I blink slowly as I become aware of a throbbing pain in the back of my head. My body feels heavy and somehow too tight, like a shirt that’s gone through the dryer and shrunk. I can't quite lift my arms without it pulling snug.
“Tristan, good gracious,” a loud voice rings out, echoing across the room, and I recognise the familiar tone of Judy, who works up in the office and pretty much does Mr Baxter’s job for him. “Are you alright? What on earth are you doing here working? I told you to take today off.”
Slowly, it begins to register that I’m back inside my body, even though it feels really weird. But where the hell is Dusty?
“I-I think I’m fine,” I croak.
“Oh my god! What happened!” also bursts out of my mouth, and in a moment of dread I realise one thing. That wasn’t me that spoke.
“Dusty?”I think loudly.
“There’s no need to shout, Tristan. I fainted, I'm not in a coma. Where are you anyway?”
“Okay, don’t freak out, but I think we’re somehow both stuck in my body.”
“WHAT!!!!”
“I said don’t freak out.”
“How can I not freak out? I haven’t been enclosed with someone in a space this small since I played Spin the Bottle and ended up in Charlie Braithwaite’s understairs cupboard when I was thirteen with his tongue stuck in my mouth. Urgh, he’d been eating Twiglets too, and I can’t stand marmite. Put me right off.”
“Are you okay. Tris?” Hen asks in concern.
“I think he hit his head harder than we thought. Maybe we should—”
“No more hospitals,” I blurt out, cutting Judy off. “I’m just going to go to my office for a moment and sit down, then I’m going home.”
“Very well.” Judy looks up at Mr Delford. “Why don’t you come with me, Mr Delford? I’m afraid Tristan’s not up for a demonstration today, perhaps tomorrow.”
“Certainly.” He passes by me and pats me on the shoulder. “Rest up, lad. Maybe next time.”
Judy and Mr Delford exit the room while Hen hovers over me in concern.
“I’m so sorry, Tris. It’s just you looked fine, so I thought–”
“It’s fine, Hen. Why don’t you go grab me a bottle of water? I’m going to go sit in my office for a bit. Get my feet under me before I call for an Uber.”
“Of course I can. I’ll be right back.” She disappears through the door, and I wait until she’s out of sight.
“Okay, let’s get this bloody book and get out of here,” I say aloud to Dusty.
“Took the words right out of my mouth,” she replies and it’s so weird to hear both of our words coming out of my mouth, it’s like I’m talking out loud to myself.
Fuck this for a game of ping pong, I want my body back. If I thought it was weird before on the outside looking in, that was nothing compared to how it feels sharing my consciousness with Dusty.
I push myself upright, but as I go to step forward with my right foot, I think Dusty tries to step with my left, and instead we end up stumbling and falling flat on my face.
“Ow,” I mutter against the cold tile.
“Whoops.” Dusty winces.
“Ok, Dusty.” I draw in a breath. “One of us needs to be in charge of motor functions. So just don’t… do anything.”
“Fine,” she sulks.
I push myself back to my feet and take a couple of stumbling steps toward the door, only one goal in mind. RetrieveCrawshanks Guidefrom my desk and get back to the safety and privacy of my flat so I can work out what the hell is going on. I didn’t think my life could get any more complicated but, oh boy, was I wrong.
18
