What Jake couldn't know was that the products on the shelves of the sex shop were in actuality people; people who wanted a second chance at life.
Most were prisoners or other people who had felt they failed in some way. For people whose attributes would be a welcome change for another customer, this was a chance to start over. Death row inmates or terminally ill patients or people who felt they just didn't get a fair shake in life were prime candidates. They willingly signed themselves over to be converted into products to be used by another. The customer would take on their attributes, of course. However, as part of the deal, their personalities and some old and new memories would merge into the customer’s own. They could re-live their lives and perhaps redeem their failures.
Once changed by the products, the customer would be thought of as always having been that way. Clothes and other changes such as sexuality and living conditions would match the new life. In essence, it would combine the two lives into one seamless continuum.
The condom Jake had picked up used to be an ex-pro football player named Ralph Hanson. Ralph was a huge hairy, well hung, bearish straight man with everything going for him, but who'd also been somewhat of a fuck up outside of his football career. He'd got drunk one night after a fight with his wife, got in his expensive custom sports car and run over a young mother and child in a crosswalk, killing them and thus earning him a seat on death row.
He was truly repentant, hated himself for having done it but that didn’t matter to the jury or the judge. With his in the toilet he sincerely wished he could just have a do-over. Six months before his scheduled execution, after he'd exhausted all of his appeals, the owners of the sex shop had approached him a deal. The warden, getting a kick back of course, had cleared the deal. No one would be the wiser that Ralph hadn't died by lethal injection. Ralph knew that he would cease to be, mostly, but that he as a condom would merge into another man and become one with him and so live again. He’d pass on his 'gifts' and get his 'do over'.
The lube that Jake picked up used to be ex-thug named Jose Abello. Growing up Jose had a hard life filled with drugs and violence. He was part of a large gang in Mexico for some time, but grew tired of his constant regrets for what he was doing. He turned himself in and the government decided that the best way he could redeem himself is through the same program that Ralph had agreed upon.
Jake then used the condom and their minds became as one.
Hanson "Jacob" Abello's body then began to change. He shot up dramatically to 6'3. Black, thick hair started to fill the crevaces of his body. He moaned in pleasure as he started to acquire his new ripped and toned body. He started remembering people in high school had called him the Mexican "Bear" because of the copious amounts of hair that grew from his body. His pecs and abs were almost invisible beneath the swarthy hair. The rest of his body was equally hairy, he remembered that he had to get his back waxed on a monthly basis because of that. He had had a very thick beard that was well groomed and trimmed perfectly. He remembered he was the star of his college football team. He had great hopes for his future.
Hanson then put his clothes back on, wondering what he had been doing for the last few minutes.