Changing Lives: Chapter 2
Emily takes a deep breath and stepped onto the bus. The driver, an elderly man, silently taps the coin slot and smiles. He knows why Emily is here.
Emily walks unsteadily to the back of the bus. She finds the back-right seat with the faded unicorn sticker and sits carefully, putting the backpack in her lap. It is filled with pictures of Emily’s co-workers, her laptop with all of her usernames and passwords taped to the screen, and her bankbook. According to the Internet, the person who gets Emily’s body next would have Emily’s memory and would already know who her co-workers are, what her passwords are, and where her bank is. Still, Emily thinks, it would be best to give them this information just in case.
Emily feels sorry for the next person to get her life. To tell the truth, Emily has nothing but her job. Her dad left when she was eight, and her mom moved across the country as soon as Emily graduated high school. Emily was so focused on climbing the ladder at her insurance company that she never worried about making friends. She had a cat named Ninja, but he passed away two years ago.
By the time Emily turned forty, she realized that she had no one in her life that was important to her. Everyone around her was married, had kids, or had fulfilling social lives. Too shy to go out and meet people, Emily tried talking to her co-workers more, but they did not seem interested in her. Then, she started taking classes to meet people–flower arranging, knitting, painting–but she was too shy to make plans outside of class.
Around this time, Emily started to wish she could start over in life.
The bus hisses and begins to move. Emily takes another deep breath. She whispers a silent prayer that she will change into a person who had a big family. She then prays again that the person who will get her body in the future needed money. She does not have much good in her life, but she has stability.
Emily thinks about her mom. She thought about writing a letter to her mom but decided not to. After all, she wasn’t dying. And the person who would get her body would still be her mom’s daughter and have all her memories. She would never know the difference.
Emily thinks about Jason, her boss. Thank goodness she will never have to see him again.
Emily thinks about her husband, Mateo. He passed away ten years ago, holding her hand in the hospital bed.
Her husband?
Emily looks down at her hands. They were soft and wrinkled. A gold wedding band is on her finger.
The change has happened.
My name is Maria, Emily remembers. She whispers the name to herself. It feels comfortable.
Emily looks out the window. Wind blows rain and flower petals hard against the window. Spring.
Suddenly, Emily–Maria–is crushed by a feeling of loneliness. Maria remembers her empty apartment, the sound of her clock ticking above the kitchen table.
She remembers the rushed conversations with her mailman, who after a few minutes breaks eye contact and says “Well…” before rushing off to the apartment complex across the street.
Maria looks at her face in the reflection of the window. Her eyes are emotionless, her gray hair straight and trimmed once a month by her stylist, Sharon. Maria has seen her face every day for the past seventy-eight years, but with Emily’s mind, it feels like the first time.
Heading home to an empty apartment.
What have I done? Maria thinks.