“Would it not be nice, little one,” Mary whispered as she carefully stepped over a fallen tree, “to have staff to fetch the apples for us?” Her hand came to her bump as she found a shaded spot with smooth rocks.
A small, babbling brook of crystal-clear water trickled at her feet. After carefully setting down her basket of apples, she crept down the bank and pulled her travel mug from the pocket of her skirt.
The sunbeams through the trees illuminated the nearby forest, showing off the lush green-scape. Being in the wilderness was the only activity that kept Mary sane in her new life. She heard footsteps nearby and smiled, imagining the local children playing in the shade.
“Hello, Mary.” A familiar voice appeared behind her, startling her so much that she dropped her metal mug into the creek.
Mary turned and came face to face with Sue, the companion who was hired to travel with her on the voyage to America.
“Sue, you startled me, what are you doing here? How did you find me?” Mary glanced around, her skin bristled at Sue’s sudden appearance.
“I thought a lot about what you said on our final day of the trip, and I decided to help you.” Sue smiled, and Mary noticed that all her wrinkles and sunspots were gone, and her skin was as smooth as a child’s youthful face. Her blond hair no longer hung to her shoulders like straw, but instead bounced back and forth in perfectly tight curls.
“Oh yeah? Are you going to transport me back in time like I asked?” Mary snorted and fished out her mug from the water.
“Not quite. You see I’m an ethereal being. I’m able to borrow the form of a human. My normal form is closer to that of a shimmery ball of light.
Mary stared at her. She remembered her rainy day in London on the bridge.
“Let me guess, you were in London, floating on the river, right?” Her voice was thick with sarcasm.
“Yes, I’ve been watching you for some time actually. You are quite the miserable human, aren’t you?”
Mary took a step back, stepping fully into the water allowing the water to soak the first few inches of her hem. She would have been angry if she wasn’t terrified. She dried her mug off and stuck it back in her skirt before stepping carefully out of the water.
“Well, my husband is expecting me back. Nice to see you again.” She kept her eyes on Sue and gave plenty of space as she made her way back to the path. Sue laughed as she watched Mary regard her cautiously. Mary narrowed her eyes, refusing to turn her back. Her feet shuffled as she walked backwards on the path towards home.
“I apologize for laughing. I know you have a flair for the dramatic; it is what first drew me to you. I wanted to offer you a gift, and after our journey on the ship I decided you didn’t deserve it. But then you helped Emily.” Sue tilted her head, watching as Mary leaned down to pick up her basket of apples. “Why did you help her?”
Mary stood back upright, returning Sue’s watchful gaze before shrugging. “I — I don’t know. I saw her and she looked more miserable than I felt, and I thought that maybe since I have so much, and she had so little, I could spare some to help her.”
Why am I still talking to this insane woman? How does she know so much about me?Mary thought as her face flushed.Might as well go along with it to keep her calm.
“I did not give Emily much thought when I saw her. It was a spur-of-the-moment decision. I do not even know if she ended up with the handsome man on the street.” Mary rubbed sweat from her forehead with the back of her hand and turned back toward home. Sue walked behind her a few paces and continued the conversation.
“She did.” Sue’s response surprised Mary and her feet came to an abrupt halt.
“How do you know so much?” Mary asked. “You know what? I actually do not want to know.”
“I told you already, I’m an ethereal being.” Sue paused, waiting for any signs of belief to cross Mary’s face. “Well, because of that action, I watched you even more closely. I have seen that you are truly miserable, and I want to give you a way out.”
A way out? What could that possibly mean?Mary’s thoughts betrayed her as her face scrunched in disbelief.
Sue continued when Mary said nothing. “I can give you a gift, a gift to switch bodies with someone. When you find the right person, you just think about switching and, poof, it is done. The person will have no recollection of the switch and they will start living your current life seamlessly. But you only have one shot, so you need to be very sure.”
Mary thought about what Sue was saying. Did she really hate her life so much that she would switch with someone else, taking their life as her own? Would she really sentence them to her life as a lowly farmer’s wife, working day and night to support her farming husband?
“Just like that, I could be someone else?” Mary struggled to wrap her head around what she was hearing. “I cannot believe what you are saying.”
“It is as simple as this.” Sue snapped her fingers and smiled. “You already have the gift, so my work here is done. I need to move on to find someone else and see what further help I can provide. Good luck.”
Then, Mary was suddenly alone, her hem still soaking wet. Sweat dripped down her back even though she stood in the shade of the trees. She lowered herself onto a nearby fallen tree trunk.
Sue is insane. What she is talking about is not even possible,Mary thought as she regarded her calloused hands.But what if what she says is true? Do I want to leave Eduard? I still love him, I think. I’m just angry at him for forcing me into this life…a life I could now escape if I wanted.Mary dropped her head into her hands.I must be just as insane as Sue is to even consider this as a possibility.
Mary knew that her thoughts had revealed the truth, even though she had come to love Eduard, their life together was far from perfect.
“Maybe, I could convince Eduard to move back to London, then I would have no need to use the switch — the theoretical switch,” she corrected. Mary perked up at the idea that maybe she could convince him to move home, especially now that they had a baby on the way. But her hope just as quickly vanished.
