I spent about an hour after dinner looking through the stuff in my room. Eventually I realized that the only thing that was really the same between this room and mine were outward appearances like the dressers and the bed and everything. It turned out that they didn’t look identical after all but I was just too excited to spot the differences.

I did have some things that looked more like boy clothes, but they were hidden underneath a lot of girly stuff. The stuff that I could find that looked boyish was still kind of wrong. It was all too tight or cut weirdly or made of really soft material. Most of my toys were similarly replaced by girl things, dolls and little makeup kits and things like that. I found most of those things shoved into the back of my closet and I was fine with letting them stay there forever.

There was one thing that was kind of cool though. The closet door has a mirror that stretches all the way from the top of the door to the bottom. I think they’re called full length mirrors? Mom has one like this, or my original mom did anyway.

It was kind of fun being able to see myself completely instead of just my top half like in the upstairs bathroom. I’d already tossed that girly kid shirt back into the drawer and pulled out a blank white t-shirt instead. It was pretty gender neutral except for the bit of frilly stuff around the shoulder cuffs and collar. My shorts definitely looked, well, shorter than usual. A little bit tighter around my waist too.

I turned this way and that in front of my mirror to get a better look at myself in my new clothes.

“Do I look like a girl?” I mumbled as I looked myself over.

“I dunno, I think you look pretty much the same as me.” said a very familiar voice

I looked up from my waist to see my reflection in the mirror.

Two of them!

“What!”

“Shh! Be quiet or you'll have mom and dad barging in here!” my double shushed me. He was dressed a lot more normally. Actually, he was dressed in my clothes! And covered in mud! He looked like he’d just finished crawling through some sort of swampy obstacle course.

“Who are you? How- there’s two of me?”

“Well two of me from my perspective.” he said with a grubby smile while looking me up and down the same way I was examining him.

“Nice blouse by the way. Did you have fun trying on all my clothes? This place is a mess.”

“I wasn’t trying them all on. I just wanted to see what you had is all." I said in my defense, keeping my eyes on him and not the pile of clothing strewn across my bed.

"Did you have fun staining all my stuff with mud? Mom’s gonna be mad at you. Doubly mad for tracking it inside and getting it all over the carpet.” was my best comeback.

My double shrugged his shoulders and chuckled a bit. “Yeah, I did have fun, and I’m pretty sure she’s just happy to finally see you playing with the other boys in the neighborhood. That’s what she told me anyway. But that’s a good point, I should take a bath or something.”

He sniffed himself and scrunched up his nose before turning around and heading back out.

“Wait, wait, wait! We need to figure out what’s going on! Or switch back or something! Isn’t this your room, and your parents, and everything? And this hair I have too! I'm in your body! We got swapped around!"

That stopped him for a second, but he didn’t turn back. “Look, me, whoever you are, or whatever you are. I’ve got no idea how we switched or how we could switch back. I’m not INTERESTED in coming back. Have fun with your fashion show.”

I blinked in shock, wasting enough time for him to walk off and closed the door behind him.

“W-wait!” I yelled and ran after my double only to find that he had vanished into thin air just suddenly as he had arrived.

“Is everything ok up there?” Mom called, looking up at me through the empty staircase.

“.... Everything is fine!” I yelled back before quickly running back into my room and slamming the door closed behind me.

How could he just do that? Run away and leave me here! Those were my parents, my clothes, and my life that he was messing with!

What if I was stuck here? What if that was my only chance to get back? What if he ruined my life and made it impossible for me to live it even if I did return home? And if I wasn't convinced enough already, now I could be sure that this wasn't a dream. It’s all real… and I’m trapped!

I fell onto my bed and buried my head into my pillow while tears burned in my eyes and my lungs locked up in pain from trying to hold back my sobs. Why did he leave? What am I supposed to do now!? Am I really just stuck in this missed up world forever!?!?

I shot my head back up as my door creaked open. Maybe God was giving me a second chance after all!

But it wasn’t the other me, it was just my dad.

His dad.

Whatever. He wasn’t mine and that’s what mattered. I lost my parents, my home, everything! It was right there, and I let it get away. Who knows when or even if I’d ever get another chance?

“What’s wrong sweetie?” his dad asked gently, sitting down on my bed, and wrapping an arm around me.

I shoved him away.

“Nothing is wrong! Leave me alone!”

“Eric!”

I looked up at him, expecting to see anger but not seeing any. The only thing showing on his face was hurt.

I shouldn’t care. After all, he wasn’t my real dad. But he looked like my dad did and sounded like him too. I couldn't hold it back anymore and just burst into tears. I didn’t push him away when he pulled me into a hug this time.

The hug was different from the ones I was used to getting from dad. He wasn’t smelly or sweaty like my dad usually was from working outside. He smelled really nice instead. And it wasn’t as soft as a hug from mom, but it wasn’t as hard as the ones from my dad either. The dress he was wearing was silky smooth on my face and I could feel him gently rubbing my back through my own soft shirt. I think he was talking too but I couldn’t hear him over my own sobs.

I finally pulled away again after a little while and tried to contain my sniffles and snuffles enough to speak.

“Sorry dad.” I choked out

“You’ve got nothing to be sorry for. There’s nothing quite like a good cry to get all the little nasties out.” he reassured me while dabbing at the trail of tears along my cheeks with some extra fabric from his dress. It wasn’t the one that he wore to church. This one looked a lot more relaxed. It hung much more loosely on him and had shorter sleeves that showed off his forearms. The fabric was colored a dark blue and glittered a bit in the light as he moved. Would it be weird to say that my dad looked pretty in a dress? Because he did, even with the front of it spotted by a big puddle of tears.

“Feeling a bit better?”

I nodded slightly, and he smiled while gently patting my cheek.

“Good. Now I won’t make you tell me what’s bothering you, but your mother and I noticed that you were acting really out of it today. You didn’t even try to fight Sally when she grabbed your hair. Now that isn’t an invitation to go and pick fights with anyone, but we’re a little worried since you don’t have the same spunk you usually do. Does that make sense?"

“I guess so? But, umm, nothing’s bothering me. I’m just… just tired, I guess. It’s been a long day.”

Dad didn’t look very convinced but nodded anyway.

“Alright, well if that’s all it is then make sure you get plenty of rest tonight. And if you ever need to talk, your mother and I are always here. No matter how old you get you’ll always be our little boy, and we’ll always love you. You can talk to us about anything. Ok?”

Tears started to make my vision blurry again, but I didn’t fight them this time. I gave dad a tight hug and he returned it. I hoped wearing girls’ clothes and stuff wasn’t making my brain all mushy. This was getting a little embarrassing even if it did make me feel a lot better.

We parted again and I turned down his offer to hang around and keep me company, or to help him and mom go shopping for some extra things they needed for dinner. I appreciated the hugs but I needed some time to think about stuff that I knew I couldn’t talk to either of them about. They’d probably put me in a padded room somewhere.

“I’ll be ok dad. I promise. Crying really did help a lot.”

“Ok then, I’ll get out of your hair for now. I just want you to know that I’m proud of you for everything that you did today.”

“I didn’t do anything?” I asked said confusedly.

He smiled and shook his head.

“Oh yes you did! You didn’t get all violent with Sally or whine about not getting to play soccer with the girls after church. You were a huge help with lunch too! Maybe it doesn't seem like much to you, but to me it looks like you're finally embracing your masculinity a bit more. I’m just… happy to see you starting to mature.”

Well that was a bombshell. If masculinity means wearing dresses then that means that I’m even more girly than that other version of me?

“Are you sure you don’t want to talk about anything?” Dad’s smile dropped a little, probably at my lack of enthusiasm over his compliment.

“No, I’m just going to take a nap. I’m really tired dad.”

“Well alright. If you're sure. We shouldn’t be gone too long. We can wake you up when we get back if you want?”

A shake of my head made his smile grow even thinner.

“..... But could you wake me up for dinner if I’m still asleep? I want to try some of mom’s cooking.”

That seemed to make him feel a bit better.

“Sure, I’ll keep a close eye on her to make sure she doesn’t accidentally poison us. Sweet dreams sweetie.”

I gave him a small wave as he shut the door and then laid back down in bed. I had no idea crying was so exhausting, or maybe it was from freaking out internally all day. I closed my eyes and just hoped that that mom wasn’t as bad of a cook as she and dad kept saying.

Both moms liked iced coffee and soccer so maybe their cooking skills were also the same?

It was a minor miracle that I fell asleep with all those thoughts buzzing in my brain. I guess I really was that tired. I napped for a while and only woke up about half an hour before dinner. I used that bit of time to look at my bookshelf now that I’d already seen most of everything else in my room. I don't think I'd ever even heard of these authors before.

At least there was one good thing about this whole universe flip. A whole new world of books to read.

I only had enough time to pick out some of the ones that I most wanted to take a look at before dad called me down for dinner. We had chicken parm, like real Italian food! His side of the family was from Italy a couple generations ago, although he doesn’t really look like it.

Unlike my original dad, this one knows a ton of recipes by heart. They were good enough that even mom couldn’t ruin them. She really was that bad in the kitchen apparently and kept dad on his toes trying to stop things from getting too out of hand.

Mom didn’t look too sorry about it though. I think some of her mistakes might’ve been on purpose so she wouldn’t be asked to help cook again for a while. But she didn’t call me fat this time while we ate so I was willing to let it go and not rat her out to dad

With a little bit of work, they convinced me to watch a movie with them after we ate, and it was actually a lot of fun.

It was also reeeeeeally weeeeeird watching someone that looked like dad cuddling with my mom and feeding her popcorn like some lovestruck lady from a TV drama. Watching a role reversed version of toy story with the only guy toy being Bopeep was just the icing on the cake. The whole thing was like something from a fever dream, but it helped distract my mind. My brain kept comparing it to the original instead of just enjoying it which made my brain feel exhausted? It’s hard to describe. I guess my teachers are right when they say the brain is a muscle. They say that people don’t use them enough, but I felt like mine was being run ragged right now. I was ready to pass out towards the end of the movie despite the nap I took earlier.

I kind of stumbled upstairs and took a quick shower but spent a lot longer than normal trying to dry my hair. I didn’t realize that longer hair took so much time to dry! It’s obvious when you think about it, but I’d never had to think about it before. Not even once!

Rubbing it around harder just got it tangled up and didn't seem to do much. Eventually dad popped in and helped brush and blow dry it for me. He ‘reminded’ me that we have little shower hat things that I can use to keep my hair dry. Of course it was pink and covered in a bunch of pictures of soap bubbles and flowers, but I’d definitely have to use it next time. Or maybe I could get a haircut? Then again, if that other me who seemed so…. boyish couldn’t convince mom and dad to get his- my- our haircut then I doubt that I’d be able to either.

Noticing that I was ready to fall over at any moment, dad quickly hustled me into my room. I didn’t even think to complain when he pulled another little dress-like thing over my head. It felt so soft and nice that I couldn’t really care less what it was or what it looked like. After that he tucked me in, had mom pop by my room to say goodnight, and I was out like a light.

Fun fact: Did you know that the color pink was originally considered girlish, and blue was used almost exclusively for boys?

“In old catalogs and books, pink was the color for little girlss” said Leatrice Eiseman, a color expert and executive director of the Pantone Color Institute.
“It was related to the father color of red, which was ardent and passionate and more active, more aggressive. Even though you reduce the shade level, it was a color that was associated with girls.” Eiseman said.
An article titled “Pink or Blue,” published in the trade journal The Infants’ Department in 1918, said that the generally accepted rule is pink for girls and blue for boys. “The reason is that pink being a decided and stronger color is more suitable for the boy.” it said.

Just think! Girls could be playing with pink GI Janes! How crazy would that be?