Eighteen Months

by Giulia Napoli

  Rina paused and then said, “I don’t really know. It does go on to say that the length of the effect increases with the amount of tea used in brewing. And there is a little table giving grams of tea and milliliters of water, and effect time. It looks like the longest time is 60 hours. It tells you how long to steep it too.”

  “I’m off for the next two days, but you have to work.”

  “I don’t have any clients until next Monday, and I’m caught up on my management responsibilities. Even before I looked at the tea, I was gonna suggest that I use a couple personal days, and we could do something special until you have to dance again on Friday night. I could call in and leave a message or send an email.”

  “Should we try it? That’s probably the only way we’re going to discover what it actually does. Of course, it might blind you for two days.”

  “I do teach the blind, I suppose it’d be good practice, if that happened. I don’t think that’s it, though. It probably has something to do with understanding another person’s viewpoint. I guess if it does anything like it says, we’ll at least know that their teas actually work.”

  “I know you’ve been worried about that. And I don’t want to be a junkie forever, that’s for sure.”

  “I’m also worried that you like the high so much that you won’t quit, even if you’re not physically addicted anymore.”

  “Not gonna happen. I will quit as soon as my sight returns to the point where I can get another job, which should be right about when I can break my contract. Please don’t worry about that anymore, Rina.”

  “I’ll try not to. I care about you so much …”

  “You mean you love me.”

  “Yeah, there is that.” We both laughed, then I felt her arms go around me and we hugged. I felt a little moisture on her cheeks.

  “With the help of the tea, I’m gonna quit, Rina. I promise. Come on. Let’s brew up some of that stuff.”

  “Sounds like you’ve already had some of the tea that cancels inhibitions.”

  “Nah … it’s only me feeling reckless – again.”

  “Yeah. And still high from your cocktail fix.” She said it in a downer voice, as she tended to do lately.

  “I can’t help it right now, but I will be able to. Let’s make some tea to prove that they work. Okay?”

  “Okay.”

  We brewed a 60 hour dose, wanting to get some effect, whether it lasted for an hour or two and a half days as promised. Yeah, we were feeling bold. We took the tea into the bedroom, stripped down, drank it, and laid on the bed on our backs, my left hand holding her right. Rina started laughing.

  “This is ridiculous, you know.”

  “I hope not, I want it to work.”

  “Hmm … yeah, me too. I haven’t gone blind yet.”

  And then she did.

  Chapter 18 – If I Were You

  “Alie! I can’t see!” I hadn’t heard that voice before.

  I started to answer and then there was a strange glow from my closed eyelids. I opened them, and there was light! I couldn’t make anything out, but I could see a fuzzy brightness. I blinked over and over again and forms started to appear in my vision.

  I dropped Rina’s left hand and started to say something …

  That wasn’t right. I’d been holding her right hand. “Rina?” I called out. The voice wasn’t mine. It sounded a little like Rina’s, but not exactly. The room was lit and my vision cleared. I could see! Then I realized that my vision had been clear as soon as I’d opened my eyes. It took my brain a while to realize it and do something with the vision it had forgotten about that suddenly worked again.

  “Alie, I’m blind. Where are you?” I saw that she was turned away from me. I rolled her over. It wasn’t Rina. At first I thought it was a black girl, because of the hair …

  The girl facing me with vacant, misaligned eyes was ME!

  “Rina! We’ve switched bodies! I’m looking at you in my body!”

  “Alie, I can’t see you.”

  “That’s because you’re now me and I’m blind. Or I was. I mean I still am, but now I’m you and you’re me!”

  “That’s impossible.” Rina said.

  “Feel your head, feel your nipples.”

  I saw her touch each, than she shouted, “OHMYGOD, OHMYGOD, OHMYGOD! I AM YOU!”

  I jumped off the bed. “Stay there,” I said, as I ran to the mirror. Just as I thought, though I’d never seen her before, the reflection in the mirror was Rina’s. She’d kept the very short, wispy, carrot-red hair that she’d first gotten earlier in the summer. I would have recognized it from the feel anytime. There was the stud in her – my – nose. Her eyes were a stunning lighter blue. She was even more beautiful than I’d imagined her to be, with fresh, delicate features, full lips, and thinner, sexy eyebrows. And now I was she!

  “Holy shit,” I said in awe.

  “Alie … you’re me?”

  “I am right now, I’m looking at you - I mean me - in the mirror. What are we gonna do about this?”

  “Not much for the next two and a half days. I guess there’s no reason not to believe the instructions at this point.”

  I was glad the tea had worked as advertised, and more surprised than I’d ever been in my life. Even more than when they took my sight. After longer than a year, I COULD SEE!

  Rina was sitting up on the edge of the bed, facing me, her blind eyes staring, the left one straight ahead, the right one turned in a little. Now I knew what I looked like. I had a tight, very short Afro and googly eyes, as I’d known. My brows were thinner, higher, and more rounded than they had been before I lost my sight and they’d been done over. My eyes were lined with the permanent liner and my lips were an alluring, deep red. Those were a lot of changes, but otherwise, I looked like I always did, except that it wasn’t me at the moment; it was Rina. I studied her for a minute. The eyes weren’t right, but, as I’d been told before, they had a certain charm that made them cute and innocent-looking, despite the sexy liner. Hmm.

  It took us about half an hour and three cigarettes apiece to settle down to something like a normal level of craziness.

  In case you haven’t noticed, smoking is a deeply-rooted, habitual part of our lives.

  We talked about the exchange continuously. In the end, we decided to make the best of it, expecting that we’d be back to ourselves at about 11:00 Friday morning, two and a half days from now.

  I suggested that we enjoy the rest of tonight here, and then drive up to the north part of the metroplex, where no one knew us, and stay at a hotel up there until we switched back on Friday. We could go exploring, hang out, and have insane sex in each other’s bodies.

  At first, Rina was less enthused. “I hate to admit it, since I’m an O&M instructor for the blind, but I’m scared to be in a strange place.”

  “I’ll be there to watch over you. You’ve got all the training you’ll ever need.”

  “Yeah, but not a comfortable amount of real-life practice.”

  “Come on, we can’t let this opportunity slide away. It’ll be fun.” I ran my hands along my naked body. “Oooh, you have a nice body … very sensitive skin.” I decided to be a tease. I went over to where she sat and put my mouth on her now-modified nipples. She jumped, but I held on.

  I knew, of course, how sensitive my intricately-enhanced nipples were. Rina found out in a hurry. I had her on her back and moaning in moments. Then I began to work her pussy. Of course, she had the same clit rings and trimmings I did, but not the labia rings. My new fingers and mouth had her over the top in seconds. Because her nipples were now so sensitive, the orgasm came from everywhere and was crushing in its power.

  When her shaking stopped, Rina pushed me down and climbed on top of me, carefully grinding our encased clits against each other. Her mouth sucked and bit at my nipples. The sensation was very different. I didn’t feel the stiffness within and without that my own nipples felt when they were sucked and bitten, because of the rings and studs in them. Inst
ead, the sensation was soft and more focused; it didn’t spread out as far from the tips as it did when I was in my own skin. It was more pleasant in that the metal wasn’t within me to disrupt the flesh, but less arousing. It was like I used to be.

  Making love to myself was … odd at first. Then the feeling went away and I focused on my lover, Rina, who happened to look like me at the moment. In that regard, she had it easier: she couldn’t see herself having sex with herself.

  Did that sound weird or what?

  Rina’s voice sounded mostly like mine – of course, we don’t quite hear our own voices as others do – but what she said and how she said it was unmistakably Rina. “Cum for me, Alie,” she told me, rising up from her mouth on my pussy. Then her tongue ran along my pierced clit and I came, incredibly hard. Her orgasms may have been stronger than mine, but they were over more quickly. I screamed out loud at the peak; I couldn’t help it.

  I’d played her like a guitar and made her cum several times. Now her body was covered in a sheen of sweat and her breathing was still rapid as I allowed her to ease back down for a moment.

  “How did you like that, blind girl?” I asked, fake-mocking.

  “Oh God, Alie. Your body is SO responsive.”

  “Hey, I’m wearing my body. That one’s yours.”

  “I’ll take it. For that matter, I’ll keep it.”

  “Do you like blind sex?”

  “Yes, I do. It helps you focus so much better.”

  “Yes, it does! That’s one thing I’ll miss come December.” I bent down to her nipple and sucked it into my mouth. My fingers flicked easily over her clit rings and plunged slowly into her pussy. Her fingers, mine now, were a bit longer than my originals. I felt them go farther into her than my own had. I found the slightly rough patch of her G-spot, and began to carefully thump it. My thumb rode over her pierced clit.

  I hit the jackpot there. She came everywhere at once. She screamed so loud I thought my ears would bleed. Her body shook as though she were possessed. At one point, I thought she’d literally floated above the bed.

  “AH … AH … AH! GODAMN ALIE! AAAHHH!” She screamed. Then she was still. I thought she’d fainted.

  “I’ll give you a million dollars for this body, if you’ll take monthly payments,” Rina said finally. I laughed.

  “I don’t know how to make this permanent.”

  “Maybe the sisters can do some hocus pocus.” Rina joked. At least, I think she was joking.

  “I’d get the better deal. Not only are you prettier, but you can see, too.”

  “No, you can see. I’m blind.”

  “That’s because you’re me and I’m you.”

  “Can you see?”

  “Yes.”

  “Can I?”

  “Ah … no.”

  “That’s what I said.”

  “You’re trying to confuse me, Rina, and it won’t work.”

  “Coulda fooled me.”

  She can be maddening like that. I love her and hate her for it. Then she interrupted my train of thought, which was trying to piece this all back together. “Shut up and let me think,” I told her. “You have me all confused.”

  “You’re as pretty as I am, Alie, but your body is much, much more responsive.”

  “Honestly? The orgasms I feel here in your body are harder, and your climaxes are higher.”

  “But the ones I have in my new body, are longer,” Rina added.

  “Yeah.”

  “At least, it’s a nice change of pace.”

  “It is.” And then she started on me again

  Interestingly, we tried to scissors a while later. For some reason, that position, which we’d abandoned as ruined since our inner labia were removed, worked very well. We both came, and came, and came. It would have gone on, except that we decided to stop from pure exhaustion.

  “Why did that work?” I asked Rina.

  “Honestly? I have no idea.”

  Eventually, we slept. It was probably 8:00 in the morning, after not enough hours sleep, when I stirred and awoke. I could see light through my eyelids, and knew I was still in Rina’s body.

  I felt great. While she still slept, I started to diddle with her nipples, circling them as lightly as I could with my fingers, and carefully twiddled her clit.

  Ah … the ol’ diddling and twiddling.

  Yeah, I can be goofy.

  Rina was still asleep when I felt her pelvis rise up and push against my hand. My fingers slipped into her, and my thumb pushed on her inner, vertical clit ring. That served to hold her clitoral orgasm close, but suspended, while my fingers excited her G-spot. In a few minutes, I deemed her ready.

  I forced her to cum both clitorally and vaginally at the same time, and her scream actually did make me deaf for several minutes. She had sensitive ears – they were mine now.

  We lay there in bed, her head resting on my right arm and shoulder. That’s the way we always lay, but usually I was in that other body, in the same position. Eventually, she mumbled something like, “I don’t feel right.”

  “That’s because you’re me.”

  “Well, I am you. Or … who I am used to be you. So what?”

  “Promise you won’t hit me?”

  “I’m not gonna hit you!”

  “You might.”

  “I won’t, okay? Why do I feel funny?”

  “You need a fix.”

  She was silent for a long while. I saw her hand move to her pussy and play with it. I think she was trying to distract herself, but I wasn’t sure.

  “Okay, Alie,” she said finally. “Shoot me up.”

  I prepared the heroin fix and mainlined it, as I always had to do.

  In seconds, she said, “Oh! Ooooohhhhh! Oh! Aaahhh.” As the smack took her.

  “Wha … Wha … Wha. Ah … Ah … What’s ha … ha … happening?” She barely managed to say.

  “Heroin high. It’ll fade in a moment.”

  I watched as she came down and her face relaxed into sweet contentment.

  “Understand better now?” I asked her, hoping she’d give me a break on her unconcealed angst about me needing this day-to-day, and being able to quit eventually, with the tea’s help.

  “Yeah. What I understand is that I’d never wanna give this up. I’ve never felt so good, or so mellow as I feel now. That stuff could be friend, lover, and everything that’s important in life.”

  That was not what I was hoping for, so I asked her, “Does that make you want to shoot up when you’re back in your original body?”

  “In a word … yes,” she said.

  Shit.

  “Well, I don’t.” I told her. “I feel great this morning, and I’m looking forward to feeling this way every morning, when I can get out from under my contract, and tell Roger to go to hell.”

  “Shut up and fuck me, Alie.”

  “I mean it, Rina. Once the tea releases me, I have no interest in riding the horse.”

  “Whatever you say. Right now, I don’t care.” But I knew she did, deep down. Maybe not so deep down.

  “Rina …”

  “Just fuck me.”

  **********

  I was driving and it was very weird. First of all, I hadn’t driven – hadn’t even seen a road - for over a year. The freeway was packed in all five lanes heading north. As I looked over, it was as packed in the five lanes heading south. The worst part was the trucks. They were everywhere. That was probably because, in this part of the country, they still made things. Lots of things. And all of it seemed to be moving to some other place at that moment. In trucks.

  The other reason it was weird was because every time I shifted my foot from the accelerator to the break and back, my clit would go off. A couple repeats within a few seconds and I came. Rina’s clit hardware had made her much more sensitive than mine had. I could now understand why she’d been upset about it during the few weeks before she’d gotten the custom insert for her panties.

  I hadn’t worn it, though I’d sl
ipped it into my purse at Rina’s insistence. I’d thought I wouldn’t need it. I was so wrong! My body was wired as an orgasm machine and there was nothing I could do about it – except wear that insert. I had to pull off the freeway and park around the back of a gas station so I could slide the soft rubber over my pussy and hold it there with the thong. It worked, thank God, and we were able to go on. From then on, I wore it the whole time I was in Rina’s body, except when we were naked and alone.

  As I looked out the windows of the car, the world seemed so large. Bigger than I remembered. I think that was because, when I’d been locked in my darkness, my nothingness, the world was only as large as I could touch or hear. For the most part, I’d existed only within my small cocoon, and I wasn’t much aware of the rest of the big world out there. Even dancing, I existed mostly within myself. The appreciation of the crowd was only so much noise nearby. Now, I could see the vast extent of the world around me. My vision, of course, extended far beyond what I could touch or hear.

  We got to the city that anchored the north of the metroplex, and checked into a Crowne Plaza in that city’s downtown in late morning, as per the early check-in arrangement I’d made with them. I was fascinated with leading Rina around with her hand on my upper arm, as I’d done so many times holding her.

  She was nervous. Teaching the blind and being one were not necessarily the same. Of course, Rina had many days practicing while being blindfolded, but I guess she was never blind all day and all night. She’d also known, when practicing, that she could pull the blindfold off at any time, and she’d be able to see. Now that wasn’t an option for her until probably Friday. Vision-wise, she was truly trapped sightless. I know she was scared for those two and a half days, but she admitted later that she’d learned a lot too. I think it was also a sexual high for her. Yeah, she was turned on by being blind.

  By and large, I’d passed that point about five minutes after it happened to me.

  We decided to use our own names, not our body names, to avoid confusing each other, since we didn’t expect to run into anyone we knew. So I was still Alie and she was Rina. When I said “me,” I meant my new body. Rina would handle it the same way.