Body Switchers from Outer Space (2 page)

A green light glowed from inside the shed, and I could hear a ticking noise. My heart pounded double time. I glanced down to see if it was popping out of my chest.

That's when I noticed all of today's stains down the front of my shirt. There were green grass stains from gym in addition to red spaghetti blotches and brown pudding smudges. Plus a few spots that hadn't come out in the wash from last spaghetti day.

Some things never change.

But—maybe they could.

I've wanted to be someone else for such a long time. And besides, Chad would think I was a total wimp if I backed out now.

I couldn't let a whooshing door and a weird shed stop me.

“Come on in.” Chad stood in the silver mushroom doorway, waiting.

Well, here goes.

I stepped across the threshold and gave a little gasp of surprise. My foot sank deep into the floor. It was made of some kind of pink, spongy material. I bent down to examine it. The floor felt soft and warm on my hand. I poked at it in a few places before straightening up.

I watched Chad touch a yellow-green badge on an inside wall near the door. The opening whooshed shut. I glanced around the inside of the shed.

I don't think I had ever been in a round room before. A large yellow circle was painted on the floor. A pale green light glowed from the ceiling. I noticed four big dark gray boxes that reached to the ceiling and looked like closets. These had visible doors, only the knobs were square and near the bottom. Wicked-looking lockers—if that's what they were!

Shiny machines of all different shapes and sizes stood along the walls. They were made of brightly colored metal—green metal, red metal, purple metal—and they were all wrapped with thin wires and multicolored metal ribbons.

What could the machines be for? Were they more of Chad's dad's inventions? What other kinds of experiments did he do?

Two of the biggest machines in the room stood side by side. These looked like purple telephone
booths without windows. Next to them was a table with a slanted top covered in shiny colored patches. I figured the table was the control panel. Those patches looked like the one Chad had touched to open and close the door to the shed.

Chad strode to the slanted table and pressed his thumb on a square blue patch.

Oval doors whooshed open on the sides of the telephone booths.

They looked dark and empty inside, and a sour smell came from them.

“Excellent,” I said. I hurried over to join Chad at the slant-topped table. Well, actually, I bounced over because of the spongy floor. I wanted to check out that control panel.

Some of the slick patches on it were square, some round, some oval. One or two were squiggle-shaped. Each patch was a different color, surrounded by a black line. This was neat stuff.

“How does it work? And what are those metal things?” I asked, waving at the machines around the room.

“Never mind,” Chad said. “We need to get into the change chambers.” He pointed at the giant purple telephone booths. “That's how we switch bodies.”

Something in the room was humming the way a refrigerator does when it's working. A lot of power was generating in the shed. These machines were
plugged in and ready to go. If body switching was possible, these babies looked like just the machines to do it.

“Ready?” Chad asked. He smiled at me.

Those could be my perfect teeth.
What a weird thought.

Come on, Will. Go for it. What have you got to lose?

I stumbled across the floor and tripped into one of the purple chambers.

The inner surface was shiny and dark. I touched the wall. It was warm and wet. The sour smell surrounded me.

Chad still stood by the table.

“All set?” he called.

“Aren't you getting in the other one?” I asked. My palms started to sweat. What if something went wrong?

What if it was all just a mean joke?

What if Chad shut me in here and left me?

What if he never let me out?

What if . . .? All of a sudden this didn't seem like the best idea.

“I'll pop in as soon as I program the body-switch,” Chad explained. He pressed his fingers on the patches on the table.

The opening in the side of the chamber whooshed shut.

I plunged into darkness. Total, stinky darkness.

The floor started humming under my feet. My body began to vibrate, and the hum seemed to spread all through me.

I had no idea whether Chad had gotten into the other chamber.

Pink squiggly lines of light flowed over the walls. The lines turned into green swirls. Then, bursts of colored light lit up the chamber like fireworks.

Oh, man! Maybe I wasn't ready for this, after all.

Mist rose from the floor and came down from the ceiling. It made me cough. It wasn't cold and wet mist, it was more like smoke from a fire, only it tasted like perfume and it was pink.

My skin felt as if it was sizzling and popping, the way carbonation tastes on your tongue when you're not used to it. The air had become very hot. I felt as if I were flying, but I knew I wasn't going anywhere.

Something was definitely happening!

I wish I knew what was going on with Chad! Did he get into the other chamber? Was this all working the way it was supposed to?

A noise under my feet pulsed, slowly at first, then faster and faster. My body twitched to the beat. The sound pounded louder and louder, thumping like a drum or a heart. Suddenly a huge sideways lurch tossed me into the wall of the chamber. I thought I was going to throw up.

Then nothing.

No sound. No fireworks. No nothing.

Had it worked? Was I in Chad's body? Was he in mine?

For a minute I couldn't breathe. My lungs felt squashed.

All my muscles felt stretched out and burned.

I tried to move my head, to look around.

My neck didn't work!

I grabbed for the walls, but my arms just lay by my side. I couldn't lift a finger!

No!
I thought. Something horrible must have happened! What's wrong with me? Am I paralyzed?

My heart pounded so hard my ears hurt. I couldn't move a single muscle, and I couldn't even breathe.

My body was completely frozen in place!

I
struggled to move. My mind raced around and around.
Trapped.
Would I ever be able to move again?

The mist began to clear. The chamber cooled off. It was dark again inside the telephone booth.

Dark as a tomb.

I gasped. And this time my chest heaved and managed to pull in a huge breath.

Air! Hurray!

I realized I was really thirsty. Probably because of how hot it was in the chamber.

I licked my lips. Something was different.

But what?

My tongue pressed against the backs of my teeth. They were the wrong shape.

I couldn't feel my braces!

Could it be . . .?

I still hadn't been able to blink or turn my head. I tried to look down, and finally my eyelids blinked. I thought about opening my mouth, and my head looked down.

Every time I tried something, my body would do the movement I tried to do the minute before! I was always one step behind myself. Just attempting to move was making me sweat.

Now that my head was looking down, I realized I wasn't seeing my spaghetti shirt.

I was staring at Chad's clothes!

Oh, man!

It worked! The switch had actually worked!

I wasn't me!

I still felt like me, but I was inside Chad's body.

Chad's body! Oh man, oh man, oh man. This was the biggest, bizarrest, most fantastic, whacked thing that had ever happened in my life.

But I was paralyzed! I was in the most excellent body in all of Shadyside, and I couldn't get it to work right!

This was
worse
than being me!

What if I was stuck like this forever?

I tried to lift my hand. I blinked instead. I tried
kicking the wall and my hand lifted. I tried to make a fist, and I kicked the wall.

I couldn't live like this! I wanted my body back—and fast!

This switch was a stupid, stupid idea. Obviously, something went wrong.

Could it be made right?

With a
whoosh
a hole opened in the wall in front of me.

A tall, skinny, dark-haired dorky guy stood there grinning at me.

Spaghetti and chocolate pudding stains covered his red and white shirt.

It was me! I was looking at
me!

Or at my body, anyway!

“Hey!” he said. In
my
voice! “Hey . . . 
Chad.”
Then he grinned again.

I managed to open my mouth, but couldn't make a sound. I tried to blink, and “Hey yourself” finally popped out—in Chad's voice!

Oh, man!

“It takes a minute or two for your brain to adjust,” he explained, “unless you've switched before. Come on out!” Then he turned away and did a flip.

A flip! In my clumsy body! Never in a million years could I make my body do a flip.

“So now you know,” Chad said, grinning a big dorky grin. Light bounced off his—
my
—braces. “I
have
done this before. That's how I know how safe it is. You'll be okay in a couple of minutes.”

By thinking one thing and doing something else, I managed to get out of the change chamber. I didn't even trip over the door sill.

“You have to open the door,” Chad said, pointing to the yellow-green circle on the wall. Even though I knew there was a door there, I still couldn't see it. “It's keyed to my body's thumbprint.”

“Open the door?” I protested. “I can't even walk yet!” But I
could
walk better. The lag time between my thinking of an action and doing it was getting shorter.

“It'll get easier. Just don't think too hard,” he reassured me.

I wandered around, getting used to the feel of Chad's body. I checked out some of the weird machines. I was leaning over a little square yellow one with two big black patches on it when Chad yelped, “Don't touch that!”

I stepped back. “Why not?” I asked.

“It's not finished. It still malfunctions,” he explained. His voice squeaked just the way mine did when I was really nervous.

“Oops,” I said, and grinned.

“And keep away from the yellow circle,” he instructed.

“Fine, fine, fine.”

I went back to walking. Strolling. Then, okay, I admit it, skipping. Let me tell you, I was beginning to feel good.
So this is what strong feels like,
I thought.
I can definitely get used to this!

“Come on, you've wasted ten minutes already,” Chad whined. “We only have an hour.”

It was weird. He was such a cool person when he was in the body I was using. But now that I was him and he was me, he sounded really irritating and uncool.

I bounded over to the wall and pressed my thumb on the yellow-green patch.

The door whooshed open.

I loved that door! I wondered if I could get Chad's dad to install one at my house.

I jumped through the door, landed perfectly, then jumped again just because it felt great.

“Yesss!” I exclaimed.

“Close the door,” Chad said.

I pressed the yellow-green patch on the outside of the shed, and the door vanished.

“Listen,” Chad said. “I want to look around as you. You can go do what you want for an hour. Make that fifty minutes.” He checked his watch. “Let's meet back here at four-thirty so we can switch back. What time do you have?”

I glanced at my watch. “Quarter to four.”

“Good. Don't be late. Otherwise—big trouble!” Then he turned and dashed off.

My eyes followed him down the driveway. He moved like an athlete. He almost made my body look good.

I sneaked away from the house. I didn't want to run into Chad's parents.

For one thing, I wouldn't recognize them.

But even worse—what if they told me to get inside and start on homework? Do chores? What a waste of my hour that would be!

I hit Fear Street running.

Now that I was used to this body, I could appreciate what a good deal I had gotten. Everything worked so well!

I ran fast and didn't get out of breath. I didn't trip over cracks in the sidewalk or fall over the curb.

I raced down Park Drive and up Hawthorne. My muscles pumped like a lean mean machine.

I cruised by Shadyside Middle School. Some kids were playing basketball in the school yard. “Hey, Chad!” they yelled. It took me a second, but then I realized they were talking to me! “Come on over and play!”

These were
cool
kids! The kind of kids who wouldn't even say hello to Will!

I ran onto the court and someone tossed me the ball. I caught it like it was part of me. I threw it and it went right through the hoop without touching the rim.
Swoosh!
Right through the net.