Carey was reluctantly arriving at the unbelievable conclusion even before Arwin nervously began to explain the current situation.
"Alright," he said. "What's happened here is that you two have switched your minds...or bodies, depending on how you want to look at it."
"What?!" said the woman who appeared to be Carey.
"Uh, well," Arwin replied to her. "You're London...but you're in Carey's body now. That's why you can see your original body standing right over there."
"Arwin," Carey said as she tried very hard to remain calm. "The machine with the wires we fell into. That caused this switch?"
The engineer nodded.
"And what exactly is this machine? One of your inventions?"
"Yes," he responded. "That's my brain wave transfer machine. The B.W.T."
"Right," Carey continued, clenching her teeth just a little. "Now can I ask you something?" She motioned for him to come closer, as if she were going to whisper in his ear. When he got next to her however, she stopped trying to appear calm and bellowed at him as loud as she could.
"WHY IN THE WORLD WOULD YOU INVENT A BRAIN WAVE TRANSFER MACHINE?!"
The ferocity and volume of Carey's question sent Arwin reeling and he fell on the floor. Before he had a chance to recover, London (in Carey's body) kneeled down next to him and grabbed him by the collar of his coveralls.
"Change me back!" she demanded. "I want to be in my body!"
Carey (in London's body) was soon crouching down over him as well. Both women had particularly menacing looks on their faces.
"I will!" he promised. "I can! I will! Right now! Don't hurt me!"
After the women let him up, Arwin hurried over to pick up his B.W.T machine and began adjusting the wires.
"Just give me a second, and everything will be fine," he said. "You know, I didn't mean for anything like this to happen."
"Well what do you expect is going to happen when you come up with a crazy machine like that?" Carey asked.
"I didn't really think about that," Arwin replied. "You have to understand, it's hard to be an inventor in this day and age. All the really good and practical machines have already been invented. If you want to invent something new and different...well, you have to get a little 'out there' in your thinking."
"Some people might find that really interesting," London said. "But if you don't get me back in my body in the next thirty seconds, I'm going to have you fired, evicted and...deported!"
"Uh, you can't have him deported, London," Carey explained.
"When you have enough money, you can do anything you want," London answered, and then glared at Arwin.
"Don't worry," the engineer said. "It's okay. I just have to hit this switch."
Arwin hit the switch and the machine started to hum. The lights on it started to glow...but then promptly sparked and died.
"Oh, that's not good," he said.
"Arwin," Carey said, once again clenching her teeth.
"Umm...well," he said. "I think the circuit board is a little burnt out."
Both women stepped toward him menacingly.
"But I can get a new one!" he hastily added.
Carey and London both looked less threatening and let out sighs of relief at that news.
"If I put in a rush order, it should be here on Monday," Arwin explained.
"WHAT?!" both women yelled before advancing on him again.
"You expect us to stay like this until Monday?" Carey demanded.
"That's..." London began but then stopped to count off the days on her fingers. "That's this many days from now!" she finished as she held up four fingers to Arwin's face.
"I'm sorry but this requires a very specific type of circuit, and there's no way it can get here any faster," he said.
Carey and London both looked at each other, and each saw the worry on the other's face.
"This won't work," said Carey in a despairing tone. "The weekend shows are the busiest ones in the lounge, I can't miss them. I could lose my job."
"And I have to tape a new episode of my web show tomorrow," London said, equally upset. "And Portia and Chelsea are visiting this weekend. How do I explain this to them?"
While Carey thought that London's problems in this situation were not nearly as dire as her own, she did respond to the heiress's last statement.
"You can't explain it," she said very seriously. "If we tell anyone else about this...they'll think we're crazy and probably try to put us in a loony bin."
London gasped. "No! Really?"
Carey nodded grimly. "The only one to back up our story is Arwin, and who's going to believe him?"
"Hey," said Arwin, taking offense at that comment. London and Carey each shot him a hostile look in response.
"Yeah," he conceded. "You have a good point."
"Well then," London said as she stood up straighter and got a determined look in her eyes. "We're just going to have to pretend to be each other until we can switch back."
While Carey wished she could take comfort in the sudden resolve that London was showing, she feared that the heiress didn't realize how hard that would be. Then again, what choice did they have?
"Alright, we'd better go upstairs and make plans," Carey said with noticeable resignation.
"And I'll call to get that new circuit board," Arwin chimed in.
Carey turned back to look at him. "You do that. And if you don't have us switched back by Monday, you'd better hope that London can have you deported...before I get my hands on you!"
Arwin gulped, as Carey and London exited the room.
To be continued...
author's note: I'm afraid the writing in this story so far isn't that great...but I'm going to try to improve as it continues. Any feedback would be really welcome.