Border Crossing

Originally posted on April 29, 2019.

Luis had saved up money by doing dangerous odd jobs for criminals and had some relatives abroad send him some cash. He needed the money to pay someone who offered to help smuggle him across the border. He was afraid to hand it over to the large, surly man. The man simply looked at it before leading Luis into a moldy basement with a machine attached to a rickety chair. An older man sat by the chair near a control panel. The older man strapped Luis in and explained they now just needed to wait for someone to sit in the other chair situated a few miles north of the border. Once someone did, he would hit a switch and swap Luis’s brain into that body. Not only would Luis be across the border, but he’d also be in the body of a citizen and unable to be deported.

Luis had a lot of questions. Why would anyone up there voluntarily sit in a chair that would stick them in his body? The old man explained the chair was disguised well; the person wouldn’t even know they were sitting in such a chair until it was too late. Just as Luis began to doubt stealing someone else’s body and damning them to his own poor, difficult life, a light on the old man’s console started flashing.

The next thing Luis knew, he noticed the smell of flowers instead of mold. The sun was shining on him instead of a dim bulb. And to top it all off, he was in the body of a woman! The other side of the machine had been disguised as a hair dryer in a beauty salon. It certainly made sense, but it was still difficult for Luis to gather himself. He had made it across the border safely; he’d certainly never be detected in this body, but it was the body of a woman!