Evelyn heard a noise. She wasn't sure, but it sounded like someone else was in her house. It was a house she had lived in for more than fifty years. The house she originally moved in with her husband after the war. The house she raised three children in. The house she had long since lived in alone since the passing of her husband more than twelve years ago. Her children insisted she move out of her home and into a nursing home where they could take better care of her, but she was insistent that she didn't want to leave her home. Her health wasn't good, well actually it was good for her age, but she is eighty-seven- years-old and at that age, everyone has some ails.

Evelyn opened her bedroom door a crack to see what was making the noise. She could see down the hall into the living room that there was a young man in her house. He was looking over her things trying to decide what was worth stealing. Evelyn pushed the emergency button that she wore around her neck to summon help.

"This is Stacy from Emergency Alert, how can I help you, Mrs. Collins?" This message was blasted through speakers in every room of the house. It startled the intruder. He momentarily froze in his tracks and then bolted for the door.

"There is someone in my house, help me!"

"OK, we see him now on the closed camera. We'll freeze him." By this time, the intruder was at the door of the house and was about to turn the knob and get out of there. But even though he was at the door, he found himself frozen. He had his hand on the door handle. He wanted to turn the knob and get out of there, but he couldn't move a muscle. He was stuck. Fear gripped him.

"I have him contained at the door. Do you want us to notify the police?"

"No, since he is frozen, I'll be able to take it from here," said Evelyn.

"OK, Mrs. Collins. Glad that we could be of service. Thank you for using Emergency Alert, if you need any further assistance simply press the button on your pendant."

Evelyn slowly walked down the hall into the livingroom and then across the room to confront the intruder. There she saw him by the front door. He was struggling to move. You could see the tension in his face. But he couldn't move a muscle. He was like a fly in an invisible spider web, trapped, struggling, but hopelessly caught.

Evelyn saw the intruder. He was young, no more than eighteen-years-old. Not too tall, about five foot eight inches tall with brown hair and an average build for a boy his age.

"So you wanted my things?" Evelyn said. "I don't know why you want them. They aren't worth too much. Well, not a lot as compared with the things that really matter. Come over here, let me take a look at you."

The intruder released the door handle and turned around and walked up to Evelyn. He stood before her. He was scared out of his wits. He would be trembling if he could move, but once again he was frozen.

"What's your name young man?" Evelyn inquired.

"Jason Thompson," Jason said in a somewhat forced and mechanical manner.

"Well Jason, I do have lots of nice things here. There is the plasma TV on the wall. My daughter got it for me. There are also several painting which I hear are worth a lot of money, although when my husband and I bought them years ago weren't worth too much. I also have a lifetime of gold and silver jewelry which are now worth a small fortune. But I haven't worn them in ages, nor the silver flatware, which I don't use anymore. But these are just things and really aren't worth much. You have things that are much more valuable. So I won't give you my things, but I'll trade you for them."

"Trade me?" Jason said incredulously.

"First, let's trade identities. That way you can have all my things... There it's done."

Jason didn't feel any different. "What is done?"

"From now on, everyone will think you are me, my name is er was Evelyn Collins. Now it's your name and I am Jason Thompson."

"You're nuts lady!"

"There is a mirror over there you can go and look at yourself."

Jason found he could move. His first instinct was to bolt again and try and get out of the house, but he found he could only walk to the offered mirror. When he looked into the mirror, the reflection he saw wasn't of himself, but of Evelyn. He looked down at his hands and arms and he didn't see anything different, but when he compared it with his reflection it was quite different. He moved his arms and hands up and down and the reflection in the mirror mimicked all of his movements. Except it was Evelyn's small and wrinkled hands and arms moving although the reflection did show Evelyn's reflection was wearing the same clothes as he wore when all this started. Jason was speechless.

"There we go, now everyone will see that you are Evelyn and so you own all of Evelyn's things and I own yours. But that doesn't seem to be a fair trade since I have so much more than you. But I know what. Let's trade some things that really matter. First, I'll trade my osteoporosis for your strong bones."

Jason watched in the mirror as his shoulders and his whole back began to slump. Evelyn on the other hand straightened up for the first time in twenty-five years.

"Next, you can have my arthritis, that way you can use my walker which you received in our trade. I don't use it while walking around the house, but whenever I go outside it's a great comfort."

Jason felt his joints start to ache and his fingers and toes became deformed in both his real life as well as his reflection. Evelyn started to wiggle her fingers for the first time without pain in many years.

"As they say on that commercial... 'Can you hear me now?'" Evelyn said.

Jason could still hear her but she sounded different. Her voice was more tinny than it was before as her hearing aids filled his ears. A moment later, his contacts were replaced with her glasses as their eye glass prescriptions swapped. Actually with her glasses he could see as well as he did before, but he couldn't wear contacts anymore anyway. With his arthritis he could never get them into his eyes anymore. Next his teeth were replaced with her full dentures. He could taste the glue that was holding them in his mouth.

"Take off your clothes."

Jason helplessly did as requested. He took off his T-shirt, jeans, briefs, shoes and socks. With his arthritis it took much longer than it had before. When he was completely naked, they exchanged weights. He blew up and forty pounds of flab was added to his frame.

Evelyn quickly took off her clothes and put on his. It really didn't fit perfectly but no one would notice.

"You can put on my clothes now."

Evelyn handed Jason her clothes. Jason put them on. He started with the white full cut women's briefs. Despite the embarrassment of having to put on women's panties, he found them to be quite comfortable. Then he put on the 18-hour comfort strap bra. It was a front closure model, which was the only way with his arthritis that he could put on any bra. This was actually the most uncomfortable of all the clothes he would put on, but even though it didn't fit perfectly, it did support his new man boobs to some extent. Next he put on her floral house dress and the fuzzy house slippers. Jason would find out that all his new clothes were all designed for comfort and were all easy to put on. There weren't any buttons or zippers on any of his clothes. All his shoes were slip ons. All of his pants were pastel colors and none of them had any pockets or zippers. Actually, he now owned very few pants, most of his clothes were mostly formless dresses that could be easily slipped over his head and went down to just below his knees.

While Jason was putting on his bra, Evelyn remarked. "I always wear a bra, even while sleeping."

"People would think I was sick if I didn't have your youthful stamina"

Jason felt exhaustion overtake him as the stresses of the day caught up with his weaken body.

"Now, Jason, you cannot let anyone know you are not Evelyn Collins. You can't let anyone have the slightest hint you are not who they think you are. I have made it easier for you by giving you my ailments. People would notice if you stood up too straight or didn't need your hearing aid anymore. But you mustn't let anyone even suspect that you aren't Evelyn. If anyone does then I assure you will be put into a nursing home for the rest of your life, where they will try to help you. They will use both therapy and drugs to convince you that you are indeed Evelyn Collins. You will lose all freedom of not only movement but of thought. In the end, they will win and Jason will be gone from your mind. All that will be left is an empty shell whose name will be Evelyn. She'll live out the rest of her very regimented life under the strict schedule of the nursing home. Whose only concern will be to make her caretakers happy by doing everything they tell her to do. But now I must leave you. I must go home."

Evelyn opened Jason's wallet and found out where she now lives. Before she left, she steps over to the mirror and looks at herself. In the mirror she sees the reflection of a handsome young man. She smiles to herself and then proceeds to the door. She opens it and leaves the home.

Once Evelyn had left the house, Jason, now fully dressed in Evelyn's clothes walked over to the mirror to see what he looked like. It now took some effort to get over there since all his joints hurt and he couldn't stand up straight anymore. The reflection staring back at him was that of an elderly woman. It didn't matter that his clothes didn't fit in a womanly way nor that he didn't fill out his bra properly. The reflection showed the features of an elderly woman. It was at this moment that something occurred to him and he reflexively threw his hands to his crotch. The sudden jerk sent tendrils of pain through his knuckles but it was still there. He may look like an elderly woman to the world, but he still had his manhood. He smiled, which gave him his first look at his new dentures. Looking directly at his body, except for the swelling in his joints due to his arthritis and his hunched over appearance, he looked like himself. He could see the smoothness of his skin, well the smoothness of a teenage boy's skin anyway. He could see the usual sparse hair on his arms which were the beginnings of manhood. He had gained a great deal of weight, but it was mostly in his belly and chest like an obese teenaged boy, not the rounded hips and butt of a fat woman. All in all notwithstanding what the mirror was telling him he still had the body of a boy not of an elderly woman. Even though he could never see it, he assumed that in reality his face hadn't really changed from male to female either.