The Swapping/J.Smallbone

IV: One of Us is Doing Better Than the Other (Lies, Neither of Us is Doing Well)

The pasta Joel made smelled delicious and it made him feel better. A miniscule bit.

"Food!"the baby yelled, running around the apartment. (He really needed to stop calling her that, she was at least five years old, beyond a toddler.)

Mabel helped set the table as Isla continued to run around.

She really was adorable, Joel thought.

And then she hit her head and started crying.

After Joel spent what felt like an eternity (for children's tears are difficult to stop, much as a gush of water flowing down the river) trying to get Isla to stop crying, they sat down to dinner.

He had managed a day of living in someone else's life, in someone else's body, as a father. He'd done it. But now he needed to get out.

There was a problem.

He didn't even know how he got there. One minute, he was eating a delicious cookie, the next...

And then he had it.

🍊

Jerry was shaking by the end of the first song, something called "Broken Halos". He'd done it. He'd managed it. The song had just come to him. It felt like he was frozen and someone else was controlling him.

It was creepy.

But helpful.

At the end of it, he fell over onto a chair. Vince rushed over and handed him some water.

"You okay, man?"

"Positive,"he groaned.

He gulped down the water as a dehydrated dog drank.

"My head is pounding."

It was piercing. Closing his eyes barely made it feel better.

"We should take him to bed,"Luke said.

"Yeah, grab him,"Daniel said. "We'll just carry him."

"He's on the top bunk, though,"Ben pointed out.

"We'll just put him on Luke's then."

"Why mine specifically?"Luke asked.

"Because you're his brother!"Daniel snapped.

They carried his limp, feverish body and tucked him in. Medicines were distributed and cold clothes placed on his forehead. Yet, it felt like Jerry was not there. He was out of this world.

He slept for an hour. When he awoke, it was like he was comatose. He couldn't move. It felt like he was barely there.

The one thing he could feel, however, was fear.

Lots of it.

🍊

"Dad? You good?"Mabel asked, looking at him with concern.

"Fine,"Joel said. His stomach clenched as a piercing pain shot through his stomach.

It was burning.

It wasn't the pasta, it couldn't be. He'd made it plenty of times before. And the kids were fine.

He fell over. Mabel rushed over to him. Isla burst into tears again.

"Dada,"she wailed.

"I'm fine,"Joel groaned.

And then the world went black.

🍊

"Honey? Can you hear me?"a female voice asked.

Honey? Jerry hadn't been called honey in a long time. Well, he had last Tuesday, but it was by an old lady he'd helped move a thing of plastic bottles into her car.

A brunette peeked at him.

Moriah. His- Joel's - wife.

"The doctor says you won't have long."

What?

"I'm sorry."

"Well, consider me sorry, too."

The woman wept over him. He patted her arm awkwardly. The band guys and a bunch of other people-did they seriously pack fifty people in one hospital room? Wait, why was he in a hospital room?

Oh, wait, he was dying. Likely from body swapping side effects.

And then the darkness came. The last thing he heard was a scream.

"Joel!"