The previous evening, we had been discussing our dating difficulties over dinner. Although neither of us was unattractive, we had both been dissatisfied with recent relationships. She had mentioned in the past that she thought it was difficult to be a woman, and when she brought it up this time, I told her that I wished I could change my sex as well. Although few people knew it, I was a cross-dresser, and had always had a secret envy of womanhood. Since she was moving away anyway, I decided that I could afford to talk to her about it. However, I didn't get much farther than telling her I wished I was a girl, and she barely noticed that I had said anything.
When we got home that night, she noticed a Victoria's Secret catalog in her mailbox, and asked me if I wanted it. I took it from her, and thumbed through it quickly. One of the models particularly caught my jealous eye. I showed her the woman's picture, and said, "if I could be anyone else in the world, I'd want to be her." Again, she didn't seem to get the gist of what I was trying to say; she instead commented on the woman's appearance. I put the catalog in my duffel bag.
On the way home from D.C., she happened to ask me if I had kept the catalog. I admitted I had, and pulled it out of my bag again. I still wanted to talk about it, and it was going to be a long trip anyway. I looked at the picture of that model, and said that I had kept it just in case I ever found a magic lamp with a genie in it, so I could show the djinn what I wanted. She said with a smile, "you'd want her." I replied, "not exactly...my wish would be to become her." I then managed to make her understand my true desire, which was to be a woman instead of a man. She thought it was weird, but didn't say too much else about it, except for a facetious suggestion that I try to astrally project myself into that model's skin, and a comment on the general lack of self-esteem that women often experienced.
Since her sister Julie claimed to be a sorceress or some dumb thing, I said, "your sister is a witch, isn't she?" When Amy said yes, I asked if her sister had any spells that I could use to trade bodies with the model in the catalog. Amy laughed, and said "I don't think so," and I kidded, "jeez...what kind of a witch is she, anyway?" Of course, I had said it only because I liked talking about my wish, not because I thought her sister could really do anything.
A bit later, we got to talking about a high school reunion she had recently gone to in her hometown. She said that an old boyfriend had shown up there with his wife, and she was surprised at how much she was still drawn to him. Apparently, the wife ("Maura") had stolen Amy's boyfriend back in high school, and she still hadn't gotten over it yet. They had been friends, but now she really hated that girl! After discussing that a bit, Amy said, "you know what would be great? If you would have an affair with Maura, and they would break up, so I could date Ted."
I replied that she had already said that Maura was trouble for guys, and asked why she would ever suggest that a friend to get involved with her. A couple moments later, I said, "but if I could figure out a way to astrally project myself into Maura's body, I could take over her life, and leave her husband. Then I would be her, and you could have Ted." Amy said she supposed that would work. Neither of us mentioned it again, as I suspected she was getting tired of my bringing up this ridiculous notion of body-switching.
A number of months later, Amy called me. We hadn't spoken since shortly after she moved, and I had wondered how she was doing. Things were okay, she said, but complained that she hadn't met anyone yet. To my surprise, she then brought up the conversation that we had shared in the car on the way home from Washington. "Do you remember what you said about wishing that you were a woman?" she asked. "Uhh...sure," I replied, not certain why she was bringing this up. Was I about to get grilled for some reason? "Did you mean it?" she followed. Again I said yes, and asked her why she was inquiring on the subject.
"If I said that I knew a way for you to do it, would you be willing to trade bodies with my ex-boyfriend's wife for a few days?"
Of course, I thought she was joking. But she insisted that she had a plan, and asked me to meet her in her nearby hometown the following Saturday. Even though I figured she was goofing around, I said that I'd be more than happy to try. After all, the whole idea was really turning me on. I even masturbated after we got off the phone. She had shown me a picture of Ted and Maura in the car, and the woman was certainly attractive enough to justify an orgasm or two.
When the following weekend rolled around, Amy and I met up. She told me that she had gone to visit her sister recently for her wedding, and that Julie had showed Amy a special potion that she had used to make sure her husband wouldn't cheat on her. According to Julie, if he ever slept with another woman, he would end up switching places with her the instant his penis touched her vagina. Amy said she had snagged some of the potion for herself, and that she thought she knew how it worked. I wasn't sure about the credibility of the whole thing, and it frankly wasn't unlike Amy to fool around with bogus hocus-pocus like Ouija boards and astrologers' charts. Still, the idea was making me awfully horny, so I went along with the plan. It even involved me giving Amy a semen sample (and a fingernail shaving), but that didn't bother me enough to say no.
Amy told me to go outside for a while, because she had to prepare a potion. I walked over to a store that was adjacent to the hotel she was staying in. When I got back an hour later, she said that everything was ready, and that we only needed for me to make contact with Maura. I wasn't sure how to go about doing that, but she assured me there was a plan, and that it could work. She also said that I didn't have to worry once we switched, because the spell made sure that Maura would go along with the whole thing. I was going to inquire further, but I still had serious doubts that this whole thing was going to work, and figured it would burst the bubble of my fantasy a little if I analyzed this farce.
It turned out that Amy had called Ted, and that the four of us were going to meet in the lounge. Amy explained that Maura was notorious for cheating on her partners, and that it would not be difficult for me to entice her to such an action, especially if she thought Amy and I were together. I guess Maura didn't like Amy very much either.
Sure enough, when we met up with the Bilodeaus, Amy began to flirt with Ted mercilessly. Maura responded in kind by flirting with me. It occurred to me that this was some sort of a stupid game the women were playing, and that us guys were irrelevant to the whole scenario. We were down in the hotel lounge, according to Amy's plan. It wasn't long before Marcella was really fuming, and she was very transparently trying to make either Ted or Amy jealous--I wasn't sure which one.
When Amy and Ted went onto the dance floor, Maura said that she needed to make a phone call, and asked if I could let her into Amy's room. Anticipating this, Amy had given me the key. We took the elevator upstairs, and proceeded to the hotel room. Once the door was closed, Marcella sat on the bed, and looked at me. She was not making a phone call. I realized that she expected us to fool around.
She was an attractive woman, not beautiful, with a voluptuous figure that was full, but not quite plump. Her best features were her bright smile and her sexy legs, in my opinion. Frankly, I had forgotten about the whole "body-switching" fantasy at this point--I just figured that this was Amy's idea of a fun night out. Very out of character for her, but people change, I guessed. Maura reached out a cute hand and pulled me onto the bed next to her.
We began kissing, and either she or I--or maybe both--began to remove items of clothing from our bodies. I found myself fondling her ample breasts, nuzzling and nibbling their softness. She was more aggressive than me, and began urging more strenous activity, shall we say. She grasped my erect penis, and began kissing its throbbing tip. I pulled off her panties. She stopped licking my organ, and I slid on top of her and placed my penis between her legs. As soon as we made contact, I felt a sudden pulling sensation all over my body, and then blackness.
I woke up. Someone was knocking on the door. I looked over at the clock, and realized that almost an hour had gone by since we left the bar. What had happened? My vision seemed different somehow. I turned to my right, expecting to see Maura. Instead, a man was lying there. After a second, I realized it was me. I looked down, and saw Maura's breasts spread across my smooth chest, and a woman's anatomy further below. My God, I had become her! There was another knock at the door, and then a key turned in the lock. I lay there in my naked, newly female body, not knowing what to do.
Amy entered the room. She looked over to us inquisitively. "So what's going on?" she said. "Did it work?" She looked at me expectantly. I remembered the spell, and our plan. "Yeah," I said in Maura's voice, "it's me, Mike. I can't believe you really did it!" Amy didn't look that surprised. Instead, she said, "I figured it would. Now put Maura's clothes on, and go back downstairs while I tie up a few loose ends." I stood up, disoriented. My body felt lighter, except for the weight on my chest, of course. Everything seemed a little bit bigger in this body. I wobbled over to the mirror, and stared for a few seconds. A dark-haired, thirtyish woman's face stared back at me. It felt like a dream. I anxiously grabbed Maura's panties, nylons, bra, dress and heels, and put them on as fast as I could. I was still wearing makeup, and only needed to touch up my lipstick. Reading my mind, Amy handed me Maura's purse.
"What about my body?" I asked, still surprised at my woman's voice. Amy said, "that's one of the loose ends. Don't worry, it won't wake up for a while." She opened the door, and motioned me out once I had finished reapplying my makeup. I teetered out the door in my high heels, trying to remember to walk like Maura had walked, and headed downstairs. Even though I felt very weird moving around in her body, I was starting to have fun!
I went back down to the lounge, taking a detour into the ladies' room first. I wanted another look at my new face. Brown eyes, plucked eyebrows, smooth cheeks, a cute nose. I couldn't resist feeling my breasts, hips and butt. Wow, this was amazing! "So this is what it feels like to have a woman's body," I thought. "I bet I could get used to this." I spun in front of the mirror a couple of times, smiled at myself, and decided it was time to play Ted's wife.
Amy had told me earlier that the plan would be for me to alienate Ted for a few days so she could have some time with him. What I didn't know, however, was that Ted was in on the plan. As soon as he saw me, he studied my face for a moment and said, "is that you, Mike?" I was very surprised. I began to stammer, and Ted said, "it's okay, you know. Amy and I have been planning this little switch for a while. In fact, everything is going perfectly so far."
I sat down next to him. "What else have you guys planned to do?" He explained that he had been anxious to split up from Maura for several years because of her philandering ways, and had rekindled his romance with Amy during the last six months. After she had obtained the potion from her sister, Amy told Ted that she had an idea. Maura's grandfather had left her $200,000 just before she got married, and Ted didn't want to lose his share of that chunk of change. If he divorced Maura, he would have to give up all of that money. Amy's plan was to have Maura agree to a divorce herself, and to give Ted most of that money. The catch was, someone else would be acting for Maura, while she lay unconscious in another body. My body.
"What if I hadn't agreed to help you?" I asked.
"Then I would have done it myself, with Amy's help," he replied. "But the logistics were a heck of a lot easier if Maura and I could both be in divorce court at the same time." He added that Amy had rented the hotel room for a week, and that she had bribed the maid not to go in there during that period of time. My body was to lie comatose in the hotel room with an IV to provide it with the proper nutrition.
At that point, Amy reappeared. "Everything is all set, Ted. Did you fill in 'Maura' about all of the details?"
"Yeah, he did," I interrupted. "But why didn't you tell me ahead of time that you had planned all this?"
Amy hugged Ted. "I was afraid that you wouldn't want to be Maura in divorce court. This way, you have to help us if you want me to switch you back."
"Now what makes you think I'll want to switch back?" I responded.
"You'll find out," Amy smiled. "Just give it a day or two. We don't have to be in court until Thursday."
Sure enough, I did find out. The three of us went back to Ted and Maura's home in town so I could become more familiar with Maura's life. At first, I couldn't wait to be alone with my new body. As soon as Ted and Amy went off to fool around, I began exploring my new sex in every way I could think of. I massaged my breasts, rubbed my clitoris, experimented with the use of a dildoe, and tried on most of the clothes in Maura's closet. Everything was feeling wonderful, and I couldn't imagine why Amy had criticized womanhood when I had told her so long ago that I wished I could join her in her gender.
Then I went out to discover how the rest of the world would treat me in this body. I made some discoveries, all right. Men were almost a waste of time to talk to now. Half of them treated me condescendingly, and hardly heard a word I said. Instead, they spent most of their time looking at my breasts (which were kind of a pain to drag around after a couple of days), and staring at my legs. Wearing a skirt had been a bad idea; I was not used to being stared at this much, and I felt like I had no privacy.
Women were nice to me, but did not treat me the same way they did when I was a man. They seemed to expect me to give different responses to their comments or questions, and looked offended whenever I made a statement that wasn't sugarcoated or roundabout in some way. In fact, so did the men. I began to wonder how women ever got anything done, since everyone seemed to get irritated when they got right to the point. I wasn't used to being indirect, and making small talk, but it seemed to be expected of me now. It was a good thing that Ted had gotten Maura to take the week off from her job at the insurance company. I would have screwed her life up even more royally.
Worse, Maura apparently was prone to mild PMS, which completely laid me up that Tuesday. I was upset all day, with inexplicable mood shifts and feelings of physical discomfort all over my body. I had a headache. I was tired. Even my boobs hurt a little. I felt like I had no control over my body, and that if I ate or drank anything, it would blow me up like a balloon. Plus, I hadn't even had my period yet. I began to realize that being a woman was no picnic, even if I liked the way my body looked in the mirror. I decided that Amy was right; I wouldn't want to stay this way.
Thursday rolled around, and Ted and I went to court. I had been practicing Maura's signature, so after the judge asked me a few questions about the divorce stipulation we had supposedly prepared, I was able to sign it convincingly. The judge couldn't quite figure out why I would give my soon-to-be ex-husband $150,000 of my inheritance, but I explained to him that he had sacrificed alot for me in the past, and it was my way of repaying him, even if we couldn't get along as husband and wife.
After the divorce was finally decreed, the two of us drove back to the house, and from there returned to the hotel with Amy to put me back in my body. There were things I liked about being a woman, but I realized that I didn't have the lifetime of training it would take to handle being Maura. My personality had been formed as a male, and I didn't feel that it was worth relearning how to deal with people and how to take care of myself as a female in the United States of America. Besides, I was starting to wonder if Amy and Ted weren't as devious as Maura supposedly had been. I was starting to think that Maura might not deserve the fate she was going to wake up to as a divorced woman with $150,000 less in her bank account.
When we got back to the hotel room, Amy had me lie down on the bed next to my real body. It looked the same as it had the last time I had seen it. Ted took the IV out of its arm, and then went downstairs, as Amy requested. Although my body did not stir, it was breathing. I hoped Maura was alright. I was beginning to feel pretty guilty, even though I knew that Maura had done some rotten things in the past. I had just discovered that if I really concentrated, I could remember some of her memories, and I thought I was beginning to understand her a little better. I looked in the mirror one more time, contemplating the body of Maura Mercier (formerly Bilodeau). It had been educational, I thought to myself. Then I lay down on the bed.
Amy took a cloth pouch out of the hotel closet, and told me to close my eyes. I could hear her reciting some words, and felt a few drops of water on my face. Nothing else happened. Amy walked over to the male body next to me and shook it, saying "Mike?" "Still in here," I responded in Maura's voice. Amy said, "hmm...better try it again, I think I mispronounced a word."
This time, I got even wetter after Amy recited the jumble of apparently meaningless gibberish. But nothing more happened. I tried to concentrate on that pulling feeling I remembered, but all I did was grunt. I opened my eyes. "Amy, I'm not changing back. What's going on?" I looked at the boobs on my chest. I was getting unnerved.
"I don't know, I think I'm doing it right." She thought about it for a few minutes, while I grew more and more concerned. Finally, she decided to call her sister. She took the phone into the closet with her, and closed the door. In the meantime, I tried touching Maura's vagina to my body's penis, hoping the process would reverse itself. No effect; the man on the bed remained comatose, while I continued breathing Maura's breath.
After what seemed like an hour, Amy opened the closet door and came out. She looked very concerned, and I could tell she had been crying. "Oh, God," I thought, "this is going to be bad news."
Amy opened her mouth and paused. My heart sank even more. Finally, she said, "I talked to my sister. I told her that I had taken some of her potion. She was pretty mad, because it turns out that I didn't have everything straight."
"What didn't you have straight," I begged. Amy looked hesitant to continue. "Come on, I have to know. What did you do wrong?"
"Well, the body switching spell itself worked fine. I had that right. The problem is with the antidote. Julie said that the antidote spell automatically centers itself on that person's spouse. But we're not married, so when I cast the original spell on you, the antidote spell had no one to home in on. Even though I cast the original spell, the magic knew that we had never had sex together and that we weren't married, so it didn't stick to me. I can't cast the antidote spell myself."
"Then who can?" I pleaded.
"Um...no one can. It's gone. It's like there never was an antidote spell in the first place. I asked Julie if we can't just start another spell, but she said that once a body has been affected by this kind of magic, it can't be repeated until the original spell is removed. But, like I said, we can't remove it, because there's no antidote." She began crying again. "You're stuck in Maura's body for the rest of your life."
I stood in disbelief, and looked down at my old body lying on the bed. I couldn't go back? But I didn't want to stay a woman any more! I just couldn't do it! "Why weren't you more careful," I screamed, "you said it would only be for a few days! I didn't even think the stupid spell would work!!!"
"I'm sorry," said Amy. "I screwed up bad. I wish I could fix it. All I wanted was to be with Ted."
"Sure, as long as he had most of Maura's money! Now look what you did! You got what you wanted, but I'm stuck being your boyfriend's ex-wife!" It occurred to Amy that, ironically, Mike had once said this was exactly what he wanted. Now he was complaining that she had given it to him. Some gratitude, she thought with an inward smile, although her face still reflected her sorrow.
Epitaph
It has been two years since I switched bodies with Maura Mercier. Once I got better at accessing her memories, I got used to living her life, and even like it now. (Maura's unfaithful ways are a thing of the past, incidentally.) But I still remember being a man, and miss it. It's different being a woman. Especially when you're pregnant. Turns out those changes that PMS brings are nothing compared to this! My husband Bob says that I don't seem like I was born into the role like some girls. If he only knew the real story...but I've never told anyone else.
I haven't seen Amy and Ted since they got married. They took off and moved to Paris, so Ted could concentrate on his "art." Amy kept apologizing to me, but I couldn't really forgive her after my old body died. We haven't spoken in ages, actually. Since I can't go back now, we might as well get on with our lives. It's easier now that we have less contact, because everyone in my life accepts me as Maura Mercier-Belletto (my new married name).
Sometimes I think back to my old cross-dressing days, when I thought I wanted to be a woman. Turns out, I had no idea what being a woman was back then. I'm still learning. But I'm pretty happy nonetheless.