Page 150 of Switch!
“I could ask the same thing.” The confusion he experienced is all-too familiar to me. “Your name isn’t Travis. Not really.” I watch the blood drain from his face. It’s all the confirmation I need. “You remember, don’t you?”
Caleb licks his lips. “Remember what?”
“Who you really are.”
Caleb glances around. Then he leans forward, his voice a hiss. “This isn’t funny. Tell me what you want, or I’ll call the guards and let them know you’re a fraud.”
“Don’t do that. I’m here to help you, Caleb.”
This gets his attention. His eyes widen. “Travis,” he says. A casual observer might assume he’s correcting me by saying his name, but I notice the hint of a question in his voice. Just the slightest inflection, but it’s enough.
I nod. “What happened? The last time we talked… Remember when I called you? The day your family left for Tacoma. You didn’t remember a thing. You were convinced you were me.”
Caleb continues to size me up, as if deciding whether or not I can be trusted. Then he sits back. “It’s really you, huh? You stole someone else’s body.”
“You first,” I say. Even though I’m facing an oddly groomed version of myself, I’m slowly remembering how intimidating it was to be around Caleb.
“I had dreams,” he says. “About being myself again. They were confusing, but I loved them. I thought it was just a fantasy, like I wanted to be that guy. I guess there’s some truth to that, huh? That’s how you felt about me.”
I’m embarrassed to admit it, but we can’t hide the truth from each other. I’ve been in his head, and he’s still in mine. “Yeah.”
“Anyway, things came back to me, little by little. Memories that weren’t my own. Weren’tyours,I should say. Then one day, I got a notification that files were uploaded to my cloud, and when I open them, it’s all there. Everything that you can do… and that you did.”
Crap. He means the digital journal that Trixie helped me organize. All of my secrets, even the deeply personal stuff, is in there, safely locked away behind the same password I always use. Nobody else knows it. They’d have to get inside my mind to find out. And he did, probably without having to try, considering he still thought he was me.
“I remembered some of the body swapping stuff before then,” he continues. “I thought that was a fantasy too. But it’s not. Is it?”
“I’m not a hallucination, if that’s what you mean.”
Caleb’s eyes light up. “Can you teach me how to do it?”
“Maybe. You’re in my body, so that might make it possible. We can try when we have more time.” I glance at the clock on the wall. Visits only last fifteen minutes. We’re already past the halfway point, and there are answers I still need. “What happened with Raymond?”
Caleb’s face twists up in disgust. “What do you think? You know what he’s into. You got a taste of it. Thanks for leaving me with him, by the way.”
“Sorry,” I say. “I made some bad decisions, but like I said, I’m here to make up for it now. I need to know what happened though. The newspaper said you poisoned him.”
Caleb shakes his head. “It’s not that simple. He kept putting the moves on me, and I kept telling him to fuck off. Then, one night, I woke up to find him kneeling next to the bed. His hand was beneath the sheets. You can guess what he was doing.”
“Jesus,” I breathe. “Did you tell the cops that? Why isn’t he locked up instead of you?”
“He is,” Caleb informs me. “They locked us both up. How’s that for justice?”
There must be a reason, even if it’s not fair. “Is it because you beat him up?”
“It was self-defense!” Caleb growls. “Yes, I spiked his drink. You know those pills your mom takes when she can’t sleep?”
“No,” I admit. I never paid much attention to her prescriptions.
“Well she does. I’d barely slept for a week because I was too on edge that he’d try molesting me again. So I decided to make sure he slept through the night so I could too. And it backfired.” Caleb swallows. His eyes are unfocused, like he’s lost in the memory. “I woke up in the middle of the night and Raymond had me by the shoulders. He was shaking me. His words were too slurred to understand, but I could tell he was pissed off. When his hands went for my neck, I freaked out. I got up and shoved him away, but he kept coming for me, so I started swinging. I couldn’t stop. All the fear I felt, it just came pouring out and I—” Caleb’s gaze connects with mine. “I went too far. I guess that’s why I’m in here. They think I’m dangerous.”
“You were,” I say.
Caleb nods. “I treated you like shit when we were in school. I’ve had a lot of time to think about that, and I’m sorry. But I still don’t think I belong in here.”
I remember Major McCain, the sort of man he was, and the things he did to shape his son. “It’s not entirely your fault.”
“Thanks,” Caleb says. He looks to the clock, also concerned about how much time we have left, and I notice him squinting.
