【原创】Swapped/彼此彼此

Prologue
It was a beautiful Tuesday morning.
Still cold though, the sunshine was so brilliant that it seemed to have a chance to fetch the flowers out. A dewdrop couldn’t stand the sunlight anymore and dripped from the branch, landing on a pedestrian’s neck. The eating-while-walking man got chilled so he trembled to drop a biscuit. A wandering dove came at once and flew away with a big piece, yet leaking No.2. A painter by the river bank went furious as his two-day work was ruined by such a mishap. As the subject to the artist, the Thames was flowing happily through London as usual. The city woke up to the sound of life and a brand new day had begun.
Greg Lestrade was lying awake in bad yet with eyes closed. He was so at ease now. As a detective inspector of Scotland Yard, for the past three weeks he had been working day in, day out on a felony, too busy to take a moment off. Finally the case was closed yesterday and last night there was a celebration, as the Chief Superintendent offered a one-day holiday to the divisions working on the case generously. Ah last night, what a party! Greg recalled the hilarious scenes, in which everyone was not themselves after two shots.
“A drinking duel was so not my thing!” he thought, “Lucky me, no headache.” Making a move comfortably on the sheet, Greg opened his eyes. Then he blinked.
Where was this place? Definitely not the room he lived in every day. The tall room-height, the pretty wall-paper, and even the delicate oil painting which he had no idea but must be expensive! Greg dug into his memories and found the answer that it should be Dimmock’s.
“No wonder Anderson insists that guy was born with a silver spoon in his mouth!” Greg sighed by heart and decided to get up, resisting the attempt to compare here with his place because that would make it a slum. He found happily that this bedroom was equipped with a lavatory, since he had a strong feeling to be lost if he looked for a bathroom in the building.
“There may be a page knowing the way,” Greg wondered randomly when entering the lavatory. The very next second there came a sharp scream. At the same second, a page making breakfast downstairs slipped his hand and spilled the tea.
Mycroft Holmes was in confusion.
Just twenty minutes ago he woke up, but to find himself in a studio he had never been before. After a quick glance at the surrounding, the first thought came to him was that this was a trap. However, on second thought he sensed that it might not be the case. Who would be doltish enough to trap another person in a room with a land line and a computer, which were apparently available? Not to mention him, a master of such things. Therefore the No.1 task was to keep calm.
Once relaxed, Mycroft was in a mood for a good survey. A laundry basket at the bathroom door was filled up with unwashed clothes, a gray sock hung at the edge. An open kitchen wasn’t much used by the look of it and he wondered if the refrigerator had food, as his stomach was churning because of hungry. Before Mycroft finished spying the apartment, a major headache however hit, and ouch!
“I shan’t have yelled at Mrs. Hudson. Consequence!” He shook his head slightly and got on his feet for a glass of water. Then he accidentally looked into the surface of the refrigerator door and got frozen at once. An influx of ideas jammed Mycroft’s brain, such as “I know this face”, “Call Anthea” and “Mrs. Hudson, please forgive me”!
“…how Jupiter and Venus and the moon appeared together, a sky map of two bright planets and an even more eye-catching moon. Astronomers called this cosmic arrangement a triple conjunction.”
The video came to an end leaving a happy face of the newscaster. The light beam from the projector to the screen was the only light source in the room, the rest of which was in darkness and complete silence.
‘So you believe,’ someone began in an obscure tongue, before someone died of suffocation with the heavy air. ‘This conjunction thing was the reason for our…our…’
‘Our body-swap,’ another voice helped fill in the rest.

哦啦啦……
哦 穆爹
哦啦啦……萨拉黑

穆爹
穆爹
萨拉黑

穆你是好银！扑倒！

Act I Alignment in Sky vs. Chaos on Earth
Monsieur Harry: Post hoc ergo propter hoc.
Detective Inspector Dimmock was utterly off. This morning he was scared awoken by a phone call instead of waking up naturally as planned. A young and polite voice told him to achieve a certain location as soon and confidential as possible. Dimmock got fully awake as he heard the address. He knew that place! That neighborhood was for those low-key big shots. Dimmock was welcomed by a man who sounded like the voice on the phone as soon as he reached there. Then he saw the people, and the scene.
It was a conference room of a large size, a long table located in the middle. An elder man was at one end while another several persons sat along both sides of the table. Two he knew yet two not. The young man who led his way bowed to them, and then stood quietly behind the elder man, who smiled and said, ‘Inspector, please take a seat. We’d best get down to business since we’re all here.’
Dimmock didn’t even get a chance to wonder and the lights were off. “Well just ask Sally later,” he reckoned.
Now the video was over, and a conclusion obtained. Dimmock was having trouble swallowing what he’d just learned. D.I. Lestrade and the gentleman over there had switched bodies because of some astronomical phenomenon! Dimmock turned to Sally to make sure he wasn’t actually hallucinated, and then got ensured by being pinched by her. Sally Donovan, Sergeant of Lestrade’s division, cast him a serious look and then introduced people to Dimmock. Monsieur Harry was the elder man, the gentleman there was supposed to be Mycroft Holmes, Sherlock’s brother, and the lady taking notes was Anthea, Mr. Holmes’ assistant.
“Another Holmes!” Dimmock groaned secretly.
‘The thing is as so. No one predicted such a switch or could cease it now. To our knowledge it’s supposed to be fixed naturally when the time warp effect is over. You saw the Captain and the old Hopi lady, still alive and fine,’ said Monsieur Harry to them all, especially the very two concerned.
‘Sir, excuse me? Is it proper for me to ask when we shall expect this effect to be over?’ asked Anthea, and Greg-as-Mycroft nodded quickly to appreciate her question. Mycroft-as-Greg didn’t act as positively but looked at Monsieur Harry at once, too.
‘Of course. The warp was slowly snapping back to repair itself naturally last time, taking a couple of days. Well, kind of different for our occasion， as this time was caused by the astronomical phenomenon. So we assume it will be ended by Mother Nature as well. Don’t panic boys, let me finish here first.’ Monsieur Harry pacified them and continued. ‘The alignment of Venus and Jupiter and Moon took place three days ago. According to experts when Venus meets Jupiter this phenomenon is done, which will be the fifteenth of March.’
The air in the room suddenly became relaxed. Not tomorrow though, it was still good to have a hopefully set date. Greg beamed up to Sally and Dimmock while the two

felt odd to see such a familiar smile on a stranger’s face. Anthea noted the date in her Blackberry and looked at Monsieur Harry again as he was about to say something more.
‘Half a month is neither long nor short. Yet the occurrence of body-swap is indubitably a top secret for the society and the nation, so everyone in this room don’t tell any soul. May I count on you gentlemen to fulfill each other’s position as though nothing ever happened?’ demonstrated Monsieur Harry casually but the rest could tell the seriousness. ‘In the following weeks I’ll try to rearrange some events and give D.I. Lestrade a lighter schedule. Anthea is ready to help.’
‘My pleasure, Inspector!’ Anthea smiled, making Greg feel quite assured. ‘You may ask Billy for help in case of need after work,’ Anthea carried on, pointing at the young man who hadn’t said a word since the meeting started. Greg was perfectly astonished by the fact that the page boy turned out to be a hidden master.
‘Mycroft, I bet you know the business. Sergeant Donovan is in your team, very reliable. And Inspector Dimmock,’ said Monsieur Harry kindly, ‘I believe you will do your part in this special period of time.’
Dimmock was made to feel important at once and nodded in a serious attitude whereas Sally still looked concerned. ‘Pardon me, M’sieur. I was wondering if I was allowed to ask something about the video,’ said Sally in a slow manner, feeling like she was looking for the proper vocabulary. ‘How were we able to get those real details from Area 51, since such things were of extreme confidentiality? I mean, are we sure what we’ve just seen is not a tale?’
Greg and Dimmock laid their eyes on Monsieur Harry promptly along with Sally’s while Mycroft looked at her appreciatively. Surprised though, the mister soon found a clever way to convince them. ‘Good question, Sergeant. Well as you know, the American happened to own us one and they surely hate owning others.’
Pretending to have got the underlying message completely, yet the three persons staring were bellowing wildly by heart in the same breath, “No, I don’t know!”
‘Sir, shall we inform the Chief Superintendent of Scotland Yard as Mr. Holmes is there?’ asked Anthea.
‘Ehh…I’d rather have Tobias out of this. The fewer the people involved, the safer the secret kept.’
‘Sorry to interrupt, Sir. What about the other Mr. Holmes?’ questioned Dimmock.
‘Well,’ said the mister in reply slowly. ‘I don’t quite think Sherlock’s going to understand the entire case.’ There was a clear hesitation in his word making them think. Then most of them got it immediately, except the one who delivered the question.
‘Oy, did I miss something?’ asked Dimmock under his breath.
‘You’re a fan of Sherlock, aren’t you?’ whispered Sally.
‘Of course I am.’
‘Read Dr. Watson’s blog then!’
‘Sir, the time,’ Billy the page came one step forward to remind Monsieur Harry with courtesy.
‘Looks like we’re on the same page!’ Monsieur Harry stood up, so did the others. As soon as he was about leave the room, he faced them with his smiling face again. ‘Let’s not be known.’