The question was, of course, how we would find the sort of person we were looking for. I suggested that we try to replicate how James met his trans match. I'd join a support group for LGBT people - I'd fit right in, since I was a lesbian for the time being - and look for a suitable trans woman there. James approved, and no one had any better ideas, so that was our plan. There was no telling how long it'd take, though, so Amber and I agreed that we'd continue living together in Milwaukee in the meantime, and I'd find a support group there. Sure, I'd have to quit Danielle's job, but there was no way I could do it anyway.
The rest of the "family reunion" wasn't exactly a relaxing vacation for Amber and me. I had to teach Danielle how to take care of my old body and impersonate me in my classes while I did my schoolwork remotely. At the same time, Amber was teaching me to take care of my temporary new body - wash my hair, shave my legs, deal with my period when that came along. All the while, we had to pretend that nothing was up whenever Amber's mom was around.
Without the right degree, no one would hire "Brandon" for a job in her old field, so to save money between the three of us, I vacated Danielle's apartment and she started living with Amber and me. Our cover story was that Brandon and Amber broke up but stayed friends and roommates, and Danielle decided she didn't like her job and wanted to spend more time with her sister.
Amber wasn't comfortable being physically intimate with me while I was in Danielle's body, but I couldn't resist the temptation to explore it myself when I had the privacy. Since the old Danielle was never getting the body back, I figured it wasn't cheating to stare at myself naked, fondle my breasts, or play with my new genitals. It took me a while to master masturbation, but considering I was born male, I'm lucky I ever got to experience those sensations! I was even tempted to abandon the plan to get a new body, but my relationship with Amber was much more important to me than jacking - or jilling - off.
Finding an LGBT support group in the area wasn't hard, but it turned out not to be useful either. I attended several times, but I only ever met one trans man there, and no trans women. I figured most of the trans people who needed support went to trans-specific groups, but I was apprehensive about going to one of those because I wasn't trans.
"Or are you?" Danielle said when I told that to her and Amber. "You were born with a male body, and now you have a female body. Sounds like a trans woman to me."
"But this body has always been female," I said, "and it looks it. I'd have to pretend that I already transitioned, and that I did it really early."
"What if you thought of it this way?" Amber said. "You're a man trapped in a female body, and you want to have a male body. Maybe you're a pre-transition trans man."
I thought that was a good point, so I switched to a trans support group and introduced myself to them as Daniel, a trans man who had just realized he was trans. To keep up with the group's conversation, and to pass as someone planning to transition the usual way, I did internet research on what it's like to be trans, and I ended up learning a lot more than I ever thought I'd need to. One thing that stuck out to me was that most trans people believe that almost everyone, even if they're not trans, cares strongly about what gender they are. If a man who was cisgender - that is, not transgender - had to live as a woman, in a female body, then he'd experience gender dysphoria, just like a trans man. The only difference is that cisgender people were born as the gender they're comfortable being, but transgender people weren't.
This stuck out to me because I was a cisgender man who was living as a woman, in a female body, but I didn't feel deeply bothered by it. Sure, it took some getting used to, but I did feel like I was getting used to it, and if body swapping wasn't an option, I'd never put myself through years of surgery and hormone therapy just to be male again. I mean, it's not like it'd let me have biological children with Amber anyway.
What did that mean for my gender, then? Was I one of the few people, occasionally hypothesized in trans circles, who were fine living as any gender? If I stayed in this body long enough, would I get gender dysphoric? If I wasn't getting dysphoric, had I been a trans woman all along? Was it just not true that most people have gender identities as strong as trans people's? Was it something about the magic of the statue, subtly changing people's minds to match their bodies?
I might never know, though, because I didn't spend long in the trans support group before I met Sophie. She was a 21-year-old undergraduate student whose transgender egg had just hatched, as they say. She wanted to start medical transition, but she couldn't because she was financially dependent on her transphobic parents. She was tall, thin, and still completely male in appearance. I thought her body would be a fine one for me - a bit young, maybe, but I couldn't be too picky.
I showed photos from Sophie's social media to Amber, and she said she'd be happy having me in that body. Right after the second meeting when Sophie showed up, then, I pulled her aside to pitch the switch.
"This is going to sound crazy," I told her, "and it is crazy. But I swear it's true. I might have a way to help both of us transition." I told her the parts of the story that were relevant to my offer.
"Look," she said, sighing, "I know you're desperate to transition. Lots of us are. But you can't lose yourself in fantasies like this. These are real problems, and they need real solutions." I wouldn't have believed me if I was her, either.
"Tell you what?" I said. "Just tell me whether, if what I'm saying was true, you'd want to switch with me. If you would, I'll switch us tonight at midnight. You don't have to do anything. Just leave your phone near you. If the switch works, call your own number and talk to me. If it doesn't, you can rub it in my face next meeting."
Sophie shrugged and smiled. "Sure. I'd switch with you."
"Even though it'd be permanent?" I asked. I wanted her to agree to it, but I also wanted to make sure she knew what she was getting into.
Sophie looked surprised. Maybe she didn't expect me to think reasonably about the consequences of my "fantasy". "I mean..." she said. "I'd miss some things from my old life. I'd miss my friends. It'd be weird being white. But then again, I wouldn't mind looking less like my parents..." She paused. "Yeah. I'd do it even if it was permanent. Worst-case scenario, I'd find out I wasn't really trans, and I'd have to transition back to male the normal way." She shook her head. "Look at me. I'm taking this as seriously as you."
"You won't regret it," I said. "Cross my heart."
That night, I went into the living room with my phone and, as promised, made the wish on the statue. Sure enough, my senses flickered once again, and suddenly I was lying awake in an unfamiliar bed. I found myself in a young, lanky male body, in a house I didn't recognize. When I found a bathroom and looked in the mirror, Sophie's face gazed back at me from it.
I waited in Sophie's room for the call from her, which came before long. "Holy shit," she said, giggling. "I can't believe it actually worked. Just like that. Thank you, from the bottom of my heart."
"My pleasure," I said.
Then came all of the details that Sophie, Amber, Danielle, and I had to work out. I - now known to the world as "Max", Sophie's old identity - would go "back" to her school in the fall and take over pursuing her undergraduate degree. In the meantime, Sophie started helping me catch up on the material, and I "continued" living with her parents in their house in a Milwaukee suburb. I started commuting into the city almost every day to see Amber, though, and I'd move back in with her and Danielle in the fall. Sophie took my spot as Amber and Danielle's roommate, and she started looking for a part-time job to help pay for a degree that she could actually use. If she wasn't financially ready to move out by the end of the summer, the apartment would get kind of crowded with four of us in there, but we'd manage.
It's been a couple of months since I switched with Sophie. The body of "Max" is nothing special to me - but I felt the same way about my old body, and it was good enough for Amber to reciprocate my crush. At least I'm male again, Amber has no problem being intimate with me again, and, as a bonus, I'll never be colorblind again.
[Image: Danielle's body with a ghostly image of Sophie's female self's face behind it.]
As a side effect of being around Amber, I've been seeing plenty of the new Danielle. She definitely does not regret becoming female, and appropriately enough, she's become like a little sister to Amber as the latter has taught her how to live as a woman. The two of them went clothes shopping together a couple of weeks ago - the new Danielle's first time doing so as a woman - and as mundane as I imagine it'd have been for Amber alone, the new Danielle found it thrilling.
Over the few months since the first switch, I've been helping the new Brandon live my life as if nothing happened. He's been needing less and less help, fortunately, so I don't think we'll always feel like we're keeping up a farce. He's also clearly getting a kick out of his new body, almost as much as the new Danielle - he's experimenting with fashion and working out more than I ever did. True to his word, he's even found a guy who's into him, and they've gone on a few dates recently. "Sure, my dating pool's smaller than when I was a straight girl," he said once, "but the quality really makes up for the quantity. I get to be a hot guy and be with a hot guy at the same time! If only teenage-yaoi-fangirl-me could see me now..." I think it's all a bit gross, considering he's using my old body, but considering what I did with his old body while it was mine, I really can't complain.
My name is Max Huang. I have a brother-in-law named Brandon, a new friend named Danielle, and a loving girlfriend named Amber. With them by my side, I think everything's going to turn out alright.
THE END
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