Part IV

IV. “Body jumping”

Charlie found out he had somehow “jumped” out of his body and into someone else’s. How did it happen? What triggered it? Would he ever find his body again? Was his body still living? All those questions ran through his head as he went on living as someone else. Sarah Mitchell had been his first, a twenty-year-old law student. He had traveled a great distance from home. He had made a resolution to not tell anybody about what had happened to him because it was just too strange of a story for anybody to believe it. He hadn’t skip any years though, it was as if his essence had flown off his body and into someone else. It was hard to explain, he didn’t have any strange dreams that he remembered before it happened. He could however remember everything about his life and about the other person’s life too. He realized he knew Sarah’s routine, friends and family. He understood everything going on in her classes and felt everything Sarah did. Like the time he ran into Mrs. Williams her history teacher and he felt like he wanted to punch the woman in the face, a person he’d never met before in his life and yet because Sarah hated her so much, so did he. It was strange living another person’s life but it was interesting at the same time. He often thought about what he would tell his father when he got back that is, if he ever got back. He stayed with Sarah for five years. Then, one night he went to sleep and woke up to an ill feeling, he knew immediately what had happened.

He’d jumped again. Who was it this time? He was very relieved to find he’d jumped into a man’s body this time, what wasn’t so relieving was finding out that he’d jumped into the body of a prisoner. The man had been imprisoned for killing two people in an armed robbery. However bad his actions were, Charlie couldn’t help but felt sorry for this man. There was nothing familiar about him. Being in the prisoner’s body made Charlie realize how lucky he had been growing up with his parents, it made him truly understand what his father always talked about. The prisoner’s soul was full of resentment and pain. “This man isn’t really bad, we are always fast to judge others for their actions without really seeing their motives” Charlie thought. He stayed with the prisoner only for three months, but those three months seemed a lot longer than the five years with Sarah.

The third time Charlie jumped he landed in Bill Johnson’s body. Bill was a good man, a widower with three grown children. Bill was already retired and lived a quiet simple life. He rarely went out, not because he didn’t want to but mostly because it was too hard for him to cope with the idea of moving on after his wife’s death. Mrs. Johnson had died of heart disease two years ago. She was, of course, the one who kept the house running; the one who attended to her children’s problems. She was perfect. The memories of Mrs. Johnson made Charlie think of his own mother, making Bill’s sadness even greater. “This time I can help” Charlie thought. “I’ll help Bill overcome his sadness, I’ll give him youth again” Of course he had to be careful too after all Bill was a 62-year-old retiree. Not to mention, any big changes in Bill’s personality would be easily mistaken by his kids as a cry for help or a sign of distress of some kind. “You know how the kids can get” he said as a joke to Bill.

Charlie made Bill re-discover the joy that friends can bring. He made Bill finally take those Spanish lessons he always wanted to but was too afraid to try. Bill’s sons could see the slow change in their father. One of them even asked at one family dinner what had made him change like that. “It’s like I’m a different person” Charlie answered posing as Bill. “No dad, really. Something must have happened that made you change your perspective of life. I mean you were always a great man but after mom passed away we all thought you’d lost yourself. Don’t get me wrong, we’re all very happy that you’re looking better, but we’re also curious to know what brought this change upon you?” “Well you’ll see, one day I woke up, looked in the mirror and felt as though there was some other person living inside me; a person that wanted a different life.” Everybody at the table saw Bill’s eyes glimmer as the words came out of his mouth. Charlie had meant every word and he knew that Bill would be thankful for the things he’d done after he was gone. Even if Bill Johnson wouldn’t know what had happened.

Charlie stayed with Bill Johnson for 10 years and two months until one day at a family gathering Bill decided he wanted to take a nap and fell asleep in the rocking chair on the back porch. This time it took Charlie a few moments to recover from his trip maybe because Bill was so old by the time he’d left him. Dr. Richard Smith would be his last jump.