When Edwin woke up, he was cold and his back hurts. Still sleepy, he noticed that he was laying on the ground, wondering, if he had fallen out of his bed, last night. He got on his feet and would almost fell over again. In his bed was a young man, a little bit older than he was, sleeping. Edwins mind was racing. Who was this dude? How did he get in his bed? Was this a prank? Should he wake this dude up?
Edwin decided, that it would be better, not to face this guy alone. Maybe the stranger was dangerous. He let him sleep and went downstairs. From the hallway he could smell, how his mother was preparing breakfast. He entered the kitchen and greeted his parents. "Good morning mom, good morning dad", he said, but got no respond. He then moved towards the table, where a bowl with porridge was prepared for Edwin. "There is a man laying in my bad. He isn't a friend of yours, is he?"
"No, no, no", screamed his dad suddenly. "Bad dog, bad dog. Down, away from the table!" His dad jumped up, grabbed Edwin by the collar and pulled him away from the table, then pushed him on the floor.
Edwin stood up again, scared, and asked: "What the fuck, dad, what is going on? I am not a dog." He moved towards the table again, beause he was hungry. But his dad stood up again, grabbed him by the collar and dragged him out of the kitchen this time.
"No, this is for humans, stay away from the table!"
Edwin was confused and ran to his room. There he found that the other man was up. Edwin was angry: "Who are you?".
Rover smiled. "I am Edwin."
"No, I am Edwin. What is going on?"
Rover sighed. "Right at this moment I am Edwin and you are the family pet Rover."
Edwin just stared, as the other dude get dressed. The real Rover grabbed some clothes out of Edwins wardrobe, as if they were his. "Wait, are you Rover ... the chronivac ... what?". Edwins started to understand. "What have you done?"
"We switched places. Do you like it?", he asked and really hoped so. It would have made things so much easier.
"No", Edwin screamed. "My parents just treated me, as if I was a dog?"
"But you are a dog", Rover confirmed. "Why would you wear this collar?" Edwin groped his neck and felt the band of leather around it. He immediately tried to get it off. Rover said: "You cannot remove this collar!" and Edwin felt, that he was right. He found himself unable to remove it.
"Well", he said, "I will just undo, whatever you did to me" and moved towards the chronivac.
"You cannot touch the chronivac neither!" and Edwin stopped half way.
"What is going on?", Edwin said, scared and confused. "What is happening to me?"
"I becaome human last night. I want to stay this way. Now I understand how it was, being treated like an animal. I don't want to return to this. So we switched places."
"So everyone sees me as a dog now?"
Rover nodded. "Exactly. Whatever you do, everyone will just see a dog doing perfectly normal dog things."
"Can they hear me talk?", Edwin asked.
"I don't know. I guess they will only hear dog noises."
"And when I walk on two legs?" Edward tried to figure out, how he could escape this situation.
"Hmm, maybe they see a dog trying to balance on two legs. But you are right", Rover said and earned a confused look from Edwin. "A dog shouldn't walk on two legs. Get on all fours!" Immediately his legs wouldn't support his weight anymore. Edwin fell on his hands and knees. "You may noticed already, that whatever command I give you, you have to obey, as long as you wear this collar. So, please, just play along. I want you to be a happy dog. Just remember how good you and your parents treated me. We can do this the easy way or the hard way."