The Other Side of Me - Part 23
by Limbo's Mistress

“I can’t believe you have cameras recording everything in here.”

Jackson looked over at me and shrugged. “It started off just as a safety precaution. I mean, what if I accidentally turned Charlie into a cat or something and then dropped over dead? At least that way there would be a record of the incident. Someone might be able to undo the changes.”

I gave him a curious, slightly concerned look. “Did actually you turn her into a cat?”

“Well, no,” he said with a bit of a huff as he walked over and unlocked the lab door. “But that doesn’t mean it couldn’t happen.”

I had to concede the point. Jackson’s experiments didn’t always go wrong. But when they did, they always went very wrong. And it seems Charlene and I were always the ones caught in the mess.

About ten minutes later, I heard the doorbell ring. Less than a minute after that, the two cheerleaders walked into the lab.

Josie was dressed in a pair of tan capris with a light blue sweater. The outfit paired well with her blonde tresses and made her look even cuter than normal. The expression sitting on her face, however, was anything but adorable.

“Hey, Josie,” I said, trying to smile. “Thanks for coming by.”

“Not like I had much of a choice, right? I mean, Shelly was driving and she insisted that you could explain a lot of things if I would just give you a chance.” She snorted and shook her head. “Though I’m not sure how you intend to explain away fucking my boyfriend.”

The venom in her voice was as bad as it had been the previous day. Seeing how angry she was, I began to doubt if the truth really would repair the rift between us. I mean, even if it had been Charlene, and not Charles, who had been intimate with Danny, the fact was that Charles still kept it a secret.

Which, to be honest, made me sort of guilty by omission.

Michelle sighed and looked at Josie. “You agreed to have and open mind. As well as promised to not be a total bitch until Charlie had a chance to talk.”

“Fine,” the blonde said with an exasperated sigh. Then she looked at me. “Well, start talking, slut.”

I balled one hand into a fist, silently counted to ten, then looked Josie directly into the eyes without flinching.

“I am not Charlene. At least, not the Charlene you know. My name is actually Charles and I’m from a parallel universe.”

Josie blinked slowly a few times, then looked at Shelly. “This was the big reveal that was supposed to earn my forgiveness. That the tramp isn’t responsible because she’s insane?”

“She’s not insane,” Jackson said, pointing at me from over near the large display screen where he was busy fighting with getting the jewel case open. “At least, no more than you would expect from someone quantumly entangled with their cross-dimension doppelgänger.”

Josie gave him a look only slightly less hateful than the one she kept beaming in my direction. “How can you be okay with what she did? I mean, I never thought you as the kind of guy who would like having his girlfriend cheating on him.”

“I’m not, honestly,” he said as the case finally snapped open and the disc threatened to drop to the floor. “But as she said, she’s not our Charlene.”

Josie opened her mouth, but Shelly put a hand on her arm. “Look, just trust me on this, okay? I’ve known you since sixth grade. At least give me the benefit of the doubt for fifteen minutes.”

The petite blonde narrowed her eyes at her friend. “Okay. But if I’m not convinced that Charlene deserves forgiveness, then you will have to choose which of us you are going to remain friends with. Because I won’t be associated with someone who wants to hang out with street trash.”

I was starting to get a bit pissy at all the name calling. Granted, Charlene deserved every snipe. And then some. But I didn’t.

“Look, give us the fifteen minutes you agreed to. If you’re not going to do that much, then you might as well leave.”

“Charlie!” Shelly gasped.

“No,” I said. “We’ve offered to bring Josie into the circle of knowledge about what is going on. Maybe we should have done it earlier, but we’re all here now. If she’s not going to even entertain the thought that we’re being square with her, then she might as well leave.”

For the next sixty seconds, Josie glared at me and I glared right back. Then Jackson broke the tension by announcing that he was ready to play the surveillance footage.

We all moved to form a semi-circle in front of the large screen. It didn’t slip my notice that I was on one end of the line and Josie was on the other. She didn’t look my way, but stared angrily at the monitor and chewed on the inside of her cheek.

If whatever Jackson showed us didn’t get through the shield of fury surrounding her, Josie was going to leave no closer to believing than she currently was.

The screen showed a bit of static before the image of the lab appeared. In a quality of definition that would have put most modern filmmakers to shame. A time and date stamp at the lower right corner indicated that the video was from the evening of the dimensional swap.

Jackson, the one on the screen, was busy moving back and forth between the control podium and the window, apparently performing a last series of checks before starting the experiment. I did notice, with a bit of annoyance, that the one thing he didn’t seem to examine was the power coupling connection.

A few minutes later, the sound of the lab door opening was followed by the image of Charlene walking inside. She set her purse down on the table and moved over to give the guy behind the podium a kiss.

It looked affectionate enough. Or would have, if not for the fact that I could tell that she was simply going through the motions. After all, I had kissed someone I was attracted to the previous evening and had a pretty good idea on how this body reacted in that situation.

“I know you wanted to show me something, Jack,” Charlene said. “But I really don’t have the time this evening. I’ve got a math test to study for and I’m supposed to meet Josie and Shells to hang out and do cheer stuff.”

I snorted and looked at Michelle. “Wasn’t she planning on meeting you two at a party that evening?”

Jackson frowned, but Josie nodded. “Just another of your many lies.”

Ignoring her, I turned back to the footage.

“This won’t take but a few minutes,” Jackson on the screen said. “I promise you will love it.”

He began to flip switches and the hum of the device brought back uncomfortable memories. A moment later, the mirror shimmered and changed. The angle wasn’t the best, but it was obviously clear that the reflection from it now showed Jackson and myself. My male self.

Charlene, still looking at her boyfriend, threw her hands in the air. “You always do this, Jackson. You have some crazy experiment you want to show me, or do on me, and never consider that I have other responsibilities than being your girlfriend. Or your Guinea pig.”

There was no mistaking the indignation in her voice.

“Babe, I’m sorry,” Jackson sounded extremely contrite. “It’s just that this is really cool and requires a bit of timing to get right. I promise it won’t take long. Just turn around and look.”

Charlene huffed. “Fine. But if I end up weighing five hundred pounds again, I’m going to punch you in the nuts.”

The three of us looked over at Jackson. The mad scientist shrugged. “She asked for something to help her lose a few pounds before cheer season junior year. The polarity was off a bit.”

I’m sure we would have had more to say to that revelation, but the sound of Charlene saying “What the fuck?” pulled all of our attention back to the video.

She stood in front of the dimensional window, staring at me. I waved at her and she sort of waved back. Then she turned around to look at Jackson. My male self did the same.

“Is that me as a guy? With another you?” She asks, gesturing at the pair in the mirror.

So, I guess Charlene was faster at deducing a parallel universe when she saw it than I was. Thankfully, there was no sound from the other side of the mirror, so no one had to hear my Jackson breaking down the obviously basic concept.

“Yes. That’s Charles. Rather than Charlene. Fascinating, right?” There was no mistaking the glee in Jackson’s voice. “This might be one of the best things I’ve ever invented.”

I glanced over at him and he took his eyes off the footage long enough to frown my way.

Charlene and I faced each other again. “It’s so freaky. I mean, I thought I would make an ugly guy, but I’m actually pretty cute.” She glanced over her shoulder at Jackson. “Can I talk to him?”

“Sorry,” the genius on the screen said. “Only light can pass through the window. But you can hold up notes. It’s how that Jackson and I communicated.”

A series of sparks shot out of the black box near Charlene. She placed her hand on the mirror and reached over to grab the cabling. The me on the other side did the same.

“Charlie!” Jackson yelled as he started to rush forward. “Don’t touch the -”

The girl on the screen seemed to convulse wildly as one hand held the arcing wires and the other pressed against the dimensional window. There was another flash of light and the reflection of Charles and Jackson vanished as Charlene dropped limply to the floor.

Jackson rushed over and knelt down next to the girl on the floor. At that moment, I realized that it was no longer Charlene lying there, but me. After a few moments, he managed to get her up into his arms and carried her over to the sofa, placing her on it with a great degree of tenderness and concern.

“So, you electrocuted yourself?” Josie said. “That’s what your problem is?”

“Watch,” Shelly told her.

A few minutes went by before the girl on the sofa began to stir. From that point on it was the version of events to which I had been present. My freaking out thinking that Jackson had turned me into Charlene. Then to Jackson’s concern that I was merely possessing her.

Eventually, though, the conversation came to the realization that my mom was dead in this universe, which led to me grabbing my purse and rushing out the door.

Jackson stopped the video and turned to look at the three of us. Shelly and I turned our attention to Josie.

“You really expect me to believe that bullshit?” She shook her head, glaring at us. “I know you two think I’m just a bimbo, but I’m not as stupid as you both seem to think I am.” She turned to walk out of the lab.

“Josie, wait!” I rushed around and blocked the exit. “It’s the truth, okay? I swear to you that what you saw actually happened. I’m not Charlene. I’m Charles. I’m in her body here and she’s in mine over there.”

She laughed humorlessly and then pointed at me. “If that’s the case, then it was you who was fucking my boyfriend the other day. Which means you’re just as big a whore as she is.”

I blinked and shook my head. “No, I swear that wasn’t me.”

Shelly walked up and stood next to Josie. “She’s ... he’s … telling the truth, Jo-Jo.”

Jackson joined us. “There is a problem with the swap. It’s not entirely stable. Charlene and Charles are connected on a quantum level. I haven’t figured out how to prevent it yet, but the two of them are continuing to swap places in what seems to be random intervals.”

Josie looked from him to Shelly. “Continuing to swap? So, are you saying that sometimes she’s Charlene and sometimes she’s Charles?”

“Yes!” I said, taking a step toward her. “Yes. I mean, most of the time since that evening, I’ve been here. But that bit with Danny wasn’t me. I swear.”

“He hates Danny Morris in his universe,” Shelly offered. “They are enemies.”

Josie gave me a skeptical look, but didn’t continue to try to move to the door. Her pausing to consider what we were saying began to give me hope.

“I promise you, Josie. Everything we are saying is the absolute truth. I really have been living Charlene’s life, or trying to, for the past four days. I never meant to hurt you by not sharing this with you.”

“It’s also my fault,” Shelly said. “I didn’t think Charles wanted a bunch of people knowing the truth. But you’re not ‘people’, Josie. You’re one of us. So, I’m asking you to forgive me as well.”

The blonde looked between us, then over at Jackson for a moment, before sighing with resignation.

“Okay, say I believe you. And forgive you. Is there some sort of code word that we’re supposed to use to know if we’re talking to you or her? Because, to be honest, you do a great impression of being Charlene, Charles. Like, way too good of an impression.”

“It’s the quantum entanglement,” Jackson explained. “It’s sort of transferring traits and other things between the two. The longer the exchange goes on, the more that information is moved from one dimension to another.”

“Like how to do makeup and pick outfits,” Shelly said with a teasing tone.

“And walking around in high heels without breaking my neck,” I added, grinning at her.

Josie let out a little laugh, then shot me a curious look. “Wait, the other day at cheer practice, was that Charlene in the locker room? Or was it you?”

I felt the heat rise onto my face. “Uh, it was me.”

Her mouth dropped open. “So, I got undressed in front of guy Charlie?”

I nodded, but Shelly stepped in saved my bacon. “He didn’t peep, Jo-Jo. I made sure of that.” Then she grinned at me. “Not that he didn’t gawk a bit at first.”

“I was more of a guy at that point. Surrounded by very pretty girls. How was I not supposed to at least peek?”

Josie pouted. “Fine. But it’s still a bit shitty that you two didn’t tell me. I mean, I know you two are close, but I always thought the three of us were a time. Now, it feels like you deliberately left me out.”

“That’s not it at all, Josie. I originally wasn’t going to tell anyone,” I replied. “I hoped the Jacksons could get the machines fixed, and everyone back to where they belonged, before anyone would notice.” I sighed. “Unfortunately, everything has gotten a lot more complicated than expected.”

“There will be no more secrets between us,” Shelly promised her. “You’ll know everything that we know.”

“Speaking of secrets, though. Josie’s got a pretty good idea. A secret phrase to identify which Charlie is here would be really beneficial,” I said. “I mean, unless Jackson wants to set up a group text thing to let you both know when a swap is coming.” I glanced over at him. “Make sure Katie is a part of that, too.”

Josie looked from me to Jackson. “So, you can tell when Charlene is coming back? How?”

Jackson shrugged. “The swaps have a unique frequency that my system can measure. I built a detector to alert me of any quantum fluctuations.” He pointed at the siren and light mounted on the wall.

Which, of course, immediately began to flash and wail a second later.

“You have got to be shitting me!” I yelled, smacking myself on the forehead. “Now? There’s a swap happening now?”

“What do we do?” Shelly asked Jackson. “Do we need to get Charlie out of here? Or just Josie and I? Does she know that I know?”

Jackson ran over and picked up the time dilation gun and then took up a position next to the control podium. Given what Charlene had done to the device back in my universe, I was thankful he was planning ahead for a repeat attempt.

“There’s no time,” he yelled as he powered up the unit and adjusted the dials. “Just step back and get ready. If Charlene tries to destroy anything, I’ll zap her with this.” He looked at Josie, who was the only one who didn’t know what the object he was holding could do. “It will make her extremely slow compared to us.”

Michelle nodded. “When you zap her, Josie and I will get something to restrain her with. Then maybe we can talk to her.”

The blonde cheerleader looked more confused than anything. As if she wanted to completely believe what was happening, but still held onto a sliver of doubt as to whether we were telling the truth or if this was just an elaborate prank. Finally, she turned her gaze onto me.

“Charlie …”

I looked into her blue eyes. “Josie, I’m sorry ahead of time for anything she says to you while she’s here.” Reaching out, I placed my hand lightly on one of her shoulders. “Believe me, I am very happy that you’re my friend.”

She gave me a tiny smile and opened her mouth to say something. However, before she could make a sound the painfully familiar wave of vertigo slammed into me. There was a half a second of nausea and then the world around went pitch black.

Less than a heartbeat later, everything came back into focus.

I instantly realized that I was sitting at the kitchen table in my parent’s house with my mom sitting directly across from me. Her hands rested on the top of the table and the expression on her face was one I hadn’t seen in quiet a long while.

Anger.

“Well,” she said in an annoyed, snappish tone. “Are you going to answer me?”

I blinked, trying to play catch-up and figure out what was going on. What sort of shitstorm had Charlene’s antics put me in this time?

“What?” I asked, trying to buy a bit of time.

However, the woman on the other side of the table was having none of it. She leaned forward and stared at me with a hard expression as she raised one hand and pointed accusingly in my direction.

“Please stop acting like I’m both blind and stupid.” She lowered the finger, but didn’t soften her gaze. Now, I’m only going to ask you this once again. Who the hell are you? Because, no matter how much you might look like him, I know that you are not my son.”