Farley fiddled with the controls on his invention before pointing it at Nina and Maria. There was a shrill whine from the device, then sparks flew from the sides of it and Farley had to drop it to the floor. “Ouch!” he complained, clutching his hand in pain. “Darling! Are you okay?” Nina rushed to his side, feeling her new body jiggle and wobble with each step. “Señor Farley!” Maria also came to Farley’s side. “I’m alright,” Farley looked at the changed women and then at the device smoking on the floor, “Oh no! Damnit!”
The ladies looked at the device as well, Nina looked at the charred remains in horror and a series of mixed emotions crossed Maria’s face. “Can, can you repair it?” Nina asked, her voice trembling. Farley leaned down to look at the charred device. He had to use his left hand as his right hand was hurt and he held it awkwardly over his chest. He twisted the device around and then set it on his lab table. “Hmm,” he said. “Hmm? Is that ‘hm, I can fix this,’ or ‘hm, this is never gonna work again?’” Nina asked.
As she said that Maria walked away for a moment. “Give me a second,” Farley asked, slowly taking the device apart one-handed. Nina didn’t like his tone, but held her tongue, she was certainly on edge, but she knew how Farley got when it came to his inventions. Maria came back with a few things in in her hands. “Excuse me, Ms. Nina,” Maria said, emphasizing the word “Ms.” and sitting to Farley’s right.
“Uh…?” Nina didn’t know what to say as her maid took her husband hand in hers and tenderly applied burn lotion and dressed the hand with gauss. Farley looked at her curiously but didn’t say anything. “My ID say I’m Mrs. Nina Baelin, an I’m marry to Señor Farley. A gud wife take care of her man when he’s hurt,” Maria finished with Farley’s hand. Nina’s head could have exploded at that moment, “What?! No way! I don’t care what our IDs say, I’m Nina and that’s my husband,” she pointed at Farley.
“I don’t sink so,” Maria pulled out a small photo frame from the pile of things she had brought with her. The photo was of Farley and Nina’s wedding day, but although it was clearly Nina’s original body in the picture it was also clearly Maria’s head atop it. Farley and Maria were locked in a far less restrained kiss than Nina remembered in the original photograph.
“I … I … this can’t be happening!” Nina stammered, “Farley, you Have to fix this!”
Farley looked at both women and then at the device. “Um, yes, well, I … I believe I can reconstruct the device, but it appears the power management system was overloaded and it will take quite some time to get all the components again and to figure out a solution so this issue doesn’t happen again. Goodness knows what would happen if it had gone ahead with the swap and stopped midway,” Farley explained.
“You mean I’m stuck like this until you get the new parts!?” Nina asked.
“I’m afraid so and I’m afraid Maria is right. As far as the world is concerned she is my wife and you’re the maid. To be honest, I’m blown away by the power of my inventions.”
Nina looked to be on the verge of a nervous breakdown. “I don sink we shud rush this. Like chu say, who knows, it could be mosh worse nex time!” Maria added, standing possessively next to Farley.
“So, um, what do we do now?”
“For now … I think the only option is for you both to live each other’s lives. People will think you’re crazy if you claim you’re not who it says on your IDs,” Farley explained apologetically.
“Yes, an chu have another cleaning job across the city in a little while. Chu kent affor to skip de jobs, Maria,” the original Maria added insult to injury.
“I … I … I guess you’re right,” Nina felt defeated and dejected, but the picture had really stunned her. If her wedding photo had changed then the world really did see Maria as Farley’s wife and that meant Nina was a poor, cleaning lady!
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