The Magic Taxi - Part One

 A low guttural burp slips from my foreign lips as I feel my distended belly growl, the sight of a passing cheap and disgusting burger place leaving my body wracked with foul cravings as I cringe internally. I stare at the steering wheel ahead of me, my dark fingers tightening around the fake-leather as I grip the wheel as tightly as I can.

"Fuck... me..." I wheeze in a thick Indian accent, flinching at the sound of the unfamiliar voice escaping my lips.

It had been weeks now and yet I still hadn't gotten used to the sound of the gravelly and all too strange voice I had been stuck with. I had no clue just who had stuck me with this sweat soaked and grotesquely overweight form, the body I had been forced to collapse into the deep stained and indented mattress each night. They had merely picked me up and said the magic words...

'Have a nice day'

And suddenly I had found myself panting behind the wheel in the body of some middle-aged man from South-East Asia, my heart racing so fast that I had thought I was about to die. The image of my body darting out of the taxi played in my mind every single night, the lack of any last words from the thief sticking with me as I had read the notes left behind.

Whether it was from my personal body thief or someone before I couldn't say, all I knew was that the rules for leaving were simple. Earn a $50 fare and say the right words to escape the bloated and purely disgusting form you had been cursed with in exchange for whoever was in the back seat.

I had managed to avoid it so far, biting my lip when the old grandma had needed a trip halfway across the state or when a quadriplegic had needed a trip to the hospital. However, with each missed opportunity it felt like my body was rejecting me, a weight building in my chest and the disgusting habits ingrained in every pore seeming to leech out at any opportunity they could.

I had needed to get out as soon as I could, the thought of what one or two more missed chances to escape my bloated and sweaty form would me like.

As I pull up to the next fare I listen as the back door opens and closes with a loud thump, the passenger quickly sliding into their seat. "So where to?" I ask, adjusting the rear-view mirror to look at...