Through The Looking Glass Darkly

"I have a delivery here for Dr. Harrison Jones," the man in the dark brown uniform said as he stood on the steps of the modest suburban home.

"I'll take it," the tall, slim eighteen-year-old who had answered the door said.

"Are you Doctor Jones? the overweight deliveryman, with the name Bob on his shirt, said with a smirk.

At five eight and a hundred and twelve pounds, the light brown haired women could hardly have been mistaken for a Harrison Jones. Especially when the small bikini she was wearing barely contained her 34C-24-34 inch body.

"No, I'm his daughter, Lara," she said, unimpressed with his attempt at humor. "I'll sign for it."

"Are you eighteen or older, young lady," the now annoying, middle aged man asked, sticking to his company's rules to the letter.

"Yes I am, do you need to see my driver's license?" Lara said, thinking it was too hot a day to put up with a jerk that thought for some reason that he should be on the next Comic Relief. "Cause if you do, then you are going to have to come back later. As you can obviously see, I don't have it on me."

"No, that won't be necessary," the man responded, deciding he had gotten as good a look at her breasts as he was going to get. If he stayed at this stop much longer, Bob thought, he was going to have a hard on by the time he made his next delivery. "Please sign here, number twenty-three."

Lara practically grabbed the clipboard out of his hands and scribbled her name on the last empty line. In the mood she was in right now, he would've gotten the clipboard back between his legs if she could've read his mind.

"Well you have a good day, Ma'am," the deliveryman said as he waited on the steps long enough to get a good a look at Lara's ass when she turned around to open the door. "You stay cool."

"Asshole!" Lara said softly as she carried the small package into the air conditioned house, closing the door behind her.

"God, what an ass on that one," Bob thought as he climbed back into his truck, "even better than her tits."

As he pulled away from the curb, he realized that he was going to be sporting an erection on his next stop, like it or not.

"Who was at the door?" the young man asked as he stepped in from the back yard. Like Lara, he was wearing only a swimsuit.

Only an inch taller, the darker haired teen bore enough of a resemblance to Lara for them to be twins. Which was exactly what they were. Douglas Jones shared his sister's deep brown eyes and had a body that was just as well developed.

"A package for Dad," Lara said as she read the label on the small parcel. It's from Professor Lyons in Cairo."

"Let's see what it is," Doug eagerly suggested, taking the package from his sister's hand and shaking it.

"No way, Doug," Lara said as she pulled the package back. "The last time you opened one of Dad's packages it would up in a hundred pieces. That bowl had survived five hundred years in a tomb, but not five minutes with you. Whatever this is, it can wait until the end of the month when Mom and Dad get back from Central America."

"Come on, one little accident, it could've happened to anyone," Doug said, trying to maintain a look of innocence about him. "It probably wouldn't happen again in ..."

"Five hundred years?" Lara chimed in.

"Exactly," he smiled.

"Well that's how long you'd have to wait before I trust you with another of Dad's artifacts," Lara said as she put the small package in the china closet and locked it. "And I mean that!" she warned.

"Probably just some ancient good luck charm," Doug laughed as he held on to the towel around his neck with both hands and walked away, thinking that his sister could be such a bitch at times.

The sibling's father, Dr. Harrison Jones, was a world renowned leader in the field of Archaeology. For the last month, he and his wife were away on a dig in Central America, leaving his children to enjoy, as they put it, the comforts of civilizations rather than roughing it along the equator.

In years past, Doctor and Mrs. Illyana Jones had made arrangements for Housekeepers and Nanny's when they were away. Once their children came of age, however, they trusted them to handle things in their absence. What they really should've arranged for, as anyone who knew Lara and Doug Jones could have told them, was an armed referee.

To say that Doug and Lara didn't get along would be to say that the Titanic was a minor boating accident. The two had been at each other's throats since before the onset of puberty. An event that, according to Lara, was still an ongoing process in her brother's case. Doug, on the other hand, believed his sister had been born an old lady, never wanting to have any real fun.

Lara Jones had been the valedictorian of her high school, and come the Fall was going to be entering the Pre-Med program at Harvard University. That much sought after combination of beauty and brains, she was as committed to maintaining a sound body as she was a sound mind.

Douglas Arthur Jones on the other hand, was almost the archetypical jock and party animal. Tall, dark and handsome as the old saying went, the former high school baseball and football star considered himself the Fates gift to women. It was a belief that had been steadily endorsed by a stream of young and in a few cases, not so young, women who found their way to his bed.

Both of them stood to inherit a quite considerable trust fund from their Grandfather on their twenty-first birthday. In Doug's case, he saw no reason to pass his time until then as anything more than one non-stop party.

"Hey, Doug my man, come on back to the party," a similarly garbed blond teen called from the patio door.

"Hey, wherever I am, that's were the party is, Harry" Doug said in reply.

"Well you may be the party, but the girls are still out by the pool," Harry shot back.

"Okay, I'll be right out," Doug finally relented.

"How bout you, Lara baby?" he asked, turning his attention to the brunette. "I'm saving you a lawn chair next to mine."

Harry Willis was Doug's best friend and Lara's worst nightmare. With a personality she considered almost as obnoxious as her brother's, it had been Harry's stated goal in life to share Lara's bed. In Lara's mind, he had a better chance of sharing Julia Roberts'.

It wasn't that Harry was a bad looking guy. In fact, quite the opposite was true. It was just that, like her brother, the former Swim Team Captain was more interested in girls who did their thinking with open legs or mouths than those who might be able to express an intelligent opinion.

"I'll pass, Harry," Lara said, suppressing her anger at already having her quiet day by the pool ruined by the arrival of Doug's friends. It was that anger that had been vented at the deliveryman. "I'm going up to change, then I have a few errands to run."

"I'd be glad to help," Harry quickly offered.

"No thanks," Lara declined just as quick.

Moving up the stairs to her room on the second floor, Lara was all too aware of Harry's eyes following her. As far as his eyes were concerned, she might as well have been walking around naked.

Intent on avoiding Harry's eyes, Lara totally ignored her brother's. If she had taken note of his gaze, she would've seen that it was centered on the package she had just locked away.

The errands took Lara the rest of the afternoon. None of them were particularly urgent, but she couldn't deal with all of Doug's moronic friends. Thankfully, by the time she came home, they had gone off in search of other amusements.

"A few more months and I'm out of here," Lara thought as she exited the air-conditioned comfort of her mother's car and headed for the house. "Then I'm never coming back except to visit Mom and Dad."

Despite her academic success, Lara had only a few good memories of her years at Robert Kennedy High School. Moderately popular, she'd had a few boyfriends and despite her brother's belief, hadn't been a virgin since her last birthday. Not seeing anyone now, she really wasn't planning any brief summer romances.

Stepping into the house, a comforting coolness engulfed her skin. That was something she wouldn't miss when she moved to the northeast next fall, the almost total absence of a cool season.

Lara was on the way to the kitchen to fix a nice cool drink when she noticed something that quickly brought her blood to a boil faster than the blistering heat outside. The door to the china closet was open and she could see the discarded wrappings that had covered this afternoon's delivery resting on the dining room table. The artifact, and Doug, were no where to be seen.

"Damn that brother of mine," Lara thought as she picked up the folded letter that had been enclosed with the package and discarded unread by him.

Not for the first time since her parents left, Lara regretted her promise to them to stay home for the summer and keep an eye on things for them. Harrison Jones had a deep hope that his only son would eventually grow up and find his place in life. Unless his place was as a beach bum, Lara couldn't ever imagine that happening.

Unable to do anything about it until Doug showed up, except worry , Lara fixed her drink and sat down in a recliner to read the long letter from Professor Lyons. Included in the ten-page letter was an explanation of the legend behind the find and some translations of the engravings on it.

"Where have you been?" Lara yelled at her brother as he finally came home two hours after dark.

"Jeez, you sound more like my mother than my sister," Doug said as he stepped into the living room, "and since you're only ten minutes older than me, I don't think you really qualify."

"Funny, real funny. I wouldn't trade places with Mom for all the money in the world," Lara said. "Not with you as a son."

"Chill out, Sis," Doug said, trying to calm her down. "Here's your precious trinket, still in one piece."

"Where did you take it?" Lara asked as she picked it up from where Doug has tossed it onto the table.

"Betty wanted to see it so I brought it over to her house," Doug said. "She gets off on the idea that something like that might be hundreds of years old."

Betty Braddock was the closest thing Doug had to a steady girlfriend. A girl who was so sexually charged that he wanted to sleep with her more than a few times, yet still intellectually challenged enough not to complain too loudly about the other girls who passed in and out of his life.

"And I suppose that she got you off for bringing it over," Lara said sarcastically.

"Well she might have," he replied, "if her mother hadn't come home early."

"No doubt," Lara said as she examined the artifact for damage.

It was an amulet, she remembered from the notes she had read, a rather common polished stone surrounded by the ancient symbols for male and female. What the Professor had found so fascinating was that for such an unimpressive ornament, it had been found in a box of gold and silver.

"Hey, I said I brought it back in one piece," said Doug as he watched Lara go over the rarity with a fine tooth comb.

"I'm just making sure," Lara answered. "And for your information, it's thousands of years old, not hundreds."

"Really, are you sure?" her brother asked, thinking how much more impressed Betty would be if he could tell her that.

"If you bothered to read the letter that came with it, you'd already know."

"All right, Miss I'm smarter than everyone else," Doug commented as he stepped next to his sister to look at the artifact in a new light. "What's this thing supposed to be?"

"Well it's Egyptian," Lara said.

"It came from Cairo, that's a big surprise."

Lara ignored his sarcasm and went on.

"According to the translations that Professor Lyons and his people made, it's some kind of talisman used in a royal marriage ceremony."

"A marriage ceremony?" Doug repeated, actually interested because whatever he learned from Lara might get extra points from Betty.

"Somehow, it was supposed to make the bride and groom more compatible by letting each see the world through the other's eyes," Lara said, recounting the letter. "Or that's at least what they could make out of the translation. They were hoping Dad would go over it as well."

"How's it supposed to work?" Doug asked.

"Like you're really interested?" she said.

"Hey, I actually am," her brother said in his most sincere tone.

"Somehow, I doubt that," Lara said, then remembered her mother's many requests for the two of them to find common ground. "Well, first of all, you needed a full moon."

"Like tonight," Doug interrupted, remembering watching the full moon rise on his way home.

"Then the couple would hold it in both their hands and concentrate on seeing life through the other's eyes. According to the legend, they would see the world and each other from their mate's perspective."

"Wild," Doug laughed. "Let's try it."

"What?" a shocked Lara asked.

"Let's take it out under the full moon and see what happens," Doug said.

"You're serious," Lara said.

"Hey it'll be good for a laugh," Doug insisted. "Aren't you the one always saying that I should see the world through your eyes for once. That I'd be surprised at how much sense it would make."

"Say I go along with your little joke," a hesitant Lara said. "What do I get out of this?"

"What do you want?" Doug asked.

"A weekend without all of your friends hanging around the house, especially Harry." Lara said.

Remembering that he, Harry and the guys were planning to a long drive down the coast this weekend anyway, Doug quickly agreed.

"Okay, let's get it over with so you can have your little laugh," Lara said as they walked out by the pool.

They stood in the open, the light of the moon reflecting in the polished stone. Each placed their hands on part of the amulet.

"So now what do we do?" Doug asked.

"There was a prayer to the Egyptian gods for what they think translated as wisdom and understanding," Lara said, feeling more than a little ridiculous about this whole thing.

"Did he include it in his letter?" Doug asked, thinking this was going to get him at least a special roll in the sack with Betty.

"We have a deal, right?" Lara said, "I get the house to myself for the whole weekend."

"Yes, that's the deal," Doug promised.

Lara looked at her brother's eyes, brown orbs so like her own. Whatever other problems they had with each other, they never went back on an actual promise.

Taking a deep breath, Lara repeated the prayer, invoking the names of long forgotten deities. A calm quiet filled the air as she spoke, and it seemed as if the warm evening air suddenly turned cold.

Doug listened intently, remembering the words. Like Lara, he had a phenomenal memory, when he chose to use it. They reached the end of the simple ceremony as Lara invoked a final plea to the ancient Moon Goddess.

No sooner had the last words passed from her lips when Lara felt the world in front of her explode in a white light. She felt her legs give way beneath her, then a feeling of weightlessness. Then a total blackness as her mind went blank.

Lara's first thought as consciousness slowly returned to her was that the house had somehow exploded. Every part of her hurt that badly. Then as her eyes focused, she considered the idea that this was one of Doug's practical jokes. She lifted her head off the patio to which she had been thrown and saw the impossible. Stretched out on the concrete a dozen feet away, was her own body.

"I'm still asleep," she told herself, thinking this had to be a dream.

Reaching into the pool only inches away, she splashed water on to her face. The nightmare grew even worse as the water showed a reflection not her own. Yet one that but for a tiny change in her mother's womb might have been hers.

"This is impossible," Lara said as she looked down and further saw her brother's body in place of her own. "Things like this can't happen."

"Holy shit!' she heard her own voice call out from a dozen feet away.

Turning in that direction, Lara saw the body no longer her own, rising to its feet.

"I don't fucking believe this," {Lara} said as she stood and looked first at herself and then at the body standing across from her.

"Don't panic," {Doug} said to his brother/sister, "there has to be some kind of explanation for this."

"Explanation," she said. "Explanation? I'm a fucking girl!"

"I'm not too happy about being in this body either," {Doug} said, "But we have to remain calm and try and sort this out."

Trying to overcome the initial shock, {Lara} began to realize his sister/brother was right.

"I've never believed in magic," {Doug} said as he searched around for the amulet. "But in light of what we're looking at right now, I think I have to concede it exists."

"Who cares about magic," {Lara} said, "How do we change back?"

"Well the first thing to do," {Doug} said as he spotted the talisman under the patio table and reached down to pick it up, "is to figure out what happened to us."

"What do you mean what happened to us?" {Lara} said in a voice that showed she was still on the verge of panic. "I'm in your body and you're in mine."

"Are we?" {Doug} asked. "Well maybe that's the first thing we should find out?"

"What are you talking about?" {Lara} asked.

"Well the first thing we might consider," {Doug} said, "is that this isn't really happening. That maybe this is some kind of hypnotic trance, maybe even some drug in our system."

"This is no dream," {Lara} protested. "And I'm not imagining these," she added as her hands grabbed her breasts."

"I think that maybe you're right there," {Doug} mused, not having to grab between his legs to know there was something new there. "So we're left with the question of did we switch bodies, or did our bodies change form?"

"Is that important?" {Lara} asked.

"I think it might be," {Doug} answered, "Especially when we change back. I don't really know how long we were unconscious, so the change might not have been instantaneous. If our bodies themselves changed, we might want to make sure we were somewhere real private when we went back."

"Are you saying we can change back?"

"From what Professor Lyons translated, the ceremony lasted about forty-eight hours, so my guess is that we'll change back then," {Doug} said.

"You guess ..?" {Lara} said in disbelief.

"Well I can't see why anyone would want to do it if it was permanent," {Doug} went on, "so I think it's a pretty safe bet."

"I hope so," {Lara} added.

"Now for the other question," {Doug} said after some quiet consideration. "I'd say we switched bodies rather than our bodies changed."

"Why do you think that?"

"Well our clothes, first of all," he explained, "As you can see, I'm not exactly wearing the skirt and blouse I was wearing before. Another thing is that I think it would have be easier medically speaking, for however it happened, to switch our minds."

{Lara} couldn't find fault with that.

"I wonder if the fact that we're twins is what made this possible," {Doug} went on, his scientific curiosity making the most of it all. "I remember reading once that a lot of those early Egyptian rulers were interrelated to the point of what we consider incest."

"You're acting like this is some sort of science experiment?" {Lara} said with a touch of anger.

"Well look at it this way, brother mine," {Doug} smiled. "For the next two days at least, we each get to see how the other half lives."

{Lara} didn't seem all to pleased at that prospect.

After a quiet dinner, during which they agreed to stay home for the next few days and lay low, {Doug} and {Lara} retired to what now seemed to be their respective bedrooms.

"Well this is certainly a new experience," {Doug} said to himself as he stepped into the bathroom to answer nature's call.