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Paul hated his job. Working in the lab, day after day, on minor pieces of work which often took weeks to complete, was boring him out of his mind. The most recent one was worse than any others he had experienced in the three years he had been here, and he just went through the motions now. His only bright spot in his life was with Molly, his girlfriend, who had just begun to accept his advances. The evening before he had at least "got into her knickers" although only with his hand ... and although she had got real mad at him, she hadn't stormed out of life. In fact she had kissed him quite passionately as they said good night.

Now he was back at the bench, enviously watching the chief chemist and his main assistant working on what he had heard was an exciting new project. Suddenly the two men, having been in earnest conversation, turned and looked at him. Harris, the assistant, walked across the lab to him. He addressed him almost hesitatingly.

"er ... Paul isn't it? ... Mr Meadows and I wonder if you would be willing to do something for us ... as part of our work? We need a volunteer to see whther what are doing is viable, and we wouldn't want to press you into anything ... but...?

The question hung in the air.

Paul thought about it for a moment. ''Well, at least I might get away from the work I'm doing now ... perhaps I can become part of the team?'' "Sure, Mr Harris," he said, "whatever you wish ..."

"Good lad! Well it's fairly simple. We need to test the outcome so far. Come and let's explain to you what we need." He led Paul over to the bench where Jim Barron, the chemist stood looking across at them. He shook hands with Paul.

"Thanks, White, we will be really grateful for your input here. You see, the drug we are hoping to produce is one meant for young people, and neither Harris nor I can be classed as that" and he laughed, somewhat mirthlessly. "This phial contains the sample we want you to test. We would like you to take it tonight, before you turn in. In the morning we have to see what effect it has had on you."

Paul took the phial, and put it in the case he carried to and from work. That evening he was spending time with Molly - she was baby-sitting her little sister (their parents were away for a long weekend) and so we couldn't go out anywhere. He went straight to her parent's house since he lived in the opposite direction.  

They settled down to some TV watching once Sally, the nine-year-old sister, had gone to bed. Paul played it very cool - he didn't want another rebuff - and was therefore pleasantly surprised to find that Molly was being quite friendly, giving him some open-mouthed kisses and letting him fondle her breasts. He was just about to make it more serious when Sally wandered into the room. She was, he knew, quite a precocious child and he saw she was carrying his bag with her. 

"I had to go to the loo," she said, " and when was going back to bed I saw your bag was open." This was a lie for Paul had certainly not left it like that - she had been poking around in it. "What's this, Paul?" and held up the phial "Is it a secret formula like you see on the TV?"

"Well in a way I guess it is," Paul replied. "I have to take this tonight so that people where I work can see what happens to me ..."

"How exciting!" exclaimed Molly. "Why don't you take it now - see if you turn into a frog or something!" She laughed, and Sally joined in. 

"Well I guess I could - I haven't to have anything else to eat now." 

Paul took the stopper out of the phial and looked at its contents, amused to see that they were green, so perhaps a frog wasn't quite so funny. There was quite a lot of the liquid so he took half of it first. It tasted quite nice, sort of fruity, he thought, and he poured the rest of it in the wine glass he had been drinking from. The TV, which had been murmuring away to itself in the corner suddenly burst into noise and Paul looked over to see that a huge explosion had taken place during the programme which was on; people were rushing about, fires everwhere ... the usual mayhem. He turned back to the glass - and found it empty!

"What the fuck ...!

"Paul! do remember where you are! You shouldn't use such language in front of Sally! ... What everrrrrrrrrrrrr ...."

He felt a buzzing in his head ... and then the most astounding thing happened. He found himself looking up at Molly, and yet how could that be? She was almost a head shorter than he was ... and Paul looked ...

Paul ...???

He was looking at himself! He saw himself looking frightened, bewildered ... heard and saw himself saying "What's happened to me? Molly ... I'm so scared ..." and yet the voice sounded strange. And what was even stranger was that he discovered that he was now wearing pyjamas ...

Molly stood looking from one to the other of them. She realised that something odd had occurred, something even horrifying. "What was in that phial?" she asked, in a trembling voice. 

Paul began to speak. "Well ..." he began, and stopped abruptly. The voice he was using was that of a child - he was in a child's body - Sally's body! So the Paul he was looking at was really Sally - and she must have drunk the rest of the drug! "I think something terrible has happened ... did you ... did you drink from this glass?" He held it up and "Paul" looked shamefaced.

"Yes I did" and he burst into tears.

"You mean that the two of you have changed bodies? What are we going to do?"

"I don't know, I really don't know ... they never told me what they were doing ..."

"They? Who, for goodness sake?"

"My bosses."

"Bastards! Well they will have to sort it out ... Get them on the phone ... " and she stopped for who would do the talking? "I guess I'll have to talk with them. What's their phone number?"

Paul sat down. 


[[Category:Stories]]
[[Category:Adventures]]
[[Category:Stories:Fantasy]]