Body Switchers from Outer Space Read Free

and louder, thumping like a drum or a heart. Suddenly a huge sideways lurch tossed me into the wall of the chamber. I thought I was going to throw up.
    Then nothing.
    No sound. No fireworks. No nothing.
    Had it worked? Was I in Chad’s body? Was he in mine?
    For a minute I couldn’t breathe. My lungs felt squashed.
    All my muscles felt stretched out and burned.
    I tried to move my head, to look around.
    My neck didn’t work!
    I grabbed for the walls, but my arms just lay by my side. I couldn’t lift a finger!
    No! I thought. Something horrible must have happened! What’s wrong with me? Am I paralyzed?
    My heart pounded so hard my ears hurt. I couldn’t move a single muscle, and I couldn’t even breathe.
    My body was completely frozen in place!

3

    I struggled to move. My mind raced around and around. Trapped. Would I ever be able to move again?
    The mist began to clear. The chamber cooled off. It was dark again inside the telephone booth.
    Dark as a tomb.
    I gasped. And this time my chest heaved and managed to pull in a huge breath.
    Air! Hurray!
    I realized I was really thirsty. Probably because of how hot it was in the chamber.
    I licked my lips. Something was different.
    But what?
    My tongue pressed against the backs of my teeth. They were the wrong shape.
    I couldn’t feel my braces!
    Could it be . . .?
    I still hadn’t been able to blink or turn my head. I tried to look down, and finally my eyelids blinked. I thought about opening my mouth, and my head looked down.
    Every time I tried something, my body would do the movement I tried to do the minute before! I was always one step behind myself. Just attempting to move was making me sweat.
    Now that my head was looking down, I realized I wasn’t seeing my spaghetti shirt.
    I was staring at Chad’s clothes!
    Oh, man!
    It worked! The switch had actually worked!
    I wasn’t me!
    I still felt like me, but I was inside Chad’s body.
    Chad’s body! Oh man, oh man, oh man. This was the biggest, bizarrest, most fantastic, whacked thing that had ever happened in my life.
    But I was paralyzed! I was in the most excellent body in all of Shadyside, and I couldn’t get it to work right!
    This was worse than being me!
    What if I was stuck like this forever?
    I tried to lift my hand. I blinked instead. I triedkicking the wall and my hand lifted. I tried to make a fist, and I kicked the wall.
    I couldn’t live like this! I wanted my body back—and fast!
    This switch was a stupid, stupid idea. Obviously, something went wrong.
    Could it be made right?
    With a whoosh a hole opened in the wall in front of me.
    A tall, skinny, dark-haired dorky guy stood there grinning at me.
    Spaghetti and chocolate pudding stains covered his red and white shirt.
    It was me! I was looking at me!
    Or at my body, anyway!
    â€œHey!” he said. In my voice! “Hey . . .  Chad.” Then he grinned again.
    I managed to open my mouth, but couldn’t make a sound. I tried to blink, and “Hey yourself” finally popped out—in Chad’s voice!
    Oh, man!
    â€œIt takes a minute or two for your brain to adjust,” he explained, “unless you’ve switched before. Come on out!” Then he turned away and did a flip.
    A flip! In my clumsy body! Never in a million years could I make my body do a flip.
    â€œSo now you know,” Chad said, grinning a big dorky grin. Light bounced off his— my —braces. “I have done this before. That’s how I know how safe it is. You’ll be okay in a couple of minutes.”
    By thinking one thing and doing something else, I managed to get out of the change chamber. I didn’t even trip over the door sill.
    â€œYou have to open the door,” Chad said, pointing to the yellow-green circle on the wall. Even though I knew there was a door there, I still couldn’t see it. “It’s keyed to my body’s