bump

seven

Lucky, in Jin's body, has been settled into his room for the night, with the surgery on his leg scheduled for seven o'clock the next morning.

The room is a lavishly large private one, more akin to an upscale hotel suite than a hospital room. On one side of the bed, a few feet away, is a plush, full size sofa where Rika is sitting. On the other side, a smaller sofa of similar design and two matching over-stuffed chairs are grouped around a coffee table. Across the room are a small, functional kitchenette, apartment sized wardrobe, and the bathroom.

Several feet down from the sofa Rika is occupying is the door to the hall, and midway between the two stand the energetic forms of Jin and Corkle. The door opens and a nurse enters the room, passing partially through Corkle as she walks over to Rika.

"Jeez that's creepy!" Jin remarks.

"Miss Birmingham? The doctor would like to take a look at you now."

"Alright." She begins to get up then remembers she's still holding the bag with Lucky's body in it. She hesitates.

"Rika," Lucky says, "you can leave your bag here. It'll be alright."

"But..." She starts; she's afraid to just leave it, she can't say what's in it, and she can't very well take it with her either. She looks over at Lucky, still hesitating.

"Oh, right. It probably has valuable stuff in it, huh?" He says knowingly. "So you don't just want to go off and leave it out in the open." She breathes a relieved sigh, smiling slightly as she nods.

"Here," he says gesturing to a cabinet next to the bed on the other side, "why don't you put it in here while you're gone and that way it'll be out of sight if someone comes in and I'm asleep or something.  Would that be okay?"

"Oh yes, thanks!" Visibly relieved, she places the bag in the cabinet then follows the nurse out of the room.

As soon as she's gone, Lucky begins: "Hey Corkle, she's okay right?"

"I believe the testing will find that she has received only a minor concussion from the impact of her head striking the steering wheel and there will be no residual effects."

Lucky sighs relieved, "Good."

"Yeah, good the chick's alright so what about getting my body back now, huh Corkle?" Jin questions.

"Well, it would appear the singular problem with that would be Lucky's out right refusal to leave it."

"What? But it's my body how did he even get in it anyway?"

"Oh dear," Corkle begins, "perhaps I should just record everything I say since it appears I must repeat myself multiple times... As I explained earlier, your soul had become slightly less securely attached to your physical form as a result of your intended actions, and as"

"Okay, yeah , I got that part," Jin cuts him off, "but how did he get into it?

"As I also explained," Corkle sighs, "Lucky's soul was resistant to leaving the earth plane at present..."

"And we bumped, Yeah, I got that too." He says. "But how can that happen? Are souls just randomly going around swapping bodies like that all the time?"

"Most certainly not! That would be quite fool hardy and counter-productive to their desired growth. However there are occasion now and again where a soul will choose to exit a current incarnation early and another soul will step into the body because that particular incarnation offers experiences that are desired by the new soul coming in but have been exhausted from the perspective of the soul exiting.

This type of situation is often decided upon at the pre-planning stage of an incarnation, on extremely rare occasion it is a  spur-of-the-moment decision made during an existing incarnation, but in all cases, it is a decision which is agreed upon mutually by both souls in question prior to its actual execution."

"Alright so you're telling me it's not the norm but it can happen sometimes when the souls involved are in agreement."

"Yes, exactly."

"So how, exactly, is he in my body then?"

"Well it would seem..." Corkle begins before becoming momentarily at a loss for words, searching for the best way to explain which will cause the least reaction. He finds none so continues. "It would seem that you two are from the same soul family and as such your energy signatures are actually quite remarkably similar."

"WHAT?!" Comes the response from both Lucky and Jin simultaneously.

"Yes, I rather thought that news would not be terribly well received." Corkle says with a sigh.