Dr. Elmer Gustavson was by most measures, a rather successful scientist and inventor. While he wasn't someone with his name in the history books, the handful of patents he'd made in microchip technology early in his career had made him a quite wealthy man. It had also allowed him to retire at the relatively early age of 45, to his sprawling country house in the town of Fairweather. He was free then to pursue his passion projects, to explore new hobbies, or to do nothing if he so pleased. It should have been wonderful, but Elmer found himself terribly bored with his life.
He was dissatisfied with the path his life had taken, despite his success. He had always kept his head down, studied hard, and focused on getting ahead growing up. It had worked, he was a well respected scientist and a wealthy man, but he also felt like the past 4 decades of his life had passed without him really living it. He never went on a wild road trip, or gone partying in college. He never went to a high school dance, or made the kind of youthful mistakes that would turn into fond memories. He had few friends, more work colleagues than anything, yet another result of a prudent yet boring life.
It didn't help that his home life left something to be desired. Don't get him wrong, on the surface it was idyllic; he was married to Lillian, a beautiful model 14 years his junior. She was a gorgeous dirty blonde, charismatic, and more intelligent than someone dismissive of her profession might have expected. Unfortunately for him, it was fairly clear from the start that she'd only married him for his money. The charms she'd once turned towards him had faded a few months after the honeymoon, only rarely reemerging.There just wasn't any genuine spark between them, leading to a fairly cold marriage despite the three children they shared.
Ah yes, his three kids. They were something of a bright spot in his life, even if they were at the age where they wanted little to do with him. Cecily, the oldest, was a younger clone of her mother. A cheerleader at Fairweather Academy, the sixteen year old had obviously inherited her mother's good looks, and was a popular and vivacious girl. Stuart was the middle child, and the one that took the most after his father, but unlike Elmer, who'd looked like the quintessential nerd for most of his life, Stuart was just average, almost painfully so. Not particularly exceptional in any way, but also not particularly deficient, the sophmore spent most of his time hanging with his friends or practicing guitar. Their youngest was Tara, a freshman at Fairweather Academy. Unlike Cecily, she wasn't a cheerleader, instead playing on the school's tennis team. She also took after her mother, but unlike his other children, had inherited Elmer's brown hair.
For the last four years he'd been something of a stay at home dad, though much of his time was taken up by his work in the back shed. Ah yes, his home workshop where he had been working feverishly to complete his magnum opus, The Mind Transfer device. It was a large contraption, consisting of two large metal pods connected to a room sized computer. Unlike his earlier work, he had no intention of selling this one. No, this device, which he had finally completed that day, was decidedly for personal use. See, he'd realized if he was so dissatisfied being Dr. Elmer Gustavson, he should just become someone else at least for a little while. The perfect vacation, truly getting away from his life. Now all he had to do was test it, but who to ask?
His distant wife, one of his kids, his old lab assistant Rachel, one of the neighbors? Should he put out an online ad? For that matter, should he start with himself, or use two other test subjects so he could monitor the first exchange? All these questions swirled around his head as he closed the final panel on the device.
