Stephanie - Part 3 - Searching and finding

There was nothing to show that Stephanie and Graham were in any way different from normal Year 11 students studying hard for external examinations. They were clearly intended for each other, and as such, had been removed from the pool of talent as potential boyfriend or girlfriend. They hugged and kissed like any young couple, but as far as anyone knew, that is the limit of their intimacy. Their bond was primarily cerebral and their grades showed the benefits of having a learning partner.

Stephanie blossomed as Seraphina had said. She had curves where a beautiful woman should have curves and had long since discarded the so called ‘Training bras’ in favour of a larger size.

Graham became a spectacularly built young man with muscles in all the right places. He exercised daily and the benefits were there for all to see when Stephanie and Graham visited the local swimming pool.

Their particular traits were used and enjoyed, but there was always a nagging doubt that Seraphina was right and there were other pairs who had had the same experiences.

They took Seraphina’s advice and sent saliva samples to a site for people looking for ancestors. The samples were sent separately and when the results came back, the first sample sent by Stephanie gave very little information. Stephanie had a primarily North European ancestry and there were no close relatives who had had their DNA analysed previously.

Graham, on the other hand had a similar origin from Northern Europe, but said that a previous test had been provided by an identical twin, Stephanie.

“How can you have an identical twin who is a different gender?” was Graham’s first reaction, and how can we have different pairs of parents and exchange identities when we are fifteen. Being told one is an identical twin of an impossible type is no help at all, and even the ultimate rarity of sesquizygotic twins is no help here as the twinning would be visible from birth. I wonder what Seraphina meant for us to look out for?”

After looking at both sets of results, they sent the results to Seraphina with a question as to why it was important to find out this information.

“If you have a pair of identical twins who should not exist as they are different genders and who started off with unrelated parents having a child naturally, then there should be no way of having identical twins even of the same gender. You should not exist, but do exist, so look for another solution.”

“We know that our parents found conception difficult. Maybe we were conceived by donor sperm from the same donor? … or even donor eggs from one woman.”

“That will not work as we changed at puberty, we were not identical at birth.”

“Then I am stumped, unless one is looking at some sort of alien intervention or magic.”

“I don’t really buy the intervention of aliens or a magical birth.”

“What I think we have here is a set of genes that are unexpressed in our bodies until we are on the point of puberty, and at that point they seem to be expressed and are, for a short time able to interact with another person at the exact same stage in life.”

“If that is the case, then the ancestor testing would not find differences in our DNA as our DNA is the same for those genes. The simple saliva test cannot tell how the genes at those loci on the chromosomes make us different, only that we are different.”

“That makes sense, but how can we find any other people like us with the same genes. Those that make them different from the general population?”
Shortly after, Seraphina phoned them.

“There is a girl in Oxford whose mother has sent out an SOS on social media saying that the daughter woke up in a dreadful state saying that she was called Sebastian. Both mother and daughter are at their wits end and the girl will not leave her room.”

“We are not sixteen yet. How do we convince our parents to go and see someone we don’t know in Oxford. We don’t have the money to buy tickets and don’t know the address.”

“Tell your parents that I will drive you. It is an opportunity to visit some underground structures that are not normally on show. It is to do with your interest in Civil Engineering.”

After some convincing, both sets of parents were convinced that Seraphina’s offer was genuine, and the trip was allowed.

Seraphina drove up in a rather careworn Mini an hour later.

The trip to Oxford was uneventful and they were soon driving through the everlasting traffic on the A34.

Rita lived in Cowley, on the outskirts of the Oxford. Seraphina had PMd her mother. After convincing her that they were not going to try to exorcise a devil from Rita or convert her to some religion, they were given the address and phone number more as an act of desperation since no one else could offer any solution except sedatives and antidepressants.

When they arrived they were ushered into a neat suburban semi-detatched house and into a tidy sitting room that owed a lot to chintz. June was again, anxious that the three were not there to convert her daughter and a flood of tears from above helped to concentrate her mind on helping, and she ushered them upstairs.

Rita was huddled on her bed just in pyjama bottoms and surrounded by heaps of wet tissues that had been used for her tears over some hours.

Stephanie and Graham sat either side of her on the bed and cradled her in their arms.

“We know what happened to you.” Stephanie said quietly over and over again. “We can help.”

Over a few minutes the message began to have an effect and the tears abated.

“No one can help me.” Rita said as she drank the glass of water her mother offered her.”

“We wouldn’t have driven from London if we didn’t think we could help. The same thing happened to us less than a year ago. When you understand then you may be on the brink of something wonderful, but that will be up to you. At the moment you are confused and need our help.”

“So what has happened to me?” Rita said in an inappropriately challenging way.

“What was your name yesterday?”

Rita looked at them suspiciously. “Rita?”

“No, not Rita, the name you had yesterday.”

“Sebastian, or I actually prefer Seb.”

“OK, Seb.”

“Graham, would you go with June, and explain what has happened to her daughter.”

Graham, June and Seraphena went back down to the sitting room and between Graham and Seraphena they explained that Rita had gone through a mind swap with a boy called Sebastian.

June showed every sign that she did not believe them, but Seraphena was called upstairs and given a piece of paper by Rita with Sebastian Worthington, and address some miles away in Abingdon, south of Oxford, and a phone number.

“If you find a rather distressed family on the other end of that phone line, then you need to believe us.”

June called the number and spoke to Daisy Worthington, and the concerns she had with her son were mirrored by her own worries.

“Ask Mrs Worthington and her son to come here please.”

Daisy was still on the line, and June made the offer. Within minutes Daisy and her son were on their way to June’s house some 20 miles away.

An hour later and Rita was dressed and showered and sitting with the rest of the group. All were full of anticipation.

The moment Rita and Sebastian saw each other they fell into each other’s arms and were immersed in a storm of hugs and kisses.

The two mothers were bewildered. “How can this be? These two have never met and live miles away from each other, yet are clearly totally absorbed in each other?”

“Let me explain again. We have found out through experience, that a boy and a girl who are born on the same day, and are identical in general body size and shape, enter into a mind swap, and each becomes the other person. We don’t know why or how, but it is clear from history that this has been going on over centuries.”

“What do we do now? We each have a son or daughter in the wrong body.”

“Rita and Seb are effectively two halves of a single person as are we. Their emotional and loving bond will be as unbreakable as ours is. The best way to understand it that both Seb and Rita will learn to behave as if they were actually your original son or daughter, but really are a sort of hybrid. I have Graham’s memories and he has mine. When I feel something he also feels it. If I think a thought and direct it at him, he can hear it and answer. It is a wonderful experience.”

“But you were a boy once, don’t you miss that? No, there are advantages and disadvantages in being a boy or girl. I know that our situation is irreversible and there is nothing to be gained trying to reverse it. I like who I am now and the love I have for the new Graham is both exciting and gives me great pleasure. I was a boy who got up to all sorts of rough and tumble that boys get up to, but I now look forward to a career shared with Graham and eventually raising a family with him,”

“We did wonder if the mind swap was reversible, but I had a strong feeling that that had gone when I had my ears pierced for a wedding outfit. I can see that Rita has scratched her arm whist she was upset. Did you feel sort of cold certainty when you did that, Rita.”

“Yes, it made me even more miserable because I didn’t understand what had happened.”

“How do you feel now?”

“I think I have a lot to learn, but having two sets of memories is amazing, and I can already feel Seb’s presence beside me or even inside me.”

“You both will also find out that your body remembers lots of things without you thinking about them. Things like putting on a bra, or making sure you do not ladder tights or, of course, using sanitary protection.”

“How do we manage this as two families?”… the mothers asked in tandem?

“You now have a son or daughter, but with benefits. Treat your son or daughter exactly as you did before. It will be a great help for them to be in the same school if that is possible, and if they live close enough you will find that they treat both pairs of parents as their own parents and will eat and sleep together in the house where they find themselves that evening.”

Rita and Seb were sitting on a sofa glued to the conversation with wide eyes.

“Do you mean that I am him and he is me?”

“No not really. You have the body your partner used to have. You will need to use that body wisely, but you will have two mothers and two fathers and will love them all equally. You will remember your parents as you were and as you are, but you will have the added benefit of having a life’s partner only a thought away.”

“What happens if I don’t like him after a while?”

“In normal relationships there are many cases of divorce where couples drift away from each other. We don’t know the full story, of course, but the evidence from Seraphena’s historical studies suggests that the bond between you two will last for your whole lives. I can see the bond drawing you closer to each other minute by minute. I have no doubt that you will marry when the time is right, will never be unfaithful to one another and will never divorce.”

“Doesn’t that take away any idea of choice?” Daisy asked.

“Yes it does. Since there is no way out that we know, and body swap partners often self harm or worse if they do not meet their partner for some reason. The benefits seriously outweigh the disadvantages.”

“I will call my husband now, to ask him to come here rather than go home. I think we can run to a take-away for all nine of us, but I cannot explain this all to my husband. I would appreciate you staying to explain it to both the men when they arrive home. There really isn’t any alternative, but it would be easy for them to call you charlatans if you had already left.”

“If there is any question about our status, remember that we are making ourselves vulnerable by coming here and we don’t want anything from you, only to know that we have prevented unhappiness or worse.”

“We will happily share your meal and go through it again. It is in Rita’s and Seb’s interest that everyone is on board.”

June and Daisy made meal choices for their husbands, and then phoned the order through to be delivered in an hour’s time.

Since there was no preparation that needed to be done for the meal, the two mothers had a heart to heart with their children, “What does it feel like. Do you still remember growing up at our house?”

“Yes of course. I have all the memories of me being a girl, but I am gradually absorbing all Seb’s memories and feelings as well. Even after such a short time, I feel very close to both Mums and Dads, and do hope that they will accept us for who we are.”

“I am sure it will be quite challenging. Men, particularly, are often very close to their daughters and giving them up when they marry is difficult.”

“Look at it as all four parents have a son and a daughter now instead of just one child, and as I understand it, we will start to diverge physically quite strongly from now on. I am intrigued to see how I will look in a bikini, and I know that Seb can already feel sensations he couldn’t feel before. I have never thought of going out shopping for dresses and skirts, but I am going to need help from both mothers to make sure I don’t make too many clothing gaffs.”

“Rita moved over to the sofa where Daisy and June were seated and gave them both a kiss on the cheek. Daisy and June stood and for a minute or so, all four had a group hug.”

“We will make this work. Perhaps you were destined to have an unusual relationship like this. We just didn’t know it.”

“One final point. This information needs to be kept from the general population, and from The Press and particularly from prurient and unethical investigators seeking academic kudos. It is too easy to create fake news and once people are afraid, then discrimination may lead to a mob, witch hunts and even lynchings. Seraphena’s historical research indicates that some mind swap couples have been killed by mobs of ignorant people roused to outrage by people who get kicks out of manipulating others with falsehood. We are just like any other humans. We cry and we bleed and we die.”

In fact the fathers were bewildered by the day’s events, but after Stephanie, Graham and Seraphena had left, the children and their mothers made it quite clear what was going to happen and that the children’s happiness was really the only important fact. The fact that their school work would improve was an additional benefit.

Over the months, the two families got closer together and eventually Daisy and her husband moved near Rita’s family and as had been predicted, the two teens were in and out of each other’s homes all the time … and slept wherever they got tired.

Seraphena, Graham and Stephanie made the journey back to North London quite quickly now that the traffic had eased.

“Will there be more cases like this?” Stephanie asked.

“Without doubt.”

“Will you keep up with Rita and Seb?”

“Yes, of course. They are part of our family now.”

“One thing we will have to consider is how to get some money, we cannot depend upon Seraphena’s quite modest resources, and neither of us has any income.”

“How do we contact more mind swap people? I think it was remarkable that you were able to track down Rita and Seb, but there was quite a lot of luck there, I think.”

“I regret that there are people I have missed. There was a young woman in Kent somewhere, who was healthy and happy when she went to bed at night, and the following morning was found after having jumped from a seventh floor balcony in a tower block and young man born on the same day now resides in a psychiatric centre for young people.”

“That is really sad. I wish we could have helped.”

All three thought about the money they would need to help other people and whist they were still at school or University they couldn’t see how they could earn enough to make a difference.

A little while later they arrived at Graham’s home and when their car drew up an elderly man got out of his car and walked a little unsteadily up to them.

“Are you well?” Seraphena asked the man with a little concern in her voice, not knowing why he was there, and thinking he may be inebriated or ill.

“i would like you to have this” he said and pressed an envelope into Stephanie’s hand. “This contains a preloaded bank card and the pass code. It has a balance of £5000. Some people would like you to know that you are not alone.” … and he was gone into the darkness and drove off before the trio could react and say any more to him.”

Graham exhaled loudly “Phew, that is something we would never have dreamed of happening and even if someone could have overheard our conversation in the car, it would be almost impossible to buy a prepayment card at night, and load it in less than an hour; then deliver it to an unknown address. I did consider crowd funding as we drove home, but we would have to give away much too much information about ourselves and need qualifications to be able to offer any sort of recognised service.”

Graham opened the envelope once they reached the porch which was lit. Inside the envelope was the bank card and the pin code to use it, but also a sheet of paper with two circular designs not unlike the squares used for a QR code. Typed underneath, was the web address of a single page website.

When they looked at the website a single page had bold letters saying -

“Has your life changed massively to day? Look at these two images. If they make sense then you will know where to find help. If not, we wish you well.”
Below that were displayed the two intricate circular designs.

“Graham and Stephanie looked at the two images. Graham could make out a web address on the right image and Stephanie could make out a web address from the left image, but neither could see the other. They were just meaningless patterns of dots.”

They each looked at the web address on their phones and the web address suggested that they send a text to a mobile number, and that number was either of Graham’s and Stephanie’s own numbers!

“Some people seem to know an awful lot about us”, was Stephanie’s first comment.

“I agree” said Graham but it has solved a problem and it may save lives. I don’t mind a little bit of loss of my privacy to save lives.”

“You are right, of course.”

Seraphena had looked at both phones, but made a point to forget the web addresses.

“What happens if people can read the website but cannot understand English?”

“We haven’t got to that yet. Lets see what the website brings up. Each life saved is a bonus.”

Seraphena left them at the doorstep after a chaste kiss to each on the cheek.

“I wonder when you will get the first texts. I would take bets on hours rather than days.”

As was often the case, Seraphena was right. The first text was on Graham’s phone the following morning.

He texted back.

“Try not to worry. The body you are in will keep you safe. Do not confide in anyone yet. You need to find your partner who now lives in what was your body. Please send your name as it was before yesterday and your old address and phone number. I need to get in touch with your partner and bring you together.”

“I lived in Dulwich, in South London. The lady here calls me Rachel but my name is really Nick. I don’t know what to do, even my fingerprint activated Rachel’s phone. She is expecting me to get dressed in Rachel’s clothes and go off to the local girls school for the day.”

“Your current body will help. Body memory will help you wash and dress, and get you to school. It did with me and I was a girl until four months ago. Play it by ear with the class schedule. I will contact Rachel at your old home. She must be terrified waking up in what was your old body.”

Nick’s phone was answered in two rings. “Rachel, you need to understand what has happened to you. You must be terrified to have woken up in the body of someone called Nick.

“I don’t understand any of this Rachel answered. Yesterday I was a girl called Rachel and now I am in a boy’s body and the woman downstairs wants to call me Nick.”

“You are doing very well. I have been in touch with Nick who is now in your old body. It sounds impossible but there is an explanation of sorts. We need to meet you both and your parents to explain fully. Be brave, you are starting a wonderful adventure which will give you enormous pleasure, but it takes time to explain.

“I have to go to school today as well, but Stephanie and I can be with you by 6pm. I must get onto Nick at Rachel’s home to get both of you and your four parents together at 6pm so we can explain what has happened.”

Graham spoke to both sets of parents who were both confused and disbelieving, but said they would meet Graham and Stephanie and take it from there.

After giving some sort of explanation to their mothers, Graham and Stephanie used their Oyster cards to get to Dulwich.

They got a taxi from the station to Rachel’s house and met the six family members. Rachel and Nick had met about half an hour previously and were as close together on a sofa as their skin would allow. Apparently they had said nothing, but had just looked into each other’s eyes for the whole time.

The parents had just looked on bemused. “

How can two children meet for the first time and become so besotted with each other that they will not even talk to us?”

Stephanie and Graham spent over an hour explaining everything that had happened to Rachel and Nick. Like the previous parents they asked if they had lost their children.

“Absolutely not, you have gained a son if you had a daughter, and vice versa. Your children will be in and out of each other’s houses, and will eat together, sleep together wherever they are. Will study together and be very successful at whatever they study. They will marry each other in time and make you happy grandparents.”

“How do you know this?”

“We have a colleague that has been able to identify mind-swap couples from history. Her analysis of the data is that mind-swap couples are more successful and live longer than normal couples, and have more children who are both healthier and brighter than the rest of the population.”

“What do we do?”

“Treat your son or daughter exactly as you did before. They will get used to their new names. They will regard all four of you as their parents, and the same with grandparents. Offer support with buying clothes and dealing with cosmetics and inquisitive people. They will know each other’s relatives as well as they know one set now. They will almost certainly marry and will never divorce. If possible, make opportunities to meet regularly. Even better, move houses so you are closer together and arrange to go to the same school, because study can be shared and both will benefit.”

“Now that the transition has passed, both will mature quickly. I was flat-chested six months ago and now I need a woman’s range of lingerie and I love the feel of sexy underwear gives me. You can keep coarse Y-Fronts. Graham is developing in other ways as boys do, but we both have body hair that is typical of an adults. We both remember being the opposite gender fondly, but really enjoy being who we are now.”

“We must go now. We have school in the morning and must catch the 21:10 Underground back to home. It would be much appreciated if one of you could give us a lift back to the station.”

“We will be available on the phone or face-to-face whenever you need us. We think there will be lots more transitions to assist, but the consequences can be tragic if couples do not meet shortly after their transitions.”

Rachel’s father ran them back to the station.

“I thought you must be some sort of charlatans or part of some religious cult, and I only allowed the meeting because Rachel was beside herself and we didn’t know where to turn. I still think what has happened is beyond extraordinary, but am very glad we allowed you to meet our children. I think Rachel and Nick are now glued together at the hip. Separating them for the night will be a real challenge.”

“You will find that their ardour will lessen over time. I am often separated from Stephanie for hours at a time but if I think of her then I can feel her thoughts. It is really a total commitment. If they want to sleep together, don’t be hurt. Stephanie and I sleep together most nights, and often naked, but we have never had intercourse. People like us can plan the time to be intimate. It will come, but we have got to make lives for ourselves before bringing new lives into existence.”

“I shall explain that to the other parents but if they insist on sleeping together, then it must be on the same expectations you have.”

“Of course. You lay down the rules. You are still their parents, but you now are parents to two rather than one!”

On getting home, Stephanie and Graham rang Seraphina to let them know how the visit had gone.

“We enjoyed the visit and the couple were delightful and their parents were receptive, but we cannot travel every day to places during the school term. Have you any idea how many transitions there might be, and how we can deal with them with just the two of us. We cannot expect you to give up your study time to taking us from place to place place.”

“I have already given some thought to this. We have not come across any pairing where the couple are more than 20 miles apart. A circle with a radius of 20 miles has an area of 200 square miles. The United Kingdom has an area of about 90,000 square miles meaning that if population were uniform that there would be 450 hexagonal areas with a radius of 20 miles. I know circles do not tesselate, so that is why I said hexagons. There are about 600,000 babies born in the United Kingdom each year at the moment which is about 1650 per day, but you need pairs of babies to make a couple so there would be 825 couples per day or two per hexagon on average.”

After a deep breath she continued.

“There are significantly more babies born in September and October, and fewest in February, meaning that there are fewer possible pairings in February and ” …

“That might mean that there were two possible pairings each day, but we also know that the transitions do not have to be exactly on the sixteenth birthdays. We don’t know whether the height, level of physical development and so on has to be more precise than we know at present and we have no data on couples from other ethnicities, or from couples whose natural inclination is to be gay. Teens in rural areas may have fewer chances of transitioning so we might expect no transitions in the Highlands of Scotland for instance, and more in urban areas like Greater London or Merseyside. We also know that families move, and emigrate and so on. The variables are huge, making anything other than an informed guess, impossible, but I don’t think it is ever likely to exceed two a day.”

“Even two a day would be impossible for us to deal with, particularly if we had to travel to Penzance or Inverness. How do we cope? Any ideas?”

“Again, I have given this some thought. I think there needs to be a stage between the QR type patterns on the web page and contact via your phones. I would suggest a sound only podcast with some sort of beautiful misty image on screen and a voiceover that gives the basics of what has happened to the people and urging them to find their partner for their mutual benefit. When the podcast has been watched another example of the QR code thingies is posted that gives your phone numbers, with a “Please ring this number if you need us.”

“How do we stop the podcast from being copied and passed on to the Press, for instance?”
“Whilst there is no guarantee that an expert cannot break the code on anything, the sound could be encrypted to make it very difficult, and the app that plays it could be written specifically for the one podcast and will only play from within the website that is, itself protected.”

“All that sounds very expensive.”

“You have friends as you know. Maybe they know what you need almost before you do.”

“Maybe, but that is stretching incredulity even more than usual.”

… but with things progressing so quickly … I do think we need to tell our parents the whole story. Don’t you agree, Stephanie?”

“Yes I do. It is too late now, but definitely tomorrow evening without fail.”

And the web page did appear less than 48 hours after Stephanie and Graham thought about it and the web page had a counter to tell how many people had managed to access the podcast web page through the first QR type filter. Stephanie did the voice for the podcast and read a script they had both written. She had to read into the app and it was saved automatically.

The web counter showed no readers for the first week, then two happened the same day. Stephanie and Graham were in business so to speak.

Graham and Stephanie did spend two hours going through all that had happened with their parents and to be truthful, the parents had made reasonable, if inaccurate, guesses for most of what had happened.

The only question was. “When do you want to go on the Pill, Stephanie?”

“Yesterday?”