Your original body standing by the fountain on their cell phone. They hear your footsteps and glance up to see you approaching them.
“Woah! Is that you?” they say in your old voice. You can hear the familiar surprised tone emitting from their mouth. Or your mouth… you mean your old mouth you guess?
“Yeah it’s m-,” you begin before stopping, realizing you’re speaking in Chinese, you quickly go back to a slightly accented English as you continue speaking, “I mean yeah it’s me. Now who are you? Why’d you send me that box? And why are you me?”
Your new voice sounds deep and authoritative and even your own body looks a little shaken but only momentarily. They put on a stupid grin as they chuckle, “Listen. I’m only going to answer one of those questions. So you better pick wisely. You’re about to interrupt before he continues, “Don’t know if you know this but I’m the one in control here not you. I have all the answers and you have none.”
You take into consideration their point and decide you don’t have much room for negotiate and decide you better focus on the best question. On one hand you did want to know the identity of the person who was clearly you at the moment but that might not be the most useful long run. After all, that person could easily lie to you who they were.
Next you decide to remove the option of questioning why they were you. Just because they turned into you didn’t mean much considering that it wouldn’t give any useful answers on how you could turn back to normal.
Finally you decide on your last question and speak. “Why did you send me that box?” You ask.
Your old self looks at you with the same grin, probably amused at your choice.
“Let’s just say I wanted to test certain products I invented on someone close to me.” He answers giving you a chance to take in his words.
Clearly this person knows your or your original self. And they definitely didn’t seems to have a crush on you. Perhaps the box was sent as a form or revenge? You’re not sure but you did know you weren’t going to get anymore answers from this person.
“By the way it’s nice to see you’ve really matured. Maybe you might now be able to learn from your past mistakes,” the stranger tells you with a slight bit of anger in their tone. They glance at their phone before looking back at you.
“Anyway I’ve got to go now. Take a good look at me because you’ll never be able to find me again,” he says as he walks away.
“Wait!” You shout, “Come back!” You begin to run after them before you hear your phone ringing. It’s Minghao. He’s also sent a text saying Jei is sick. You want to ignore the message and chase after the stranger but he’s already gone and your new father instincts feel like they’re overtaking you.
You let out a deep sigh and walk back to your car. It’s a quiet drive back to your house full of confusion and regrets but most of all, desperation. You head inside your house to find your daughter Jei has a slight cold and Minghao clearly tired from his late night study session from the week. You tell him to go to bed as you take care of Jei giving her some medicine and tucking her into bed.
Now that everything was settled you still feel a bit unsettled about yourself. You’re currently in your bedroom alone with the box or condoms. Did the answer to turn back lie inside? And did you even want to turn back? The last question sends a shiver through your body realizing you have started to grow more accustomed to your new life.
You decide you can take another chance with a condom and try returning to your old life or simply move on with your new life.