When You Wish Upon A Star...

by J. R. Anthony

 

Chapter I

The Midnight Wish

 

It was a Tuesday like any other, as Jodan walked home with his date, Karen. He had taken her out to dinner and a movie for the night. They finally arrived on the crubling front porch of 186 Parr Street, with Karen looking right into Jordan's violet eyes. She was fumbling with her keys, the key sign that she wanted something more before turning to go into the house.

"Well,...good night." she said, starting to turn, but Jordan gently put a hand on her shoulder, and pulled her back towards him, planting a soft kiss on her perma-pout lips. She chuckled, then turned and walked inside, leaving Jordan to walk back home to Moorville. As he walked home, he noticed that many stars were out that night, particularly Zodiac constellations. He looked up to see his own Capricorn above him in the empty street. He looked further up, to find Deneb, the North Star's "twin".

 

He silently made a wish upon that single star in space. I wish I could see what it was like to be Karen, he thought in his head, before putting his attention back to where he was going, as he almost stepped off a bridge into Bell Creek. As he walked home, he envisioned the night in a bit of a recap show in his sub-conscious, recalling the highlights of his night: he had cuddled up with Karen at the theater, gotten her phone number, and kissed her. He was already at fist base, making the first steps to second. He had never gone to third base with a girl yet, but he eagerly awaited the experience, and hoped that Karen would be his first partner at third.

"All in all, not too shabby of a night." he said to himself, keeping track of the stone he was kicking down the street. He always did this on a first date. His good luck charm; if he could kick the same stone down the street, all the way back to his house, the relationship would last a long time. If not, it would last two weeks or less. He finally lost track of it about a block away from his own house at 67 Summer Avenue; a run-down old shack by the lake, with some shingles missing, and the shutters on the windows torn off, swinging crookedly in the wind.

 

After taking a quick shower, he slipped into a pair of his favourite sleep pants, the camoflauge ones with the Orange County Choppers logo on the left leg, and settled into bed, pulling the covers tight over his muscular frame. His dreams were filled with the hopes of his relationship with Karen lasting his age, as the dream began at their wedding, with Karen in a revealing dress with her hair done up in a ponytail with small strands of hair hanging down. Her brown eyes seemed to look right into Jordan's soul, making him shiver as he uttered the two most exciting words of his life: "I do". His last dream before he awoke was a vision of himself and Karen on a bench swing on the front porch of a beautiful house on a farm.

 

* * * * *

 

He awoke to the sound of the alarm clock blaring. He opened one bleary eye and reached for the clock to turn it off. It took him a while to notcie that he wasn't in his room. It was not until he stood that he realized that something was wrong. He could feel hair on his shoulders, and he remembered that he hadn't set an alarm for the morning. Something was definately wrong. He walked over to the mirror on the closet door, and almost fainted at the sight of his reflection. He wasn't himself or even a he for that matter. His reflection wasn't Jordan Rodger, but Karen Brullyen. He looked exactly like her. The long brown hair, the brown eyes, the small, perky breasts, the simple, yet sexy curves of her hips, and even the small mole on her shoulder. His mouth, or I should say her mouth, was frozen in a silent scream as she looked over her new body, rubbing her eyes and telling herself to wake up, hoping it was only a dream.

 

She walked to the bathroom to do a more thorough check. It took her a while to find it. She closed and locked the door before stripping, and stood in front of the rusted mirror hanging over the baby blue porcelain sink. Karen, in all of her glory. The breasts with small, slightly-erect nipples, the flat stomach with the green belly-button ring, the sexy hips, the hairless vagina, and the freshly shaven legs. It ws all there. Jordan wished he hadn't made that wish the previous night. He hadn't really meant to switch places with his girlfriend. He wasn't even sure how he would switch back to being himself. Then he realized something.

"If I'm Karen,...does that mean that she's now me?" he asked aloud, yet still quiet so nobody would hear him. He quickly raced back to his/Karen's room, and sat down on the bed, still trying to figure it out. Nothing wakes you up quicker than waking up to find that you've switched places with the girl you love.

 

In the ratty old house by the lake, Karen, now Jordan, was going through the same thing. Except for the fact that she had screamed when she woke up to see Jordan's room. She passed out after looking down to see that she now had a penis. She was thinking along the same lines as Jordan, except that some of her thoughts involved killing whoever put her in this body. She stood and quickly got dressed before rushing downstairs to see both of Jordan's parents at the table.

"What was that all about?" Mrs. Rodger asked, slowly sipping tea from a chipped coffee mug.

"Yes. Don't tell us there are still more cockroaches in this house." Mr. Rodger grumbled, setting down the morning paper. She stood there for a while, slowly twisting the end of the unbuttoned plaid shirt over a white t-shirt. She put both her hands into the pockets of a pair of tattered blue jeans, the best conditioned thing in Jordan's drawers, and sat down saying:

"No, no. I just tripped as I got up and I,...uh, whacked my arm off the bedpost." she replied, her senses going to pieces as Jordan's deep voice came from her, or should I say his lips. Both his parents looked at him strangely, as if tripping while getting up could never happen in a million years.

 

* * * * *

 

Back at Karen's house, Jordan, or Karen, whichever you would prefer, was the only person awake. He had absolutely no idea why there was an alarm set, but he took a look at the calendar as he struggled to put on a bra.

"Soccer practice?" he asked, stupefied in his half-sleep as he fumbled with the tie on the blouse. He looked across the room to see a neatly folded pair of shorts, and a grey t-shirt with 'Dealtown Dragons' printed across the chest and a picture of a dragon that was curled around itself on the stomach. "I might as well wear this over there, then change into these." he told himself, tying up a pair of red tennis shoes. He packed the t0shirt and shorts into a gorcery bag, and then rushed outside. "Okay. If my house is that way, and 'Harvey's' is that way, then the soccer field is this way." he said aloud, walking down the street and turning left at the second intersection.

 

Karen was still getting accustomed to working around the Rodger's house: pumping water up from the well, then having to sterilize it, and tying the boat to the dock in the backyard, and cleaning the eaves troughs with the hose, standing on the rickety ladder that had belonged to Jordan's great Uncle James. After completing all the work she was extremely hungry, or was it just because she now had a guy's stomach? So this is why he eats so much, she thought, considering that she was sweating like a pig after having to re-screw the shutters onto the front of the house, clean the chicken coop, and re-pump the water from the well. She went back into the house, and looked for the nearest morcel of food. After nibbling on a piece of cheese, she pulled open a can of beefaroni and zapped it in the microwave, wolfing it down, not caring that the sauce burnt her tongue.

 

Soccer with the girls was a lot different from playing soccer with his friends. For one thing, just touching someone wasn't allowed, completely opposite to the slid-tackling, hard-hitting version him and the guys had played in Mr. Hendry's Phys. Ed. class. Some of the rules differed as well. There was no offside rule, and you could score from within the crease, instead of having to boot it at top power to score in the South Rapids Highschool Championship League. He worked up a bit of a sweat by the end of the game, but still, he didn't feel as though he had worked hard enough, as opposed to the games he used to play as a boy: football, hockey, cycling, and lacrosse. Even the beep test had worked him harder than this.

 

The rest of their day carried on to the same extent. Karen working like a dog, and Jordan doing hardly any work at all. Yet they both handled it well, as Karen's new body was used to that kind of punishment, and Jordan's mindset overpowered the fact that his new body was screaming to rest.

 

* * * * *

 

They both went to bed that night feeling like they had doen the impossible: live as each other for an entire day wasn't as easy as they had thought, but then again, what is? Jordan was relieved when he took the bra off, the straps were annoying him, and it was awkward to walk with the extra weight on his chest. Karen on the other hand was still feeling awkward with the weight being on her crotch rather than her chest, and it kept getting in the way when she tried to walk the way girls do. Karen fell asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow, where as Jordan lay there awake, trying to take back his wish, looking up into the sky. Through the clouds, he hoped that just a single star would show up, but to no avail. His hoped of changing back to himself sank with his consciousness as he slowly drifted off.

 

The next day, Jordan lay in bed, not daring to open his eyes, for fear that he might still be Karen. He slowly swng his feet over the edge of the bed to feel carpet under them, eyes still shut tight. He stood and slowly opened his eyes. No luck. He was still in Karen's bedroom. With a groan he went to the bathroom and did the usual morning routine he had picked up the previous morning, pee, wash his hands, brush his teeth, and brush out his hair. If he was going to live the rest of his life as Karen, he figured he might as well look his best. Then he thought of something. Who better to teach him how to be Karen, than Karen herself? He dressed as quickly as possible and walked out to his house. He saw Karen, now in his body outside, on the roof, doing some repairing.

"Good morning, sweetie." he called up to her. The sound of her own voice calling to her almost knocked her off the rooftop. She turned and looked shocked at,...herself.

"Do I really look like that?" she asked. Jordan climbed up to her, remembering that he had put little notched in the drainpipe to make it easier to climb up.

"No, you look a lot sexier,...I'm just not used to wearing your clothes yet." he replied, taking a seat beside the massive toolbox between them.

"Same." she said, nailing a black tile to the empy spot by the dirt-clad chimney. She smiled to herself, and Jordan felt crazy. He was looking at himself, but it wasn't himself it was a girl in his body talking to him who was in her body. Completely insane you would be to try and explain the complicated nature of such a feeling.

 

They sat and talked for a while, and then they went inside, Jordan giving Karen the 411 on the tricks of the trade, so to speak of doing his chores without overworking. The counterweight on the step beside the well, the notches in the drainpipe, the little bind under the shutters to catch the old screws, and the book under the rock by the boat on how to tie knots. She thanked him and then set to work on the dock, as Jordan walked back to Karen's house. It had been insane to be able to talk to himself of all people without looking like a freak. Karen called him that night and invited him out to dinner. How could he say no to someone who was essentially him? He loved him.

  

  

  

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