Oliver tried to draw up a logical conclusion from what he knew. If the ring was capable of swapping bodies then it must also be capable of swapping them back. The only he thing he needed was to learn the method. And to do that he would need to return to his old room.
Oliver unlocked the door and peered outside to see no one, much to his surprise. He was expecting the other Oliver to be just as persistent as he usually was, asking for forgiveness outside Edgar’s bedroom. Maybe he didn’t know himself as well as he thought?
The idea made a shiver run down his spine as he walked over to his old bedroom, the door also closed. He gave a few loud knocks before hearing it unlock.
“Hey, Edgar,” Fake Oliver said as he opened the door. “Why are you here?”
Oliver shrugged his shoulders as he stepped past the other Oliver and entered the room. Everything looked the same. He began to move his head in all directions, studying the room closely. Glancing under the bed, Oliver was surprised to see the bags from before missing.
“Hey! Where’d the bags under there go?” he asked the Fake Oliver, pointing to the space under the bed.
“What bags?”
“The ones full of clothes from the secondhand store near campus.”
The Fake Oliver looked at Oliver with a confused expression. Clearly having no idea what he was talking about nor why such a thing would be under his bed.
“Okay, then… why were you mad earlier?” the Fake Oliver asked, changing the topic.
“That’s… um… because…” Oliver stuttered as he failed to come up with a proper response. He had no idea! After all, he wasn’t really Edgar. He could only remember him entering the apartment angrily. However, if he didn’t come up with something quick, the other Oliver would probably find his behavior even more questionable than before.
“I wish I knew why!” Oliver thought to himself before a wave of memories coursed through his head: Edgar discovering his car had a flat tire, realizing he didn’t have enough time to fix it, and that he needed to ride the bus. Edgar arriving late to class, having failed to catch the bus due to Oliver withholding his textbook. The professor locking Edgar out of class, making him miss an important exam.
“Oh! So that’s why he was so mad at me,” Oliver thought as he processed his new onset of memories. It was strange. He could recall the memories as if he had experienced them himself yet he knew they were Edgar’s.
Aware that he had been quiet for a long period of time, Oliver looked back at the Fake Oliver. His eyebrows were raised, clearly befuddled and still expecting a response.
“You made me miss an exam so I got pissed. You know I need to pass that class this semester, right?” The words came out naturally from Oliver, matching Edgar’s usual tone as he spoke them.
He watched the Fake Oliver begin to show remorse as he apologized to him, yet, Oliver’s mind was currently somewhere else. How had he accessed those memories? And when had he gotten so good at mimicking Edgar? He assumed that they were extra abilities of the ring, darting his eyes to the side to see if he was still wearing it on his hand. It was still around his finger and giving him zero answers. Maybe he needed a more direct approach?
“Do you recognize this?” he interrupted the other Oliver, waving the ring in his face.
“No. Why?”
Oliver studied the Fake Oliver’s face and recognized his own genuinity. It was bizarre but helpful, able to pick apart his own expressions from another perspective.
Oliver decided to try one last thing. “Look in that drawer and tell me if you find a box.”
“Why are you acting so funny? You keep saying weird things and behaving oddly.” Fake Oliver was beginning to become suspicious and Oliver had no time to deal with easing his doubts.
“If you do it, I’ll forgive you,” Oliver quickly spouted, knowing it was what he wanted to hear.
“Sound good to me!”
Fake Oliver opened the top drawer and shuffled his socks around but came up empty. There wasn’t a single box to be found in the drawer.
“Thanks. I’ll see you later,” Oliver said disappointed as he walked out of the room. It was peculiar. Things he had previously owned were now gone. Had they simply disappeared? And did Fake Oliver really not know anything about the ring? By swapping lives, did it erase the memories of the ring from his old body? He guessed it was only natural for the ring to erase that information to fully leave the other individual clueless.
Oliver walked back into Edgar’s bedroom and looked under the bed, no bags or clothes to be seen. He even searched Edgar’s drawers yet he still came up empty. For some reason the clothes he had bought and the black box were missing. Almost as if they vanished from existence.
What was he going to do now? Oliver was no closer to learning how to swap him and Edgar back. Maybe he could try using the ring to wear his old clothes again, would that change him back? Or would it be better if he just gave up and went back to the secondhand store to buy some more clothes? Or should he just do something else entirely?
As Oliver tried to decide on what he should do, he finally came to a decision.