Changing Lives: Chapter 1
In a small village by a small lake next to a small, vine-covered mountain, there is an old bus stop. The bus stop is so small that most people driving by miss it. There is no bench or shelter–just a sign so rusty that only the BU and the ST are showing.
A bus stops there only three times a day on the way to a slightly less-small town. At 8:13 a.m. for the morning commuters, at 2:13 p.m., and at 6:13 p.m. About five people ride the 8:13 bus, looking tiredly out the window as they think about nothing in particular. The few night workers on the 6:13 bus look even more tired, having tried and failed to sleep through daylight hours. People rarely ride the 2:13 bus. The 2:13 stop was added when, fifty years ago, the local factory had three shifts and needed a bus for the 5 a.m. to 2 p.m. workers to go home. That factory closed twelve years ago, but the 2:13 bus still continues to come.
The local villagers rarely ride the 2:13 bus. Most of them have cars, anyway. But occasionally a tourist will get on a few bus stops earlier, having visited the not-so-famous hot spring waterfall that can be reached by a half-hour hike up the mountain. The look of disappointment shows clearly on these tourists’ tired faces when they come back from the waterfall that was really only a trickle. However, these tourists never get on at the rusty bus stop, nor do they get off there.
There is only one kind of person who gets on the bus at the rusty bus stop at exactly 2:13. These people look about as tired as the day and night workers, but they have another look in their eye: adventure.
They have heard the urban legend. In a small village by a small lake next to a small, vine-covered mountain, there is an old bus stop. If you get on that bus at 2:13 p.m. on a rainy day, you will change lives with the last person who rode the bus. Luckily, it rains in this village about 90 days a year.
There is a small anonymous blog that explains how things work.
1. Get on the bus at exactly 2:13 p.m. If the bus comes late or early, nothing will happen.
2. If it is not raining, nothing will happen. It needs to be completely rainy, too. If even a little bit of sunlight is showing, the switch will not work.
3. Sit in the seat in the far back of the bus on the driver’s side. The seat has a small stain in the corner, and a unicorn sticker is permanently stuck to the wall, right under the window.
4. You will change lives with the person who last rode the 2:13 bus on a rainy day. Only one switch can happen per day. If you and another person are both riding the 2:13 bus, only the person sitting in the back-right seat will switch.
5. The switch will happen between this bus stop and the next.
6. No one feels the switch happen, and if there is anyone else on the bus, they don’t notice either.
7. When you get off the bus, you are in the body of the person you switched with. You have all of your old memories, and you have all of their old memories.
8. After the switch, your old body is not yours anymore. The next person to ride the bus on a rainy day will get your old body and your old life.
9. You cannot switch back.
Most people are interested until they read the ninth rule: You cannot switch back. This is why fewer than ten people per year get on the 2:13 bus.
One of those people is Emily. On a rainy, slightly chilly September day, Emily arrives at the bus stop by taxi at exactly 2:05 p.m. She is wearing a wool sweater that she knit herself and is carrying a heavy backpack. Her hands grip the backpack straps tightly.
Emily’s knees shake as she hears the rumble of the bus coming around the corner of the mountain.