Page 123 of Switch!

I’m well aware that we’re on a slippery slope, but so far, I’ve had a blast sliding down it. “What the hell,” I say. “Let’s do it.”

The only obstacle is when the gas pump asks for his zip code as verification. A quick internet search resolves that. Soon we’re back on the road with a full tank.

“Maybe we really should go on a road trip,” Trixie says. “Ever been to Portland?”

“No.” I can think of a bunch of practical reasons for us not to. I ignore them all. “That would be really cool.”

“Yes!”

“Not today though. We should plan it. Maybe tomorrow, when the maid is going to be there. We’ll need to steer clear anyway.”

We discuss details on the drive to Patrick’s apartment, stopping on the way for fast food. Once again, Gary’s credit card saves the day. We don’t have a good excuse this time, although Trixie does her best to come up with one.

“He owes you. Especially after what he called Patrick.”

“He didn’t call us anything,” I retort. “All he did was think it.”

“That thought represents him well.”

“Yeah, but we all think terrible things sometimes. Acting on it is different.”

“I guess that’s true,” Trixie says. “I still don’t like the guy.”

“Me neither.”

“Why can’t everyone be awesome, like we are?”

I laugh in response. “I’m glad no one else can do what we can. Could you imagine? The world would be chaos.”

“If there were more people like you, then no doubt, but I’ve often wondered what it would be like if no one could lie without getting caught.”

“Politicians would crowd the unemployment lines.”

“For sure. The rest of us would have to deal with some hard truths, but only at first. A generation or two later and our entire culture will have changed.”

I think about this in silence as we wait at a stoplight. Ultimately, I decide the world would be a better place, despite the difficulties forced honesty would cause. “Too bad you can’t share your gift.”

Trixie nods. “I’ve fantasized about that. Especially before I met you. It was lonely. Now I’m convinced that other purple people are out there.”

Since noticing that our energy is a similar hue, she’s asked me to keep a look out for anyone similar, but so far I haven’t had any luck.

“There must be,” I say. “We can’t be the only ones.”

“Right? If we could meet more people like us, then maybe we could figure out why we’re different. Like we might see a pattern. Are there other lie detectors? Other body swappers? Or are we like the X-men, and each of us gets their own unique power? And what caused us to be different in the first place?”

I exhale, the question almost too big to contemplate. “No idea. I’m not sure I was born like this. I never had any weird experiences when I was younger. You said your ability came later too, right?”

“Puberty,” Trixie says, nodding at the intersection so I’ll notice that the light turned green. “What about you? I know how recent it started, but you could have been a late bloomer.”

“Not that late!” I say with a laugh. “I bloomed when I was twelve or thirteen. Probably. I didn’t mark it on my calendar.”

“I did. What about your parents? Did any of them tell you weird stories from their youth? I asked my dad in a bunch of different ways. Nothing unusual ever happened to him, so if my powers came from either of my parents, it had to be my mom.”

“But you never really knew her.”

“Yeah.”

“I tried asking mine once. She laughed it off like the idea was ridiculous. I was only asking about possession, but that should have been enough to trigger some sort of memory, if she had experiences like that.”