I didn't notice it until I got up to take a leak and I freaked. Think about it: you walk into the john, reach for your dick, and it's gone! I flipped on the light fast and looked down. Then I saw myself in the mirror on the door: it was Karen's body, but it was me looking out.

I sat in the bathroom all night. I had no idea, well, no sane idea, how this could have happened. What the hell was going on? I was too scared to go back into the bedroom and check out what Karen looked like.

When it started to get light out I knew Karen would be getting up soon. I grabbed the robe hanging on the door and put it on. Then I went into the living room and sat down to wait for her, or myself. Finally I heard her in the bedroom getting dressed. Usually I couldn't wait for a chick to get her clothes on and split, but today I wasn't in such a hurry. A few minutes later the bedroom door opened, and I could hear her walk up behind me and stop.

"Good morning," she said. That was all.

I mumbled something but didn't turn around. We hadn't know each other very long and she usually left pretty early to get to her place and clean up. I wanted to scream at her; "Didn't you notice something weird when you got dressed — like maybe your body was missing?"

"I'm going now," she said in a deeper voice than I remembered. "I don't think we should see each other anymore." I jumped up and turned around to yell at her and I choked. She was wearing my clothes. She was me.

"What? What do you mean? What the hell is going on here?" I was furious.

She smiled. "How was the sex last night, Terry? Better than you've ever had before, almost a religious experience? Was it like in the movies?" she purred.

"What are you talking about?"

"Think about it, Terry. You know how it is in the stories, sex so good that two people feel like they're melting together into one person? Like it's an out-of-body experience?"

"Well it's never happened to me," I lied, because I knew I'd been pretty hot in the saddle last night.

"Oh, yes, it did," she said. "It happened last night. Only we didn't end up in our own bodies. I ended up in yours and you ended up in mine." She picked up my jacket and headed for the door saying, "I'm sure a stud like you will really enjoy being a girl for a change. Adios, Scorpio."

I rushed to the door to stop her but she was much stronger than I was, or was it I was stronger than she was?

"Calm yourself, Karen. What will people think if you create a scene out here on the porch?" she said as she twisted my hand off of her arm.

"They'll call the police, I hope. You can't get away with this, you know!" I screamed as I rubbed my wrist where she had twisted it.

"Get away with what, Karen? What do you think will happen to you when you talk to the police?" I had a quick flash onto a scene of being taken to a hospital in a jacket. "Face it, lady. You're Karen and I'm Terry and no one can prove any different." She got into my car and drove off. I soon discovered she had taken my wallet as well.

I went back inside to think. It was Friday and I didn't have to be anywhere until Sunday afternoon. Yeah, I was supposed to watch the preseason kickoff game with my brother at his place, but now I looked more like one of the cheerleaders than one of the players. I didn't have a clue about what had happened. I sure didn't know how to get me back.

I needed time. I couldn't think rationally any more, so I decided to clean up and eat. I took a frozen enchilada dinner from the freezer and put it in the oven; by the time I'd showered and shaved it would be ready. I popped a beer and guzzled half of it at once. Then I went into the bathroom.

It blew my mind again when I closed the bathroom door and confronted myself in the mirror, so I took off my robe and hung it so it covered the mirror. I turned on the shower and got in. The hot water felt great. I leaned back against the wall and let it run.

Karen's hair was wet and hanging in my face, so I decided to wash it. I'd watched lots of girls wash their hair, and I'd even washed it for one or two of them myself, but this was different. I was coming at it from a different angle and my fingers got tangled up in the stuff. Finally I leaned back and rinsed out the shampoo and let her hair wash back off of my face and hang down my back.

It got weird when I grabbed the soap and started to lather up my body. I had lathered up girls before, lingering over the breasts and curves and valleys, but never once did I wonder how it felt to them; now I was finding out and I was liking it! I was feeling up a girl but it was me. I noticed there was more to touch on Karen's body then my own. I sure hoped no one ever found out about this shower.

When I got out I had to wrap a towel turban-style around my head to keep Karen's hair out of my face. I picked up the can of shaving cream and squirted a pile of it into my hands. As I started to put it on my face, I looked into the mirror over the sink and laughed. There wasn't a trace of a five o'clock shadow on that lovely puss.

I rinsed off the shaving cream and attacked my hair. I spent a good five minutes combing out the tangles. When I got through with the blow dryer all I could say was it was dry. I found an old rubber band in the cabinet, so I brushed the mess back and put it in a ponytail.

Karen had left her clothes but I couldn't face putting them on. I headed for my closet and pulled out a pair of khakis and a shirt. Then I reached into the drawer for shorts. The jockeys were a tight fit over Karen's hips, but the khakis weren't even an option. I was beginning to regret favoring girls with big curves. No wonder women's jeans are cut differently, I thought. Well, it was wear the robe all day or put on Karen's Levis®. At least I wore my own shirt, but I had to roll up the sleeves.

Suddenly the phone rang and I jumped a mile. What should I do? Maybe if I didn't answer, they'd hang up. Five...six...seven...they were persistent. I picked up the phone without saying anything.

"Hey, Terry, that you?" It was my brother. "Terry? Answer me, dammit!"

"Uh, no, this isn't Terry. He's... he's not here right now," I said.

"Oh, sorry. Who's this?" Joe asked.

"I'm...I'm a friend of Terry's," I said, my mind racing for a plausible lie.

"Well, tell him his brother called and ask him to give me a buzz later on, okay? Oh. Remind him to bring me the dough he owes me, too."

"Sure. I'll tell him. Bye," I said as I hung up to end the conversation.

After I quit sweating, I got an idea from what Joe had said. I went to my dresser and got out my spare credit cards. Then I found Karen's purse. Her car keys were in it. I decide to drive to the nearest electronic teller and withdraw as much money as I could from my accounts. Man, if you ever tell anyone this I'll kill you, but I've never felt so scared in my life as when I walked out of that apartment door.

I put on Karen's sunglasses, hoping they'd make me feel invisible, as I walked to where her car was parked. Luckily, it hadn't been towed. I drove straight to the teller and took out the max. Then I drove to a grocery store fifteen miles away, so no one would see me, and stocked up. Finally, I drove by Karen's place to see if my car was there. It wasn't, so I went home.

I waited two hours and then I logged on to my e-mail. I reported that I'd lost my wallet between the grocery store and home and was canceling my credit cards to prevent any unauthorized charges. If I ever got me back I didn't want to have a pile of her bills to pay off. I had a stomachache by now so I lay down to take a nap.

I was still feeling crappy as I shuffled into the john the next morning. This pulling your pants down and sitting every time was getting old, but I jerked awake when I looked down. There was blood in my drawers! I must have hurt something and I didn't know what to do. Man, I didn't want to go to no doctor.

I sat on the commode a long time. Then it hit me: I wasn't hurt, I was having a period! Now what do I do? I pulled off my pants and threw them in the dirty clothes pile in the corner. I wiped myself off with a rag and got a clean pair of shorts, jockeys not boxers. Then I balled up a wad of toilet paper and stuck it in between my legs inside my shorts. Boy, did that feel rough.

I looked in Karen's purse. Sure enough, there was a spare tampon, but no-way-José was I going use that thing. My only option was to go to the store again.

I always hated it when I was a kid and had to go shopping with my mom. You know how it is. They always have to buy that female shit when you're along and it's always the first thing they put in the basket so everybody can see it the whole time. Or it's at the top of the bag you're carrying and it falls out onto the parking lot and you've got to stop and pick it up just as a couple of cute chicks come by. Now here I was buying that stuff myself.

I checked the registers when I came in. Man, I didn't want any guys to ring me out and see my stuff. Then I realized that was all I needed since I'd shopped earlier. I didn't want anyone to think that's all I came for, so I piled bags of potato chips and candy bars in the cart on top of the packages of sanitary napkins.

I pushed that cart around for a good forty minutes trying to get up the courage to check out. Finally, I saw the registers were empty so I made a beeline for the one on the end nearest the door. I was piling the potato chips on the belt and trying to look nonchalant when I realized the clerk was female. I tried to keep calm and remember it wasn't me buying this stuff, it was Karen. I put on my shades, but I still couldn't help turning beet red.

"Well," she said, as she started ringing up, "Good news, bad news, huh?" I must have looked blank. She held up a box of sanitary napkins. "The good news is you're not pregnant."

"Yeah. Thank goodness," I said throwing down some money.

She started to hand me my change. "Me," she said looking at the chips, "I like chocolate cake sundaes." So why was she telling me this, I wondered, but I didn't ask. I grabbed my bags, drove home, and dashed inside.

As the day went on I cried and then I got bitchy. I was going to track down Karen, or Terry, and get me back. And then I was going to claw out her eyes and tear out her hair so no guy would ever look at her again. I took another shower, actually my fourth in two days. They were really getting interesting and I didn't know how much longer I'd be a she.

Sunday was First-Beer-Free Night at Eddie's if the Cowboys won, which they had. I'd sent e-mail to Joe begging off the game. That way I didn't have to talk to him. I was going to Eddie's Pub looking for Karen (that's where we met), but I was hoping I would meet myself this time.

I did a little better on my hair, but I completely blew it putting on lipstick and mascara. (Yeah, makeup. I didn't want anyone in Eddie's to think I was a dike.) I tried to wipe it off and ended up looking trashy Eddie's was hard. I had to dress casual but clean, loose but not sloppy. I had on Karen's jeans, but my shirts wouldn't hack it. I'd actually put her bra on. I'd never had anything on as uncomfortable as that - well, except for the toilet paper - so I'd taken it off. I had on Karen's sweater and shoes.

I tried to get into Eddie's without anyone noticing me. I made it three feet inside the door when I looked up and saw two guys I hung out with at the bar looking at me. Actually, they were looking at my breasts. I started to cross my arms over my chest but it was harder that I remembered. They just laughed and stared harder and air juggled.

"Pigs," I wanted to shout as my face flushed. I vowed never to make those hand motions again.

I went to the other end of the bar and ordered a beer. I could see the whole room from my barstool. I slowly started looking around as I got used to the dark. I recognized a couple of guys from the apartment complex, another from the health club, a guy from the—hey, that health club guy was me! I spilled my beer, but caught it before it crashed.

I looked bad. I still had on the same clothes Karen had left in and I looked like I'd cut myself shaving. I decided to chance it. I walked over to Terry. He looked at me funny. I mean, he saw me, but he didn't.

"Hi, Terry," I said. Do you remember me?"

"Uh, I don't think so," he said. I sat down beside myself.

"Sure. We met right here at Eddie's. Karen. Remember?"

"No. I'm sorry, but no, I don't." I noticed I was drinking a Coke. I never - repeat never - drank Coke at Eddie's much less with a straw. I took a wild stab in the dark. I leaned closer so no one could overhear what I was saying.

"Actually," I said as I drew in a deep breath, "I used to be you. Who'd you used to be?"

I watched as my eyes went panic stricken and then I started to cry.

"Angela," she snuffled finally. "I used to be Angela."

I don't know why, but I reached out and put my hand on top of hers. I knew exactly how she felt. She cried harder, sobbing like I'd never heard before. The bartender came over, but Angela saw him and waved him off.

"When," I asked. She blew her nose on a napkin and wiped her eyes. Jeez, I thought, I hope none of the guys see me crying like this.

"Yesterday," she said, "right after lunch." Man, this body hopper - that's what I'd started calling him or her - sure got around.

"You?" she asked.

"Friday night."

"You took my purse and my plane tickets," she added.

"Where did I go?"

"Hawaii. Two all-expense-paid, fun-filled weeks at Club Med," she said, wiping her eyes with a cocktail napkin again. My mind started to boggle at the possibilities that presented to a body hopper. Well, I knew where I was and where I wasn't, at least. We sat there for a long time.

Finally I said the smartest thing I ever said. "Angela, do you want to go to my place and talk?" I realized how dumb a come-on line that was after I said it, but I meant it. I was just learning to have sex with myself as a woman; I wasn't ready to have sex with a man as a woman, especially myself. I mean—forget it! All I really wanted to do was talk.

"Okay," she said with a faint smile. "Where do we live?"

As we got up to leave I started to put my arm around her but stopped short. Instead I slipped it under hers and let her lead me out of Eddie's.

"Say something," I whispered as we walked across the room.

"Uh, so, honey," she said looking down into my eyes, "what's your sign?"

We talked all night. I was a freelance computer programmer who worked out of his apartment. Angela was a cosmetologist who worked at different shops around town. Between us we had one male body and one male ego (formerly united) and one female body and one female ego (completely unrelated). We were both Scorpios. Except for that, and that we both had been with this body hopper and weren't really ourselves any more, we had little immediately in common.

I asked Angela to move in. It seemed the most logical thing to do since we both needed a place to stay. We raided Karen's apartment for female clothes for me and ditched her car. Then we got back to work. What else was there to do?

I stayed home and wrote code. Since I conducted almost all of my business via e-mail, Angela only had to be there if I needed to make a call. We doctored up Angela's license so she could work as Angel. With my dark looks I could pass for Spanish or Mexican so Angel it was. Angela didn't know how to act like a man, so all of her customers at her new shop thought she was gay. I really, really hoped none of my buddies ever stopped in at her shop for a cut.

We got to know each other inside and out. Next to my body, the hardest thing for me to get used to was that Angela was taller than I was. I'm, or I was, over six feet. Karen's about five feet three. I seldom had to look up to anyone and now it's all I did. She showed me how to do my own hair, how to shave my legs without nicking my shins, how to put on makeup when we went out.

I taught her to use a safety razor without slicing her Adam's apple and how to pee standing up. She taught me to cut back on the four letter words and I taught her how to root for the home team when they scored a touchdown. All we ever argued about was the toilet seat.

After a couple of months we started sleeping in the same bed. I had always slept alone because, unless I was having sex, I just didn't want the company. Now I found that I slept like a baby. I felt safe because she knew everything there was to know about me and still she stayed.

Things had settled into more or less a routine. We didn't have many friends, needless to say, so, except for Joe, we mostly had each other for company. Angel went out with `the girls' from the shop occasionally and my friends mostly came electronically. Most of our social activity revolved around dinner and a movie. I know that every time we went out we both looked around just in case we saw anybody we knew, if you know what I mean.

One night after a date, as we jokingly called it, we tumbled into bed exhausted. It was Friday and it had been a long week for both of us. We had started kissing each goodnight a few weeks before so it was routine by now, but for some reason the kiss lingered a little longer than usual. Before we knew it we were touching each other and then making love. It was a little awkward, but sweet. Afterwards, nestled together, Angela asked, "Was I all right? Did I do it right?"

I pulled her to me and said something I'd remembered saying before to other girls, but it took on a whole new meaning now. "Angel, baby. As long as we are both enjoying it there's no right and wrong way to do anything. Okay?"

"Okay," she whispered as she snuggled up to my breasts.

So that's how it began. Over the next few weeks we got better at sex through, I might say, considerable practice. Showers took on a new dimension, as well. Things were definitely looking up for me, or as I was beginning to think, for us. Things were sorting themselves out and we hadn't had any real problems up to then.

I remember it was a Wednesday when I first got sick. I didn't want to worry Angela, so I didn't tell her about it. It was pretty easy to keep it from her since she left early for the shop, and I didn't usually throw up until after she'd gone. I figured it was the flu but I couldn't face a doctor yet in this condition. I wasn't any better by Sunday. The shop was closed on Sundays and Angela heard me in the bathroom.

"Terry, what's going on? Are you all right?" I didn't answer but heaved again.

"I think it's the flu," I said.

"How long has this been going on?" she asked.

"A couple of days," I said.

She put her hand on my forehead. Then she opened my robe and looked at me. Then she went into the kitchen and looked at the calendar. Then she laughed.

"You're late," she said.

I didn't understand. "Late for what?"

"Late for this month," she said. I didn't get it. "You know what we forgot?"

"No. What?" I asked stupidly, a little bit peeved at this game.

"Well, I haven't been taking the pill since I got here because I'm a guy. And you haven't been using anything because you're a guy inside and you're used to the girl taking care of it." Suddenly I was getting a really bad feeling about this conversation.

"So you're saying that I'm...I'm...." I couldn't bring myself to say it.

"Pregnant!" she crowed.

Nooooo! I couldn't believe it. She led me to the mirror and pulled open my robe.

"Look. Your breasts are swelling."

I looked. She was right. I didn't usually wear a bra or I might have noticed earlier. I remembered the sales clerk from the first day talking about good news, bad news, but it never registered that I could become pregnant.

We went into the kitchen and sat down at the table. I started to cry and I didn't even care that Angela saw me. I was just getting resigned to being me. I realized I was still thinking of myself as a potential father. For sure, I had never thought about being a mother.

Angela fixed me a cup of tea. I cried. She made me some toast. I cried again. She was being so sweet. Finally I wiped my face and said, "What are we going to do?"

"About what?" Angela said.

"About...about me," I whined.

"What about you?"

"I'm pregnant, Angela! What do you mean about what?" I snapped.

"Calm down, Terry. Your hormones are raging. Let's just think about this now," she said as she took my hand in hers. "A baby is a special gift. Now, maybe this is a gift you never expected, but I wanted a baby sometime in my life," she said as she rubbed her cheek against my hand.

"Well, you can have it then!" I sniped.

"No, I can't." Her voice was hoarse. "Look at me, Terry. I can't have this baby or any other baby, ever. That's something that Karen took away from me." I saw that she was crying too. I knew I was acting like a spoiled brat.

"So what should we do? How do I tell my brother that I'm going to be an unwed mother?" I sighed. Joe still didn't know that Angel wasn't really me.

Angela's voice got very soft and she stroked my hand as she said, "Who says you have to be an unwed mother?" I looked into her eyes. "Terry, do you love me?" It surprised me to hear her ask that because I'd never really thought about it.

I looked at her face. "You know something? I do love you. I didn't know it until just now, but I do love you." I suddenly felt vulnerable. What if she didn't love me?

"Then marry me." I was about to cry again. "I love you. Let's spend the rest of our lives together. After all, you could say we were made for each other." We laughed at that. That was an understatement. I hugged her and said yes.

************ We had a small ceremony. Joe and his wife came. Angela told me later that Joe had kidded him out of my hearing about having a shotgun in the truck, and about making an honest woman out of me. But he told his brother that he was a lucky guy and to take good care of me because I was the best thing to ever happen to him.

Married life agreed with me. We were making good money. I was in love. I was fat, happy, and sassy. I had to brace myself for the doctor's visits though. Being pregnant was the most amazing experience of my life and Angela was there to help me every step of the way.

A few months after the wedding we were lying in front of the fireplace trying to pick names. We'd decide not to find out the baby's sex beforehand. We'd learned that wasn't quite as important as most people thought, and we wanted it to be a surprise. We were really feeling together as a couple and we started making love. It was incredibly open and unguarded.

Afterwards, as we lay on the fuzzy rug, I started brushing Angela's long hair back from her face for one last kiss before I got up to go to the kitchen for a Coke®. Something seemed wrong. I lifted my head back up and looked into her gorgeous blue eyes. Blue eyes! Terry has brown eyes. What was happening here? I looked down at our bodies, at her bulging, five-month belly. She was pregnant. She was pregnant!

"Angela," I almost screamed. She looked up at me.

"What..." she started to say. Then louder she said, "What? What's happened?" We got up and looked at each other. I had my body back and she was in mine. I mean, she was me and I was she. Somehow we had switched bodies - like we had with the body hopper. We were dumbfounded. Just as before, we were clueless as to how this happened, and I don't think either of us got any sleep that night. I was back but it felt different.

The next few days were awkward. We started to learn all over again to be man and woman. The frequent trips to the bathroom and the swollen feet were new to Angela and I didn't envy her them. We found ourselves reaching for each other's clothes and it took me a long time to remember to stop shaving my armpits. I had to quit my job as a hair stylist. Instead, I just kept on staying home and writing code. Angela didn't look for another job since we thought the chemicals might harm the baby.

I'd been over to Joe's to watch another game a few months later when I came home and found Angela crying. At first she wouldn't tell me what was wrong. The she sat up and asked me straight out, "Terry, do you want a divorce?"

Wow. Why didn't she just hit me along side of the head with a two by four? Our world have been topsy-turvy ever since we met but I realized after she said that that I had never ever thought about us not being together.

"No, I do not want a divorce. Why do you think I want a divorce?"

"Well." She wiped her red nose and wet eyes and sighed. "Well, did you marry me because you were pregnant and had to get married? And you...you got yourself back now like you wanted so...?"

Now having been through the hormonal roller coaster rides of a mom-to-be, I knew this was nonsense. I took out my handkerchief and finished wiping the tears from her face. Then I held her face in my hands and looked her straight in the eye.

"Angela, I didn't have to get married. You didn't have to get married. I didn't marry you because you were a man or a woman in a man's body and I don't think you married me for that reason either. We got married because we loved each other. We loved who the other was, not what they were. Didn't we?"

"Uh huh." She hiccuped and I brought her a glass of water. Damn, those were irritating making you wet your pants. "Are you glad you're a man again? Are you glad you're not pregnant anymore?"

I thought about it. I guess I'd been relieved, but not particularly ecstatic, about being a man again. Watching Joe and some of his buddies had made me wonder if I'd acted quite like that as well. I know none of them had ever felt a new life inside of them kick and turn over.

"Honestly?" She nodded `yes.' "Honestly, yes and no. I felt relieved, I guess. But you know what? I feel a little sad that I won't be having our baby," I confessed as I squeezed her hand. And I meant it.

Angela was into her last six weeks or we might have discovered it sooner. As it was it took us about five months after Rory was born to learn a basic fact about ourselves and it's this: about twice a year, sometimes even three times a year, we flip flop. We can't control when we change bodies, but that's all right. We've become so comfortable as either one that it doesn't matter anymore because we know who we are inside.

Our friends say we're so much alike that they've never met a couple better matched for each other: they say we were made for each other. We're happier than I ever thought I could be, except for one thing. That will change soon, though, because Angela agreed that with this next baby, it's my turn.