Gary Meadows checked his watch. He was outside the store sitting on the bench, waiting for his wife Lorraine to pick out some outfits and just leave. Why did women always take so long to buy something?
A moment later, he turned to his right and saw a bunch of people running out of the shoe store, the arcade, and the book store. What was happening?
Then he heard a man yelling. "Everyone, please leave the mall immediately! This is not a prank! Everyone needs to leave now!" Gary stood up and saw that the man was dressed in a mall security uniform. Whatever was happening was apparently bad. Gary's mind raced, thinking of what could be wrong. A fire? A chemical spill? A disease outbreak? But whatever he imagined wasn't even close to what was really happening.
He stood up and walked towards the store, meaning to retrieve his wife, when suddenly one of the kids running out of the arcade collided with him. A split second later, the entire mall was bathed in a bright white light.
At first, he thought that he had been knocked unconscious ... or maybe even dead, given the bright light. But he wasn't. He opened his eyes and looked around. He was in a changing room. But how did he get there?
He turned around and nearly jumped when he saw his wife. "Jeez, Lorraine. You nearly gave me a heart attack. Why didn't you say something?"
He looked at her, but she didn't say anything. She just looked right back.
"Lorraine?" he asked, then noticed that his wife mouthed the same thing right back at him ... at the same time. He raised his hand and watched his wife do the same. Then he waved it and watched his wife wave hers as well. "Oh god," he said, and watched his wife mouth the same thing ... and have the same distressing expression that Gary did.
Lorraine was dressed in her underwear (a white lacy bra and panty set), as she was probably in the process of trying out new outfits.
Gary slowly looked down at himself and saw what he had feared. He too was wearing the bra and panties that his wife was wearing. He didn't know how it was possible, but it seemed that he was his wife.
He reached up and cupped one of his pecs and watched as his wife in the mirror did the same to one of her breasts. It was so strange to see.
He looked around for his wife's clothes. If what he saw in the mirror was what he looked like to everyone else, he couldn't just walk around in her underwear. He found the outfit she wore into the store and her heels. He stared at the outfit for a moment, feeling crazy that he was actually thinking of putting it on. Then he grabbed the beige capri pants and put them on. Oddly, the pants fit him pretty well, even though his legs were clearly larger than his wife's. In the mirror, they looked perfect on his wife. Although, it felt a bit strange for Gary, as the pants felt like they were too short. Next came his wife's white sleeveless blouse. After putting it on, he looked in the mirror. His wife looked exactly how she did when she entered the store. But looking down at himself, he felt incredibly embarrassed. Frankly, he looked ridiculous. Like some sort of cross-dresser. But if everyone saw him as a woman, he didn't have much of a choice. Last came his wife's shoes. He looked down at the three-inch heels for a moment, still not believing that he was actually going to go through with this, even if it was a necessity. Then he put his feet in and then moved around in them, to get a feel for them. He wasn't sure if he was going to get used to this.
He grabbed his wife's purse and slung it over his shoulder, then left the changing room.
The store was deserted. Perhaps everyone had already been evacuated?
He walked out of the store (stumbling a few times on his wife's heels) and saw that there were still no people around.
"Miss, you can't be here," a voice suddenly said. Gary turned and saw a man dressed in a mall security uniform. "The mall is being evacuated."
"I'm not a woman," Gary said. "Something happened to ..."
The security guard sighed, then shook his head. "Not another one."
"Another one? You mean this happened to other people?"
"It's been happening all over town for the last few hours. But we're only just evacuating public areas now. Too bad we didn't start earlier."
"My wife ... I became my wife. So what happened to her?"
"You became your wife?" He chuckled. "Consider yourself lucky."
"Lucky?" Gary snapped. "You call this lucky? Not switching bodies - that's lucky."
"What I meant was that most people who have swapped ended up on the other side of town, inside complete strangers. Until now, I haven't heard of a husband and wife swapping places."
"So what do I do now?" Gary asked.
"Since you've already been affected, there's no reason for you to leave town. I suggest that you just go home and make sure you don't come in contact with anyone else. That's how this phenomenon spreads."
