At another Swap Clinic the renter enters in through the front doors, getting there early to sign much of the remaining paperwork before they could take possession of the body they had so eagerly rented out.
Before long, I would find myself wearing their body, the body of a younger woman for the next week.
As I barrel into my local Swap Clinic, sweat running in rivulets down my face, I take a moment to catch my breath, panting as I hunch over with my hands on my knees. I'd needed to sprint my way down to the Clinic itself, having failed to factor in traffic lights and needing to check constantly for directions. My heart hammers in my chest, straining after such vigorous exercise after my rather sedentary lifestyle these past few months.
Looking up I find a rather empty waiting room, the bright blue carpet running down a wide plastic seat-lined hallway towards a small front desk. Being first thing on a Friday morning the only few people waiting appeared to be a mixture of attractive young folks and those with less desirable features.
"Weekenders?" I muse under my heavy breathing, my gaze roaming over various older and overweight individuals sitting alongside finely dressed men and women who looked far too well put together for this early in the morning.
Heaving myself up I slowly shuffle towards the front desk, the incredibly bored-looking brunette behind the counter not even looking up as she files her nails.
"I should just swap rather than do..." She mutters, wincing as one of the long red points snaps against the coarse metal. Sighing in frustration she looks up at me, her eyes narrowing to a glare. "What do you want?" She grumbles, not even trying to show any level of courtesy and customer service.
"I..." I blurt out, croaking in a mixture of being out of breath and being taken aback by the crass nature of the receptionist.
"You? You what?" Mutters the receptionist, rolling her eyes as she places the nail file on the desk.
"I'm here for a... Um... Swap-to..." I begin to explain, only to be cut off by the woman clicking her fingers.
"Swap-to-Rent, yeah yeah" she states, snapping her fingers and holding her hand out. "Do ya have the email or something? It's quicker than..." She explains, pausing as I whip out my phone before unlocking it and placing it in her hand.
She quickly looks over the email, her pale blue eyes darting back and forth between my phone and her computer screen.
"You're late" she huffs, passing the phone back to me forcefully. "Lucky for you your renter waited around. Guess they really want... That" she says with a sneer, looking over my tall but rather plain body.
I don't have a chance to respond, no time to retort as the woman lurches up from her seat and points down the hallway to my left.
"Two doors down on the right" she snaps, gesturing vaguely in the direction of a suite of small offices off to the side of the building. "The one labeled 2-B" she continues, sitting back down in her wheelie office chair and picking up the file again.
I pause for a moment, looking down the hallway and then back to the receptionist. As I open my mouth to speak I freeze up, the young snarky woman shooting me a glare.
"What! Do you need me to hold your hand or some..." She barks, her mouth twitching in frustration as her gaze darts between me and her broken nail.
"No...no I can find..." I state nervously, turning to face the short hallway filled with wooden doors.
"Good" grumbles the brunette, looking back down at her nails with a sigh as I begin to walk away.
Picking up the pace I race down the hallway, counting out the doors until I find the one I'm after. Without even knocking I quickly pull it open, reeling in no small amount of shock when I find myself looking into a cramped broom closet lined with polished stainless steel.
A faint light builds in the ceiling, warmly illuminating the shiny and smooth walls of the chamber. It looks like some sort of tiny surgical suite or torture chamber, the drain in the center of the floor leaving my mind racing as I try to think of its use.
"Please close the door to begin" coos a calm and soothing female voice, the sound reverberating out from within the metal plates walls. I pause for a moment, peeking into the room and ducking my head down to fit inside. "Ease close door to..." The pre-recorded voice chimes in again, pausing as I step in and shut the door behind me.
As the door eases closed there is a loud wheezing noise, the whole room becoming sealed away from the outside world. The sound of the waiting room and the street beyond suddenly disappears, soon being replaced with the sounds of gentle music that wouldn't be out of place at a mindfulness seminar or yoga class.
"Thank you for choosing the Swap Clinic... Jordan... Hughes..." The voice chirps, the sentence breaking up as the recording pulls separate names from its catalog. "Please disrobe, the procedure will begin in one minute."
I pause for a second, soon kneeling down to start undoing my shoelaces at a leisurely pace.
"45 seconds" the voice coos, the countdown going by faster than I had originally thought. Panicking I begin to simply pull off my shoes, throwing them away along with my socks before tugging at my loosely fitted shirt and dirty jeans in an effort to get them off before the time limit ran out.
"15 seconds" remarks the voice as I hurl my pants up against the wall, leaving me in my boxers while I writhe on the floor and pull my shirt over my head.
"Today, you have agreed to swap... Body... Full... with Ms...
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