Angie stepped one white paw out of her spaceship, testing the stability of her landing zone. Feeling it was safe enough for a young polar bear, she cranked up the music from her ship's speakers, lowered her helmet, and went dancing on the gas giant's rings, her space suits tutu spinning out as she went.
Getting hungry, she scooped her hand into the planet's atmosphere to make an ice cream cone complete with a little cherry and whip topping. A couple licks in, she went to take a bite and the icecream started buzzing angrily at her. *breeeEE breeeEE*
She rolled over and slammed the snooze button on the alarm harder than she intended, accidentally knocking it off the nightstand along with a lamp.
"Lamp?" She pondered aloud as she pulled the rugh sheet up to her neck trying to settle in for a few more minutes sleep before her dad came in to wake her. Her sheets were usually much softer, and she didn't have a lamp in her room.
Opening her eyes again she saw the top of the tree blocking the early morning sun from getting in the window. Her room was on the first floor, and she hadn't slept in her dad's bed upstairs in over a year, not since her mother's funeral. Catching a glimpse of her arm, she realized she was wearing his new pajamas, the red and black plaid he got for Wintervail.
"Odd, they fit pretty well." Despite it being designed for a bear three times her size.
Rolling out of bed she tumbled to the floor, unable to move her legs in time to correct her balance. But as she growled at her legs she started to realize that they weren't hers.
These legs were far too long, as were the arms. Shakily, she stood up using the bed for support. These were her father's big, strong, white hands.
Hearing a scream from downstairs, her instincts kicked in. She ran down the hall, down the stairs, through the kitchen and the living room, and into her own room. There she was, in her purple sleeping shirt that went down to her knees, looking up at herself, eyes full of fear.
"Dad, is that you?" she asked in his deep voice.
"Angie? Angie, is that you?" Her little arms wrapped around her dad's waist, "I, I haven't felt this scared since your mom died. Why, why can't, can't I stop, crying?"
Angie reached her father's hand down to pat her own back supportively. "I'm not sure. I feel like I should be freaking out a lot more than I am. We switched bodies. That's weird. But we'll get through this together, like we always have."
She thought a moment and sat down on the bed. If she'd been a bit younger, she would have invited him to sit on his leg, but her body was just a bit too big for that to still be comfortable. So instead, she pulled him up to sit next to her and lean against his chest. "I had that ice cream dream again."
"The one where you dance on Jove's rings?"
"Yup, that's the one. Had it off and on again for the last six years. Even now that I know what the rings really are, I still like that silly dream."
He smiled with her cute muzzle, "And I've always enjoyed hearing you tell me about it." After a few seconds, he pulled away. "Thank you, hun. I think, I'm not used to your younger brain chemistry, so when I got scared, it was worse than normal, and that freaked me out even more. So, thank you for helping me calm down."
"I just tried to do what you always do for me. Focus on the next best thing and do that."
He nodded her head while holding her chin in contemplation. Pretty soon, he was pacing, as he often did while deep in thought. "OK, I don't know why or how this happened, it makes no sense. But what makes even less sense is losing our house over it. First, we need to call your school, tell them you won't be in today, then, we need to go to my work. I don't have any meetings, just filing and coding, I can still do that." He looked at her smaller hands. "We can say I, you, decided to show your daughter what your work is like. Not entirely untrue."
"Dad, shouldn't we go see a doctor, or something? This seems pretty serious."
"I don't have insurance, dear. With the default on your mom's medical bills, no insurance will take us, and I don't have the money to spare. With the housing market, we haven't been able to sell…, the, the second mortgage…."
Angie put his hands on her shoulders. "Shhh, shhh. It's ok, dad. Breath. These are some big feelings you've been holding onto and hiding, and now you aren't big enough to hide it. Let's just get dressed first, then I'll call my school."
She went through her closet and pulled out a red track suit with white and black leg stripes. "That should be easy to wear and still be comfortable at your office. Once you put it on, come help me pick a tie and make sure I did your clothes right."
She was just finishing buttoning up the white over shirt when her body walked in wearing a blue sundress. "Dad, you can't wear that at your work, you'll freeze. I picked the track suit because you guys always have the temperature way too low. You're in my body now, so you're going to feel that cold a lot more."
For the first time she saw her own face of disgust directed at her. "Hun, you don't button the top unless you are wearing a tie, and today's Friday, so we don't need the tie either. And I'm wearing this, it always looks so nice on you, and it's really comfortable."
"Sure, at this temperature."
He picked up his cell phone and called her school before handing it to her. She listened as it rang a few times, then a squeak answered, clearly a person. Unsure of the reception, Angie just spoke. "Uh, hi, yes, this is Angie Farkleson's father. Angie won't be…" A crash came from the other end. "Hello? Hello?"
Another voice came through the phone. Blableblama hamfl pakaka!"
"They aren't making any sense, and, I think I heard glass breaking, maybe some crying? I guess they were talking like babies."
"Maybe we should drive to your school and check it out."
"That’s right, I don't have my learner's permit yet, and they sound like they need cops and paramedics. Or a good babysitter."
Dialing emergency services they got a busy signal.
Heading down stairs, they turned on the news. Next to one of the regular leopard reporters sat an elk child speaking with the cadence of the show's long-standing bore host. The boy's expensive looking suit didn't fit right, probably having been tailored for a member of a small species rather than a young elk. "More reports of similar events are pouring in from across the country. Our international correspondents have confirmed that this is not isolated, but we have not yet established the extent of this body swapping phenomenon. We take you live to the scene in the streets around the Capitol."
"So, it's not just us."
Looking outside, they saw adults and children playing in the streets together as others tried to choral them back home. A few windows were broken and someone was tossing things out an upstairs window at random.
Angie shook his head and rolled up his sleeves, "Well, I don't think work is your top concern now. But we should see if we can help our neighbors deal with this sudden change."
He reached her hand up to his shoulder with a smile. "And here I was always worried I wouldn't me able to raise you right on my own. Your mom would be proud of … heh, of who you've become."
"What can I say, I take after my dad, the man who taught me to always 'do the next best thing.'"
