The Swap Meet - Part One

Wiping the sleep from my eyes, stemming cup of rich dark coffee in hand, I slowly trudge up the stairs to the large double doors of the old community center. The old brick building, now coated with a rough albeit fresh coat of white paint, sat so far into the outer suburbs of the city I called home it was practically rural, acting as an anchor for the local community.

In the large spacious rooms within all sorts of activities were run over the years from cooking classes to educational workshops. However, over the past few months, it had played host to a brand new community activity...

The Swap Meet

By now the Swap Clinic had become a household name, a notorious business with the unique technology for trading traits both physical and mental between two people. This service, no matter how well known, had largely remained the toy of the wealthy, with even simple swaps costing thousands of dollars between the parties involved.

After years of struggling to reach out into further markets, the Swap Clinic finally found a solution to their problem. In an effort to reduce the overheads of programing for unique swaps, organizing the schedules of those involved, and paying for all that is necessary to run the client databases they simply chose to do none of that. The Swap Clinic decided to leave it up to their clients to find their proposed swapping partner themselves, merely giving a locale for people to meet, and further limited to costs by limiting the type of swapping severally at these events.

From this concept the Swap Meet was born, an event run by the Swap Clinic run every few months to every few years depending on the location. Over the course of one weekend the Swap Clinic hires out some venue, moves in one of their propriety machines, and allows for people to use it for one relatively small fee. People are free to come down, to have some food and mingle, searching for a new body and life more to their liking.

The two main issues with these events revolve around the limited scope of swaps and the limited legal protections owed to the swappers. To keep everything cheap and simple the only option available at these events are complete body swaps, leaving each person inhabiting each other's form. The Swap Clinic describes the swap as being one covering both 'Life & Body' as the swap does not include any of the additional paperwork and effort required for each of the participants to retake their former lives in their new body. To assist with this forced life exchange the swap also includes some of the more ingrained mental traits from the swappers, things like work skills and sexuality overlaying their mind and assisting to point the swappers in the right direction while leaving the person's mind largely intact.

The other issue is that of legal protections for swappers, of which there are none. While the Swap Meet is in essence a one-way swap, those involved can in theory agree to swap back at a later event. However, in an effort to keep things simple on their end the Swap Clinic refuses to even acknowledge these agreements. If two people agree to swap back at the next event and one doesn't show up the other person has no recourse, no avenue to go down which would get them back their own body and life. The party wanting to swap back would simply be left with two options, to either remain as they are or to try to find someone new to swap with at the Swap Meet.

Besides these issues of limited swaps and the blind eye turned to any agreements between participants by the Swap Clinic, the Swap Meet events have become a major event in any town or city they take place in. People travel for miles to reach their nearest event, with city slickers in suits intermingling with humble fishermen and small town office workers.

This was why I had come to the community center today. While I enjoyed my life, my body, my humble job, and my cozy apartment I simply couldn't resist the allure of the Swap Meet any longer. While the Swap Meet had been running out here for the better part of a year I had never paid any mind to it, content in the life I had. However, once my boss Rachel used the service, leaving some stranger to live in her body which had aged like fine wine, I had started to wonder if I would be better off as someone else. She had always seemed happy, at least on the surface, and yet she had jumped at the chance to become someone else after visiting the Swap Meet only once.

Sipping at my coffee I approach the doors, sighing in content at the bitter flavor of my drink as I reach for the doors. Beyond the large mental frames, I can hear a dull cacophony of voices, the halls beyond already filled with people despite how early it was on a weekend.

"Just this once" I mutter under my breath, steeling my nerves as I pull the doors open. "What's the chances of anyone wanting to be me and me wanting to be...well them" I chuckle softly, ducking a little and slouching my shoulders nervously as I slip into the entryway.