Scott came back home just before lunchtime. His mother gave him a quarter and said, "I'm sorry. You were right. You could sell that stack of Magic cards. I didn't think anyone would want it, but it was sold in a half hour!"
"Yeah, Mom," he replied, "but you didn't think it would sell, so you set the price low. I could have gotten twenty dollars for that, not a quarter!"
"Sorry, son," she said. "I'll tell you what. Why don't you look around and see if there's something else you think is priced too low? Tell me what it is and I'll set the price. If it sells, you can have the money from that."
"Sure, thanks, Mom!"
Scott walked around the tables when he pushed aside a pair of his own worn baseball gloves, small black case. The tag on it was one dollar, but it looked like it might have jewelry in it. It was probably worth a lot more. Maybe even twenty dollars.
He opened the box and took out a cheap-looking medallion. Disappointed, he realized it wasn't worth a lot after all. He also found a piece of paper, which he read.
It explained that the medallion was magic. If worn by someone, it could be touched against a piece of clothing; this would transform the person into a duplicate of whoever wore the clothes before. If touched against clothing that nobody had worn, they would become a version of themself appropriate for the clothing. If touched against someone else, the two people would each change into the other. The medallion wouldn't work on a woman who was pregnant or having her period, and it wouldn't work on the same person until 12 hours had passed. Partial transformations could happen if the wearer touched several different things with the medallion at the same time. Mental changes were usually minor, things like knowing how to walk or use the toilet in a new form, but there could occasionally be a stronger instinct if the medallion was touched to the item for a longer period of time.
Scott's hand felt funny. Then he realized -- his fingernails weren't cut! He had his hand inside the medallion's chain, which must have counted as wearing it, and then the medallion had touched a baseball glove -- so he had transformed to be just like he was a day ago when he last wore the glove -- and before he had cut his fingernails. The medallion really was magic!
He walked back to his mother.
"Mom," he asked, "can I keep this?"
Thinking quickly, Scott added, "I think the symbol on this is the school mascot."
She looked at the cheap-looking medallion. "I don't think it looks like the mascot at all, but sure."
Scott was curious enough to experiment with the medallion, but the 12 hour limit kept him from trying anything yet. He'd have to wait until at least 11 PM, and he might want to wait longer. Looking around, he spotted a paper bag of rags in the trash, that his mother had thrown out when cleaning house.
Well, nobody might wants to buy them, but they'd be great for seeing just what the medallion could do, thought Scott.
The next day, after dinner, his parents went out. It occurred to him that if he used the medallion now, the 12 hours would be up by the next morning. And if he pretended to be asleep when they got back, they wouldn't disturb him until the morning, which gave him a chance to change back without them knowing. So it was a perfect time to experiment.
Scott put on the medallion and dumped out the bag of rags....