[illustrations by Eve's Rib]
It wasn't until Jon saw the portrait of his parents that had hung over their mantle for years that he realized what had changed... It was a portrait of his parents embracing in a field. But now his father wore the light blue dress and his mother wore the while collared dress shirt and pants.
"You've changed the roles of men and women?"
"You got it!" laughed Karyn.
"You can't do that, Karyn! Change it back!" shouted Jon.
But before Jon could react further, Karyn quickly said, "I wish Jon and I would still remember the old reality, but be used to the new reality."
There was a flash, and Jon suddenly felt physically weaker. A lifetime of memories came flooding into his brain. He remembered his mother coming home after a long day at the garage and his father serving her dinner. He remembered helping dad with the baking, he remembered his sister Zoe helping their mom fix up the car. He remembered always wearing dresses and make-up.
Karyn, on the other hand, felt stronger. She remembered the old reality, so she still thought it was odd that even though women were still smaller on average than men, and that there was no visible physical change to her or Jon, that she was now definitely the stronger of the two. Memories changed for her, she remembered all the fun times she'd had playing football with her girl friends, and all the eye-rolling she'd done when Jon wanted to go shopping for clothes. She wanted to go out and explore this new world.
"C'mon, Jon, let's go out and take a look around." she said, grabbing Jon by the hand. Jon had no choice but to follow, and when he caught site of them in the big mirror by the door, he had to admit how pretty he looked, and what a handsome girl Karyn was.
