ear throughout each meeting and trial giving me the right words to say. All I had to do was repeat them with the appropriate tone of voice. I began to wonder if a career as a puppet awaited but wisely chose not to inquire while Jane remained on the clock.
“That was the last one,” my voice brought welcome news through the earpiece.
“Thank goodness. Being you is hard work.”
“Indeed it is, but you did a decent job.”
“So where are we meeting?”
“My place.”
“And do you have good news?”
“I hope so.”
I bit my lip, wishing she had had offered more reassurance. Would a simple yes have been so hard?
When I pulled her fancy little sports car back into her garage, she greeted me at the door to the interior of her house with a grin. “So good of you to give your best friend the code for the garage.” As she continued to smile mischievously, I wondered how she managed to keep lipstick on my lips and flyaways from breaking free of the normally wild coif of my hair.
“Yeah. I forgot I did that.” I winked at her before turning serious. “What did you find out?”
“Obviously, I couldn’t do a google search and get answers…” She began.
“But you tried it?”
“Of course. We could have got lucky.”
“But we didn’t?”
“No. We did not, but you did because I know people.” She paused to allow another interruption, but the promise of good news kept even my wagging tongue still. “And one of those people claimed to be a voodoo priestess.”
She paused again, but I asked my question with my eyes to hurry things along. “I say claimed because if her solution works for us, I am a believer in her power from now on.”
“And what is her solution?”
“Remember ‘Freaky Friday’?”
I nodded.
“Well, my priestess asked me a question that I now need your honest answer to. Did you express discontent with your life last night…aloud?”
My jaw dropped. “Yes…”
“As did I. She thinks the spirits decided to help us out by letting us see the world through each other’s eyes.”
“So how do we reverse it?”
“Well, we need to honestly want to resume our own lives, which I do,” I nodded my wholehearted agreement as she continued. “And we have to state it to the universe and, hopefully, when we wake up tomorrow, we will be ourselves again.”
She reached out to gently arrange her hair at that moment. Startled, I shied away. She laughed.
“So I just want you to know that as delightful as it was to fight with your hair today, I really do appreciate my own body and hair and want them back.”
“I definitely would rather live my own life than the one of a busy lawyer.” I agreed.
“Here’s hoping,” she reached out to grip my hand in a firm handshake before heading back toward the street. “Now one last stroll in this body before bedtime.”
My eyes widened. “You walked over here?”
“Yep. You should do it more often, by the way.” With a flippant wave she turned away.
I decided to nose through her fridge for fancier fare than I could afford since the hope was that the next morning would find me in my own body in my own cozy apartment.
Kind of the way one feels after a long trip, right? I got to attend a friend’s wedding last week and their was cake and cookies and fruit and, inexplicably, pickled beets. And, yes, I enjoyed all of these items because my tongue loves many flavors and my tummy loves being chubby :) Any excuse for cake!
Side note: I did post last week, but I was traveling and celebrating the births of Robin Williams and Don Knotts, so I didn’t remind all you cool kids on Facebook. Feel free to check it out!
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