I drove James over to Justin’s, and when Justin opened the door, I was blown away by the marvel of a man in front of me. He stood almost 7’ tall, and had huge muscles everywhere, he looked like a half-black bodybuilder. He had a blue hoodie on, and underneath he had what looked like a Steelers jersey on, which was straining to contain his pec muscles. And this guy was supposed to be 17??
James introduced me to him and Justin reached out to shake my hand, and there it was. My hand! I shook it tightly, causing Justin to wince in pain. “Goddamn, man, no need to go full power on me! I got them skinny white arms from my dad, don’t hurt em!” So I guess that’s how he remembers it. I laughed it off and walked inside.
“So how’s things at the factory?” James asked Justin. “Ah, you know, same bullshit different day. Cant wait to get my diploma from that place and get outta there.” So I guess the factory was his school then? Trippy.
I didn’t want to waste any time. I started trying some sentences for the swap. “ Justin has the large, muscular arms of a mixed-race teenager.” I looked down, and my arms were back to normal, but my letterman’s jacket was still on, meaning I was still a high schooler. I looked around to see what the side effect was, but then I heard Justin talk with my voice. “What kind of pizza you guys want?” he said. “I’d go fo’ some bacon an’ pepperoni, my guy.” I responded with his voice. That was definitely not me, so I swapped that back.
See, if I don’t get the words the same when I try to swap things back, then the side effect is different. So I gotta find the words that I used last night.
“Justin has incredibly large muscled arms.” I had my arms back, but my shirt was now tight around the two large slabs of meat that were my pecs. Nope.
How about, “Justin has the large muscular arms of a football player.” My arms were normal sized now, but now Justin was white and I was mixed race. I switched back.
Maybe it wasn’t the arms? The arms might’ve been the side effect… What did I try next?