Bandy (Incomplete)

  I had a go at being someone different for a change. Literally. It was quite weird, yet it felt like I was meant to be that person. As I reminisce on the past, the extraordinary experience I had.

  I was quite a obstreperous boy. Never handed in homework, slept in class, the usual stereotype. In a sense, I was a delinquent. With all these, I still had to put up with ruffians, bullies whom have been on my tail since the beginning of 8^th grade.

  “Hey Mason! Wanna play?” yelled a voice.

  “Nevil Alberts.” I said, trembling with fear.

  ‘Why? Don’t like the name? Cuz it’ll be the last you’ll hear!”

  I started running. Running for my life. From a distance, I heard Nevil commanding his gang to chase after me. I was quite accustomed to running, when you have a death squad wanting to kill you, you don’t just stand there and embrace for impact.

  I stopped running. Not because I couldn’t run anymore but rather, I wanted the bullies to beat me up. Why? For back then, I wanted to die.

  Nevil and his gang finally caught up. Nevil Alberts raised his fist and taunted, “Why? Pathetic you. Can’t run anymore?” I shook my head.

  “Hit me.” I said, confusing Nevil. “I said hit me. Do you not understand or are you deaf?” It was at that second, I heard a voice shout, “Get your dirty hands off that boy!” I turned around to see an old lady, raising her walking stick.

  “Woah! Ow!” The old lady smacked Nevil and his gang with her walking stick repeatedly. They didn’t dare lay a finger on an old granny. You don’t bully the elderly.

  Nevil and his gang fled, vowing to get revenge at me one day. Snapping me out of my daze, the old lady asked worriedly, “Are you alright boy?” I nodded my head signifying a yes.

  I didn’t want to be saved. I wanted to be left for dead in the middle of the streets. I didn’t want to be alright, but I was.

  “Take this. An amulet that grants your heartfelt wishes.” the old lady reached out her hand with an amulet.

  The amulet had a ruby and a gold heart shaped crest. It was quite magnificent. If the old lady meant that I would be able to pawn it and be able to become rich, it would most certainly come true.

  The old lady pulled my hand open and placed the crimson red gem onto my palm. A smile crept on her face and in a blink of an eye, she disappeared into thin air. I looked around in an attempt to find the old lady but to no avail.

  A month had passed since that incident. I still had that amulet, I carried it with me, hoping that one day I may have my heartfelt wish come true

  It was early that morning. Real early. School started in an hour or two, I wasn’t really checking. I was at the park. To get to school, one usually walks around the park but, if you wanted to take a shortcut, you cut through the park. It was really a beautiful place. Birds hummed, flowers bloomed. I was about to jump into the lake in the park, to drown myself out of misery, literally. That was when a girl, sat by the grass, admiring the scenery. That girl was about to admire a dead body float up the lake. Not too pretty.

  It was then, the amulet stared glowing. I heard a voice echo in my head. “Make a wish my child. Don’t waste your life.”

  “A wish? You want a wish? I wish that I could be like that girl sitting on the grass. As free and easy as she is!”  I declared, and with that, I jumped into the lake.

  I awoke, laying on the grass, drenched. My vision was blurry. I glanced down at my watch, trying to make out the time. I blinked my eyes continuously for my vision to clear. I was wearing a pink watch! That wasn’t my watch. I looked around to see a figure lying by the lake. It was me! I looked down to see that I now was wearing a girl’s school uniform! I reached my hand into my skirt pocket to pull out my phone to use the camera’s ‘selfie’ mode to find myself to be the girl that was sitting on the grass!

   I saw ‘me’ standing up to glance up and stare at me. Suddenly, ‘I’ started screaming.

  “You. You are me!” I shouted.

  “No way. You are me!”

  “There can be only one explanation...”

  “We swapped bodies!” we shouted in unison.

  After screaming and shouting, the two of us started sorting out the timeline of events. She regularly comes to the park to delight in the park’s environment. It happens that she saw me jumping into the lake and assumed I fell in and jumped after me to pull me out and fainted out of the blue.

  I noticed that she, in my body, didn’t possess the amulet anymore. I kept mum about the lucky piece. I felt compelled to not give away the secret. I didn’t know why but that voice from before kept saying, “Don’t tell anyone.”

  In the end, the both of us decided that we should attend school as to not raise any suspicions. It turns out; she attends a all girls school. Lucky me. We exchanged phone numbers on our phones and agreed that we should inform each other on the happenings of the day should anything happen out of the ordinary.

  I arrived at Gold Girl’s Academy. This was going to be a bad day.

  “Hey Mason! Your almost late.” vociferated a voice. “Come on, lets go! You don’t want to miss a class do you?”

  I glanced up to see a pig-tailed girl standing before me. How did she know my masculine name? Maybe that girl from the park and I share the same name. She ran up to me, grabbed my arm and pulled me along with her to a classroom. Thank god she was here to guide me through the school.

  “Quick get seated. Class is about to start!” the girl said. I didn’t know where to seat. “Pssst. Over here.” Another girl whom was bespectacled whispered. I followed her gestures and plopped myself on the seat. It was then, a teacher walked into the classroom.

  “Class.”

  “Good morning Ms. Clio” the class greeted.

  The teacher was alluring and angelic; one could mistake her for a divine being.

  “Please take out your history textbooks and we shall begin the class.”

  History? I dread the subject the most, mainly because I’m bad at it.

  “Mason? May you please tell me which State did not send deputies to the Constitutional Convention?”

  “Um.” I stuttered. “Rhode island?” I guessed.

  “And?” the teacher continued. I was lost. The bespectacled girl whispered into my ear the answer and I said, “And Providence Plantations.”

  The teacher nodded her head and moved on to asking the rest of the girls in class other questions about the constitution. Alas, it was lunch break.

  I had just stepped into the cafeteria when my pink phone started to play a meow. I picked up the phone.

  “Is it the guy from the park from before?” A voice questioned. “Yes.”

  “Why do you have delinquents after you? They want to kill me!”

  “Well, welcome to my life.” I said. “You know, I seems like we share the same name. I’ve been called Mason throughout the day and I thought somebody knew what happened this morning.”

  “Same here. Your surname is Brown? Mine is Banks.”

  “Yes.”

  Suddenly, a hand grasped my shoulders. A voice called out from behind me...

I was a shy girl before I met Mason Brown. Our meeting wasn’t typically how one should meet but, I’m glad things turned out the way it did.

  “Hello? Are you still on the line?” I questioned. It seemed like ages before Mason Brown replied. “Sorry. Someone called Lexine Quick said I had Librarian duty of some kind. Sorting books I suppose.”

  “It’s my job. And Lexine Quick happens to be my best friend. She always waits for me outside school before entering class. Maybe you met her earlier on the morning?”

  “Totally. She dragged me from the front gate all the way to class.” Mason Brown said.

  “That’s her alright. Meet at the park, where we first met, after you are done. I’ll be waiting for you there.”

  I ended the call. It was quite an unpleasant thing to suddenly swap bodies with a stranger. Let alone a boy. I didn’t like it one bit. Not at all. Hated it. How would we swap back?

  I waited in the park for an hour or two after class at this co-ed school before Mason Brown arrived. It was hard talking to someone in your own body, it was strange and weird. Eccentric.

  “I have a problem.” I said. I started explaining to Mason Brown how I was online dating before and arranged a date with him that night. Mason Brown was left aghast. I couldn’t blame him, he had just turned from a boy into a girl, must be hard.

  A thought came to me. He just turned from a boy into a girl. Could he have..?

  “Mason Brown. Have you done anything with my body?” I asked.

  “No.”

Mason Brown said no with such conviction too.

  “How about you?” Mason Brown asked.

  My face turned red. I kept my lips shut. I didn’t want to say anything about that matter.

 “You are kidding right? You didn’t actually do something?”

  I kept up the silence. I felt guilty in a way. Girls shouldn’t do such things but, I felt an urge, likely due to testosterone, to see what the thing between my legs really was.

  “Never mind that. Your date, from a scale of 1 to 10, how important is it?”

  “Ten.” I said.

  We went to my house. My parents weren’t home; they hadn’t been home for months. They left me home, alone, to work abroad. Because of this, I was given a debit card to use whenever I needed cash to buy my necessities. Now, Mason Brown had it in my skirt pocket.

  “Wear this for tonight.” I said, pulling out my favourite shirt from my closet.

  “Your tastes are really ironic. You’re supposedly a shy girl but skulls and knives on a shirt? You’re kidding.” Mason Brown said. “You need a new dress or something.”

  “I don’t have any dresses that don’t have this kind of style.” I said meekly. ‘But I do have a debit card. It’s in my skirt.”

  Mason Brown said we needed to go shopping. In order to impress my date, he said, I needed to dress more feminine. I don’t think he remembers that he had to attend and not me.

  Mason Brown ended up choosing a flashy dress. Not my style. He said men would appreciate women dressing like this. I didn’t dare oppose his decision. I just nodded my head before he swiped the debit card.

  I spent the rest of the afternoon attempting to fit the dress on Mason Brown. He didn’t think ahead and said he would have chosen an more ethical dress if he remembered that he had to wear it. He did wear it in the end.

   It was a cold night; the moon glowed in the dark night sky, stars twinkling brightly. It was at an Italian restaurant, a clichéd kind of date. I sat from afar, watching Mason Brown converse with Landon Wilkerson, my online date. I felt left out. That was my date, not his. What more could I have done?

  I felt a vibration emitting from my pockets and reached my hand into it and grasped the ringing phone. It was Mason Brown. I picked it up.

  “I need to use the washroom. This is a problem.” Mason Brown said.

  “Oh dear! Don’t go. Wait until we figure out how to swap back, please.” I begged.

  “I have to. If not my bladder is going to burst and the dress would be stained with urine. And not to mention my bladder is going to burst. Did I say that twice? My bladder is going to burst!”

  “Alright. But close your eyes.”

  With that, the call ended. This was bad. What if I, in Mason Brown’s body, had to go to the washroom too? That would be bad right?

  Mason Brown returned to the dining table, with a face as red as a tomato. Glad that I don’t have to ‘go’ yet.

  The date ended and that was that. Landon Wilkerson seemed enchanted under Mason Brown’s seduction. Seems like only a man knows how to please men.

  We part ways, with Mason Brown typing into my Google Maps his address. We agreed to meet at the park again the next morning to try to revert ourselves back to normal again.

  It was a rather cool morning, the sun hadn’t risen yet and I had reached the park. Seemed like Mason Brown beat me to the site of the lake. Unfortunately for him, there were no early birds special.

  “Ms Banks, do you want to know why we swapped bodies?”

  “Why?”

  “It was because I made a stupid wish on impulse. A wish that gotten us into this mess.”

  “You mean?”

  “Its my fault...”

 Those words trailed off into a moment of silence. Those words had hit me hard. He made a wish and it came true?

  “An old lady gave me an amulet. She said it would grant a heartfelt wish. Before I jumped into the lake, I wished to be like a beautiful girl that was sitting on the grass, you, and my wish was granted as you can tell.” Mason Brown explained. ‘I believe that if we can find the amulet again, which is probably lost somewhere in the lake, we can revert ourselves to normal again.”

  He jumped into the lake? I thought he had fallen in. Does he mean he was attempting to commit suicide? And if I did not save him, he would have swapped bodies with me and his body will sink to the bottom of the lake with me in his body, effectively killing me and not him and, he would have been stuck in her body forever.

  “You are a scummy loser. That’s what you are! A scummy loser! You think suicide would have solved all your problems? This isn’t a paper world that you can manipulate to your own desires. What about your mother? Your father? Your family? What will they feel?”

  ‘Nothing. They don’t care about me. They would be better off without me.”

  “That’s not true. Your mother, last night, was crying tears of joy in her room on why her son would suddenly speak to her, with me not knowing you neglect your parents.”

  “You are changing my life! You are going to ruin it! You are going to make an expectation that I can’t live up to but you can. You probably scared my teachers by getting all As in whatever test there is by now. You nerd. Then, when and if we swap back, which I’m guessing we won’t due to you being a romantic as you are, I would have to try to get the As ‘again’ and if I don’t, people will accuse me of cheating. I’m a delinquent. I don’t do homework. I fail all my tests.”

  “This is your entire fault! If you didn’t make that stupid wish to be me, none of this would have happened! I can attend my school, and not see or talk to any rowdy boy, and I could have attended my date by myself. You did nothing but cause trouble!”

  “Oh? We are already in this mess, so let’s not talk about the cause but rather what we do during this disaster. You did something with the thing between the legs. I know it, you can’t lie to me. I had to prance around in a dress and pose as a girl to attract a man. Does it not sound gay to you?”

  “It’s different for a girl to look at a man’s body than a man looking at a girl’s body!”

  “You are such a...”

  ‘What? Such a what? Say it in my face!” I interrupted.

  “Why don’t you shut up?”

  “I should be telling you that!”

  It was at that moment that someone shouted, “Look! Over there! It’s Mason!”

TBC