In the elevator, Greg looked up at Kim. "Where would you like to get lunch?"
"We could go out," suggested Kim as she looked down at Greg, "but we should probably stay close. Cafe or the hotel restaurant?"
Greg considered their options. "We've done the cafe. Let's go try the restaurant."
"So what should I call you if someone wants to know your name? I can't exactly call you 'Greg' in public without blowing your cover."
"Oh, that's a good point." As Greg considered possible aliases, the elevator door opened and they emerged into the lobby. Walking around the casino and past where they had their buffet dinner last night, they arrived at the entrance to the hotel restaurant beneath a large neon "RENOvation" sign.
A hostess greeted them. "Hello, welcome to RENOvation. Table for two?"
"Yes," confirmed Kim. As they walked in, they noticed that only three of the many other tables were taken. Like the casino, last night's buffet next door, and the magic show, it appeared that the hotel's heyday had long since passed and very few patrons remained. The hostess showed them to a table on the right side of the restaurant and presented them with menus.
Kim chuckled. "So much for testing our appearances. There's hardly anyone here."
"That's fine with me," responded Greg as he browsed his menu. "I'm perfectly happy starting small." He continued to look over the lunch options. Everything seemed to be fairly standard fare with nothing that stood out like it might be exceptional. "You know, considering I didn't have much for breakfast, I should be fairly hungry by now, but I'm thinking I'll get the Caesar wrap. Maybe it's just nervousness that's suppressing my appetite."
Kim looked over her menu. "I'm quite hungry, but I don't think your problem is nervousness. Did you forget that you've got most of my body? You've got a smaller stomach and a completely different metabolism." Kim rubbed her belly. "I seem to have your appetite."
"Enjoy it while you can," Greg replied with a smile. "I will warn you though. Don't get hot wings unless you want to be sitting on the toilet for a while."
After placing their order with the server, Kim caught Greg feeling himself up again. "Greg, stop it."
"What? It's not like there's anyone here." Greg motioned to the mostly empty restaurant. "It was so weird feeling these bounce slightly as I walked. So distracting!"
Kim shrugged. "I guess growing up as they grew and living with them for my entire adult life has made me used to it. Now it's weird for me to feel this stuffed bra on my flat chest. Then the chest hair gets itchy if it gets twisted around the wrong way with the motion of the clothes."
"So how do you think this transformation actually works?" asked Greg. "Like, our hearts are pumping blood through our bodies, but when it reaches the transition line, how do the new veins and arteries happen to line up? Also, aren't we different blood types? Does this mean we both have both blood types flowing through our bodies now? Wouldn't that kill us? I mean, unless one of us is type O negative, which is a universal donor, then you can't just mix any old blood types. Certain combinations work, but you can't mix something like B positive and A negative."
"I don't know," answered Kim. "I was never big into studying biology and I certainly can't even begin to guess as to how this apparent magic transformation works. I do know from physics that you can't create matter and I definitely have more mass now and you've lost mass, so there has to be some kind of matter transfer happening. It's not me growing and you shrinking independently. Somehow the matter from your body is being transferred to me and my matter to yours. I think it was pretty evident with the nail polish. Your body didn't simply produce the nail polish that's now on your fingernails and my body didn't absorb it somehow. It was transferred from me to you by some unknown means."
"Yeah, that makes sense," Greg agreed, "but how? Some kind of Star Trek transporter? Is there some hidden machine here that's continuing to transfer the matter in your body to me and mine to yours?"
"I suppose we could go look backstage again after lunch," suggested Kim. "Last time we were only looking for Marvin and his cabinets. Maybe if we go back there looking for some sort of transfer device."
Greg looked off to the side as he was lost in thought. "I wonder what what would happen if we went far away from this hotel. We continued to change when we went down to the wig store, but what if we were in New York, Paris, or Sydney? What if we were inside lead-lined boxes? Would that stop the transfer?"
Kim shook her head. "I can't even guess what the range might be or if there even is a range. No idea if lead would block it either, but I'd rather not find out that the result is something disastrous like a corrupt file transfer. Honestly, I'd rather live the rest of my life in your body than risk getting killed by corrupting the transfer."
Greg agreed. "Yeah, absolutely. Besides, where would we even get a couple of lead-lined boxes? It was only a random thought."
As the conversation continued with additional theories as to their slowly proceeding body swap, their lunch orders were brought to their table. Kim enjoyed a large cheeseburger with all the toppings while Greg ate a little more than half of his Caesar salad wrap before deciding he was full.
After charging the meal to their room, they walked back toward the theater where Marvin had performed last night. As the hotel wasn't busy and also seemed understaffed, they were able to walk right in without anyone noticing. Walking past the tables for the audience, they quickly made their way up onto the small stage and walked backstage. Marvin's props were still backstage exactly as they had left them a few hours ago. Rather than examining the cabinets, this time they looked for anything else Marvin might have used to swap their lower halves.
"I wish we knew what we were looking for," said Kim as she poked through a trunk with rubber chickens, fake flowers, and fake doves. "I'm not even sure how big this thing might be."
"Yeah," agreed Greg. "I'd think it would have to be fairly large, but I'm looking for anything at least the size of a TV remote. Who knows, maybe it's beneath the stage and all he needs is a remote control." Greg stopped his searching and looked at Kim.
Kim froze and looked back at Greg. "Do you think...?"
Greg and Kim hurried on stage and looked at the floor. Greg's heels clicked on the wood as he crossed the stage. "Do you see anything that might look like a door or a hatch?"
Kim carefully examined the other side of the stage. "No, nothing here." She moved down the three steps that encircled the front of the stage and looked for any sort of opening hidden in the stairs.
Reaching the center of the rear of the stage, Greg found a small six inch metal hatch. His heart raced. "Found something!" He stuck a thumb into a hole opposite the hinge and pulled it open as Kim hurried back onto the stage to meet him. As he pulled it open, his heart sunk. "It's just an electrical box. Plugs. Nothing else."
Kim sighed with disappointment. "Damn." She looked back at the stairs at the front edge of the stage. "I wasn't able to find anything. The stage isn't very big anyway."
"Yeah," agreed Greg with disappointment. "Let's go look backstage again."
The couple continued to look among Marvin's props, but couldn't find anything that looked like some kind of technology nor even a remote control. Kim was searching through Marvin's prop table a second time when Greg decided to give up. "We've searched everything. There's nothing here. Maybe he took it with him?"
Kim raised an eyebrow. "That would actually make sense. If this is his best trick, why wouldn't he take it with him? He left the cabinets, but maybe he borrowed someone else's down in LA so he wouldn't have to transport them or maybe he has another set of his own down there. In any case, there's a good chance that Marvin is able to and plans to perform that trick in Los Angeles tonight."
Greg put his hand on his wig-covered head. "Damn, of course he'd want to do that trick down there. We should have left to find him this morning. There's no way we'd get to LA in time now. It would be past 10pm by the time we drove there. At least another hour to find him and get him to start changing us back. Even if we flew and a flight happened to leave an hour from now, it's probably a 90 minute flight, another hour to get off the plane and get a cab to The Magic Castle, and then more time to actually find him and get changed back. That's assuming we don't arrive in the middle of the show and we don't have to wait for him to finish or that we can even get inside The Magic Castle to begin with."
Kim had already pulled her phone out of the suit pocket and tapped the screen. "Without much time to spare, we'd need a direct flight. The only direct flights I'm seeing left in the morning or at 12:30. The next flight is at almost 6 PM and another around 7:30 PM. The 12:30 one was about an hour and a half ago and the next flight isn't for another four hours. We'd never make it to Marvin in time."
Greg shook his head. "Dammit. We've considered chasing after Marvin twice and regretted it both times. Are we going to regret it this time too?"
"I can't see any way that we could possibly get there in time short of chartering a private jet," Kim said with disappointment. "Of course, there's no way we can do that. Our only option, and the most financially responsible one, is to sit tight here and let Marvin return to us. Like Howard said, Marvin can do the trick on us again on Monday when he's back and we'll swap back the same way."
Greg smiled. "I suppose it's not all bad. I'll get to walk a mile in your shoes, literally." Greg looked down at his feet in Kim's navy blue heels. "That's gonna hurt."
Kim chuckled and poked Greg in the shoulder. "C'mon. Let's go see if his dressing room is open."
They walked down the small hallway to the side of the stage to the door with the hastily printed "Marvin the Magnificent" sign. Greg tried the knob, but it was still locked. He looked at Kim. "Do we break in?"
Kim shook her head. "No, I don't want to get kicked out of the hotel. There's probably some security cameras back here."
"Okay, so what do we do now?" asked Greg.