Switched Ch. 05

"So nice to have you here!" She left the hostess duties to me, thankfully. I'd already offered and gotten Jess a water.

"Mama," I said, "you'd better sit down."

She did, and while Junior Johnson and his danger-prone pit crew gave away the lead on points in the other room, I explained what we were about.

Mama was all woo-woo, too. That's what we called all that stuff with spirits and mysticism and whatnot. She had her doubts, but she kept her mouth shut about them. One of the things woo-woo women never did was admit they doubted anybody's worldview, no matter how crazy it seemed. It just wasn't done. So she sat and watched with detached and most likely feigned interest while Jess stared at my grandma.

"There's something there," Jess said.

"What do you mean?" asked Ma before I got a chance to.

"I can't do a chair, for instance, or a dead body. I can kinda feel if it'll work?"

The poor dear had no idea what she'd just said, bless her precious, dimwitted little heart. We were going to have to talk about her powers. For all we knew, she could mind-control the whole county and just hadn't thought to try.

I fixed her with a look. "Do you know it's safe?" That was the key thing. If she did this and got stuck in Grandma's senile head, I'd never forgive myself.

We talked about it. Discussed it. I had to be forceful with the woman. She was not to risk herself. Granny had had her time, and none of us would be able to live out our days in peace if our super girl screwed this up. I mean, who knew? Jessica could Switch, but could she do it with a damaged brain? Because if not, game over for her forever, and I'd have Grandma in my fuck-buddy's body.

I'd flat-out forbidden her from even trying. Today we were just going to have a look at her, get a feel for the situation.

"Tawney," she said, "the truth is, I have no idea. But I'm tired of being useless. I love you."

"No!" I screamed, but Jess blinked.

Grandma stopped smiling. Jessica was somebody else now, I could tell from the body language. An astonished somebody, you could tell. Mom noticed, too.

"I'm a ghost!" she said. "About damn time! Then science fuckers weren't gonna find a cure that fast! Come and get me, Lord!" She held her arms to the sky and waited.

It was her. No doubt at all. Every word, every nuance and gesture. She was a petite woman like Jessica, so it all even looked like her.

"Mama?" Mom asked, and the hope and the longing in her voice just broke my heart.

Grandma's eyes snapped to her. "You can hear me? Oh Baby, come here!"

Next thing I knew I was in the hug with them, just crying and saying 'I love you' over and over just like they were.

"Is my boy here? Ray Junior! I hear the race on, he's... Ray!"

Mom hissed, "Mama, no! He doesn't know what's going on, you'll just confuse the poor dear."

"But my baby!" pouted Grandma.

"What was it like? In your head?" I asked. There was a cold hand gripping my heart.

She tried to reassure me. "It was all right, Sweetie."

"Grandma, please. What was it like? I have to know! She... She's in there." I looked at Jessica, in Grandma's body. She was staring off into space and her mouth was working like she was talking or maybe chewing. It was too easy to imagine her staying like that until she died.

My dear Grandma stopped pretending for my sake. "It's like your memories and your dreams and your senses, even your ideas, are all on an equal footing, and you can't tell one from the other. And every day you work to try to sort them out and make sense of them." She hugged herself. "Some days are better than others. And when you wake up again, you have to start all over."

I didn't like the sound of that.

Mama explained, "Tawney's girlfriend Jessica can switch places with people, Mama. She's in your body now, and you're in hers."

"She's too skinny!" laughed Grandma.

Mom turned to me and puzzled, "But Tawney, if she's got dementia, how is she gonna get out?"

I kissed poor, brave Jessica on the forehead and smoothed her thinning hair. "Could you concentrate, Grandma?" I asked. "When you were in there. Was there any time when you could think... clearly?"

"Oh, no, Child."

I started bawling.

Grandma watched this. She still hadn't taken her arm from around my mama. Now she kissed her on the cheek. "There's just one thing I want to do."

She ran into the family room where Dad and the TV were. We were starting to go after her when she jogged back. Her face was flushed with the effort and you could tell how much she enjoyed being young again. She had a box in her hands.

She opened it, and took out a stack of letters.

"I've had time to think about what I missed most about him. About your granddaddy. It weren't pictures." She chuckled fondly, unfolding a piece of paper. "He was a handsome man, but what I wanted most, if I could have one thing, was to read his letters again."

I would never forget the time we spent together that day. She'd read some of his letters aloud, and some, the really good ones, would make her go real quiet. After who knows how many readings, they still made her go speechless. Every line was a celebration of the love they'd shared for fifty-some years. She went over the same parts over and over, stroking the paper lightly with her fingertips and leaving precious wet splotches on the paper from her tears.

There was nothing in the world I wanted more than a love like she and Granddad had.

We visited, like it was a Sunday after church and we'd just had dinner. One last time, maybe, with Grandma. We told her everything that had happened and everyone we'd lost in the years since the disease got her. All the marriages and scandals and who cheated on who. She told some stories from her past that we'd never heard, plus her banking information and her damn email password. Finally!

"And y'all, I say this in love: You need to do a better job of wiping me. You know, down there. It itches sometimes! Stop laughing!" she batted uselessly at us. "Quit it!"

"But I'll tell you," she said after, and took us in her arms. "I'm ready to go. I love you and I always will, but when it's my time," tears again, "you let me go, you hear?"

Oh, how we blubbered. She always was my favorite.

We said our goodbyes. She made us promise not to do this again, because of Jessica. Then she went in the other room for a few minutes. I heard Daddy hollering and carrying on and when we ran in there, they were hugging.

She finished up all her business and we said more goodbyes and I-love-yous, and then she sat down in front of Jessica. She set their foreheads together and took Jess's head in her hands.

It was like my guts were twisting up. I couldn't stand it. I thought about her, about Jessica. Lord, she was brave.

They just sat and looked at each other. The only sound was the engines roaring on the TV, in the next room.

Nothing was happening. Mama let out a sob, but I was too scared to cry, as if doing so would make it real.

God, please give her back, I prayed.

Grandma worked for an hour, receiving nothing in return but blank looks.

Now Mama was crying, too.

Grandma didn't give up. She took Jess's hand and led her into the washroom, and she cleaned her with the kind of tender loving care that I never thought I'd witness. She picked out a nice outfit and put it on her. Jess was so easy for her to handle. I suppose that made sense.

When she was done she brushed her hair and did her makeup and with eyes shining, kissed her gently on the forehead. Then she got face to face with her and in a fierce whisper said, "You have done something of incalculable worth for me and my family, and I can never repay you. Thank you, you angel on this Earth."

Yep. My favorite.

She took her face once again in her hands and waited, patiently. Minutes ticked by and she waited. Jess's attention was all over, and vacant, but Grandma got it, how the mind worked, in some way. She waited, and finally there she was, Jessica, looking into Grandma's eyes.

And then she was staring off into space again, just like that.

"No!" I sobbed, and tried to run to her. Mama had to hold me back.

Grandma stayed with Jessica. She flickered into existence a couple more times briefly, then stayed long enough for her eyes to focus.

"Be me," Grandma whispered. Then she shuddered and sighed, and looked so relieved. They'd Switched.

Old again, Grandma hugged Jessica. Her smile was back, but it didn't look so vacant.

Mom picked up the stack of letters, her eyes bright and moist. "I'm going to read you these every single day, Mama."

"Guh," beamed my Grandma. We all cried and hugged her.

Jessica was out of it for a while, but she came around. Mom and me took turns scolding the hell out of her for taking such a risk, and then we hugged her until her little head almost popped off. I couldn't let go of her.

I buried my face in her hair and whispered, "I was afraid I'd lost you."

Mom's face registered surprise, then softened when she saw the way I looked at Jess.

I wasn't falling for Jess, no way.

That had already happened.

I had to kiss her, then.

Mom cleared her throat and backed out of the embrace, saying, "Let's not share this part with your father just yet." When Jessica and I kept kissing, her face got so red it practically glowed. "Tawney!" she hissed, "That was your grandmother just a minute ago!"

*

By the end of the second week, I was staying with Jess and Bryan about every other day, as my duties taking care of Grandma allowed. When Daddy noticed a week later and asked where I'd been, Mama told him I had a new boyfriend.

She wasn't lying, she just left out the part about my new girlfriend.

One night, as we rode Bryan's dick old school style (our term for taking turns bodily instead of Switching), I asked, "What do we call ourselves?"

We liked to talk while we fucked him. It made it last longer, and since the poor fella was continually exhausted with two horny girlfriends jumping on his woody every time it popped up, I considered it a good use of scarce resources.

"A permanent threesome," suggested Jess with a smile.

Bryan tapped her thigh, our signal for 'get your pussy off my face', and when she raised up, he said, "The accepted term is 'throuple'."

"I don't know," I demurred, "what about Triad?"

She sat back on Bryan's face and said, "That's a type of Asian organized crime."

"Third-friends?" she wondered.

Bryan tapped again and she lifted. He said, "Unitarians."

"I've got it!" exclaimed Jess. "All-Day Three-Way!"

"I like it," said Bryan.

I put my hands on Jessica's shoulders and pushed down, muffling him with her pussy. "No."

* * * * *

WILL the mannequins get their revenge? WILL the three figure out a name for their relationship (My money's on "Jestawbry")? WILL Jessica ever get off Bryan's face? Tune in next week for the next thrilling episode!

Thanks for reading! Any resemblance to persons living, dead, or trapped in someone else's head is purely coincidental.