Greta turned to the sound of her brother's voice, who was out of her line of sight. "I'm back here." She called. I will be up there in a minute." She gazed back white smoke-like substance that danced around within the orb. It reminder her of a crystal ball, but it was smaller and not completely see-through. She turned her attention back to the store owner. "Mrs. Maple, what is this orb?" She cupped it with both hands as she walked toward the front of the store.
The old lady smiled, "That is a very precious artifact. If you ever wanted to know what it was like to 'be in another's shoes', this is what you would want to buy."
"Greta... you're buying that old thing." Robert shakes his head as he approaches his sister. "It looks like a faulty crystal ball. Let me see it." He reached out and palmed the topside of the orb. Instantaneously, the orb glowed brightly.
Greta felt the marble buzzing with power in the palm of her hands. Her fingers began to glow with the same white light as the orb. The glow, the energy seemed to travel through her hands and into the rest of her body, causing her whole form to glow purple. She noticed that the same seemed to be happening to her brother, who now glowed like a sparkling, silver ghost.
The mist within the orb began to spin faster, and faster. As the cloudy substance rotated with great speed, Greta felt herself being pulled into the orb. No, her light was being pulled into the orb. She was not sure how, but she felt herself, as the glow, being sucked into the orb. Greta began to panic, but her body was paralyzed, unable to move. Inside the orb, she felt her brother's presence. He was also inside. "What's going on!" each spoke to the other, without mouths. They spoke with thoughts, a strange concept.
A moment later, Greta felt herself being pushed, forced out of the orb. She wondered if toothpaste felt like this, being squeezed outward. Her 'light' flowed outward from the orb, and then all at once the glow faded. Greta was breathing heavily as she stared at the orb, her hand gripping the top of it. She blinked, her brain slow to process what had happened to her. But she knew that something was off. She looked past the orb, and saw herself. "What?" She spoke, but her voice was not hers. She let go of the orb, and looked at her hands. They were larger and harrier, with short, trimmed nails. Greta knew immediately that these were her brother's hands.
She looked back at her body. She recognized the same panicked, confused look on herself. "Robert... is that you?" She asked in her brother's voice.
Robert, inside her body, screamed, dropping the orb. Something told Greta, to not let the orb break. With reflexes, quicker than she remembered, she caught the orb, just before it would hit the hard tile floor. Cautiously, she cupped it with both hands and turned to store owner. "What did you do?"
"I did nothing, dear." Mrs. Maple commented. "The orb did all the work, just like I said it would. You are now in each other's shoes... literally."
"How is this possible?" Robert, in Greta's body, asked. She was staring at her hands. "How do we undo this?"
"Well dear, if the orb had fallen onto the floor... there would be no undoing this." Mrs. Maple scolded. "But since your... sister," She paused seemingly unsure if that was the correct noun to use. "...your previous sister... caught the orb, switching back is easy enough. Both of you need to simply hold onto the orb again. Be careful not to drop it."
Following the old store keeper's directions, Greta, in Robert's body, cupped the orb while Robert, in Greta's body, touched the top. The contents within the orb immediately began to spin. Now that Greta knew what to expect, the process seemed to happen faster. She was pulled back into the orb and then pushed out. She now stood, looking at her brother's body. Her hands were over the top half of the orb.
Robert pulled the orb away, cupping it with both hands carefully. "Wow, that was... crazy."
"More like freaky." Greta smiled. "And its not even Friday."
"Now that things are back to how they were... do you plan on purchasing something? The orb perhaps?" Mrs. Maple asked.
Greta looked towards her brother, and an understanding seemed to pass between them. She then turned to the store owner. "So the orb can switch people's bodies? Is there anything else about it?"
Mrs. Maple smiled, "No dear. The purpose of the orb is for two people to experience the other's life. I will restate though, this is one of kind. All of the other orbs were lost to time. If it breaks, nothing else can reverse a switch."
"Okay, so we need to be really careful, like holding the orb only over carpet or the sofa." Robert smirked. He then peaked at the orb between his fingers. "We should get it."
After a few minutes, Greta and her brother left the Mystic Worlds store with the orb, and a soft interior, clam-like case to contain it. Neither knew of the store owner had purposefully overcharged, or undercharged it, since this was the first magical object they had purchased. But in either case, both had to cough up quite a bit of their saved funds to buy it. Robert parked his car in front of their house, and they eagerly walked inside the house.
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