literature

Walking A Mile: Ch. 3

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<Sonic's POV>
"Sounds like a plan, Tails," I said, slowly rising to my feet.  "You and I can go back to your place and start working on that, and we'll leave Amy here so she won't get in our way."  Naturally, this prompted an irritated "Hey!" from Amy.  Tails held up a hand to cut me off, saying "OK, hold up, both of you.  I know neither one of you want to be stuck in each other's bodies for longer than you have to, but I can't just dive headfirst into a venture like this.  Messing with people's minds is a very dangerous task, and if something unspeakable was to happen -- like making this body switch permanent instead of undoing it, or worse, giving one or both of you brain damage -- I'd never be able to forgive myself.  That's why I'm gonna do the sensible thing and start reading textbooks on psychology and neurology so I better understand what I'm dealing with."  Amy quietly nodded, but I didn't have the patience to wait for something like that.  "Remember, Sonic, it'll be your brain under the knife here too.  Are you sure it's worth jeopardizing your future just to get back into your own body a little bit quicker?"  That gave me pause, and I said nothing more about it.

"Come on, Amy, let's get back to my workshop."  That caught me off guard, and when I asked Tails why Amy was going with him instead of me, he replied "So far, I don't think anyone else knows you guys have switched bodies, and I intend to keep it that way.  Amy is the one that looks like you right now, and if people saw you hanging out at Amy's house alone while Amy was over at the workshop with me and Knuckles, some eyebrows might be raised.  Besides, as impatient as you are, you'd keep pressuring me to finish up and that might cause me to make a mistake."  Once again, he had a good point.  As I saw Tails head out the door followed by Amy and Knuckles, I asked "What do you expect me to do in the meantime?"  His final words were "Just stay here and don't interact with anyone else but me, Knuckles, or Amy."

As I watched the door close behind them, I felt like I was being locked away into a prison cell.  The thought of cooping me, Sonic the Hedgehog, up in such a small house was simply unfathomable, and though only a few seconds had passed, I sensed I was already going stir-crazy.  This is so unfair...first I get taken out of my own body and put into Amy's, and now Amy gets to masquerade as me while I'm hidden from view?!  I sat there on the couch for several minutes, grumbling to myself.  Then, knowing that grumbling wasn't going to get me anywhere, I decided to make the best of a bad situation by first opening all the window blinds in the house so it didn't feel so dark and isolated.  Then I decided to root through Amy's fridge for something to quench my thirst, and found the pickings slim -- When's the last time she made a trip to the supermarket? -- so I settled on a bottle of water.  I planted myself back on the couch and took the TV remote in my hand, sipping on the water while flipping through the channels, ultimately finding a program I could stomach.  But even that struggled to hold my attention for long, and after a half hour of sitting there I decided to pull the plug (so to speak).

I stood up and started walking around the house, wondering what other potential sources of entertainment Amy kept around.  What I discovered was a modest-sized white wooden bookshelf in Amy's bedroom, packed with books.  I was legitimately surprised to find Amy was such an avid reader; she never shared this fact with anyone.  Come to think of it, Amy's birthday is coming up in a matter of weeks...maybe she'd appreciate a book or a bookstore gift card.  I found myself browsing through the titles to find out what Amy liked to read, and it didn't take long to figure out that she definitely had a preference for romance novels, which made me roll my eyes.  There was one book in particular which was wedged into the middle of one shelf and had a yellow sticky note poking out of the top of its pages.  I opened the book to the page in question and found it strewn with highlighted sentences and annotations in the margins, all made in Amy's handwriting.  In retrospect, I really had no business prying into Amy's personal thoughts, but my curiosity pushed me onward.  What that turned up was a rather disturbing conclusion: Amy was probably reading these romance novels to get ideas for how to woo me.  I always knew that she had feelings for me, but it really worries me that she may be blurring the line between fantasy and reality.

I quickly returned the book to its place on the shelf, and as I stood up, I caught a glimpse of "myself" out of the corner of my eye.  Despite it being on Amy's body for quite some time now, I never got the chance to really get a good look at Amy's outfit, so I turned to face the mirror.  I couldn't believe I was thinking this, but the yellow dress was actually a really good look for Amy -- it was a welcome change from her usual red dress.  I might even go so far as to say she looked pretty in it.  It definitely showed evidence of having been through a rough-and-tumble experience, though, with a few grease stains around the waist, a few tears here and there, and if my eyes weren't deceiving me, a few drops of dried blood.  Wearing the dress also drove home the fact that I was in a body other than my own, so I strolled over to Amy's closet to find a replacement outfit that wouldn't give me so much culture shock.  As I combed through the rows of outfits neatly hanging on their hangers, I was once again surprised to see how many different outfits Amy owned that I never saw her wear.  Halfway out of boredom and halfway out of curiosity, I started trying on several of Amy's outfits to find something I'd feel comfortable wearing.  I eventually decided on a red T-shirt and these skinny jeans that only came down to my calves for some reason, but not before trying on several outfits that meshed well with Amy's pink skin.  All these outfits that she could possibly wear, and yet she chooses that same red dress over and over.  I understand having a favorite outfit, but still...if it ever comes up in conversation, I'll ask Amy why she doesn't wear some of these outfits more often.

My concentration was broken by the sound of a telephone ringing.  I dashed from Amy's bedroom towards the phone in the living room, anticipating that Tails was calling to tell me he'd worked up a solution and wanted me to report to the workshop immediately.  Imagine my disappointment when the voice I heard on the other line was that of Blaze the Cat, assuming my memory served me right; it's been ages since I've seen or spoken with her.  "Hey Amy, what's going on?"  I wasn't expecting to speak with Blaze, so I muddled through with a "...Oh, nothing much, and you?"  She quickly got to her point: "This day is just dragging by for me again, and I need to get out of these four walls for a bit.  How do you feel about spending the afternoon together somewhere?"  Being anxious to step out of the house as well, and forgetting Tails' warning not to speak with anyone, I eagerly responded "That sounds like a great idea!"  Her tone dropped a bit, though, as she replied "Glad to hear it, but do you have any specific venues in mind?"  I didn't respond, so she said "Ah, don't worry about it.  I'll just come over to your place and we can figure out something from there.  That sound good?"  I agreed to the idea, but right as I hung up the phone, Tails' words re-entered my mind, and I gasped at what I'd just gotten myself into.  I feverishly picked up the phone again to call Blaze back and cancel the meet-up, but Amy had one of those older touch-tone phones that didn't show a call history, and I didn't know Blaze's phone number.  All I could do was sit on the couch next to the phone, anxiously hoping that Blaze would call me back.

No such luck...about twenty minutes later, I heard a knock at the front door.  I'd barely gotten the door fully open before I started explaining to Blaze that I'd changed my mind and didn't want to go through with the plan.  All that did was arouse Blaze's suspicions.  "You were so excited just a half hour ago, and now you're telling me you changed your mind?"  I racked my brain trying to look for an answer, but that's when she noticed the outfit I was wearing.  "Hey, where's that dress you bought at the mall yesterday?  You were jumping for joy when you finally found it, and now I can't see it anywhere," as she peeked past my shoulder into the house.  "Is there something going on that you're not telling me?"  I once again tried to choke out an answer, but she said "C'mon, go put on the dress.  Maybe that'll lift your spirits once again."  I sighed and said "I'll show you the dress, but don't say I didn't warn you," and I promptly headed to Amy's bedroom to retrieve the dress from the clothes hamper.  Blaze's jaw dropped once she saw the tattered dress.  "Oh my gosh, what in the world happened to it?!"  I had a hard time telling whether that was meant to be a rhetorical question or not, but she eventually said "Thanks for giving me the idea, Amy.  We have got to get you a new dress at the mall.  It's no wonder you were being dodgy from the moment I showed up at your door."

Despite my best protests, I soon found myself in the passenger seat of Blaze's sporty purple car, en route to the mall.  Thankfully Blaze didn't ask any more questions about what happened to me or the dress.  As we walked through the automatic doors into the mall, I found myself totally out of my element, surrounded by a bunch of lights, sounds and colors, not to mention the throngs of shoppers.  But then again, maybe it wasn't so out-of-element after all, if I thought of it like navigating through one of Robotnik's bases.  Yeah, Sonic...just think of it as sneaking through Robotnik's base looking for a Chaos Emerald.  I resisted the urge to plow through the crowds-turned-battle-robots as I followed Blaze from one clothing store to another.  I stood there quietly as Blaze combed through rack after rack of clothes, looking for something that "I" might like.  She showed me a number of prospective outfits, but I was wary of saying yes to any of them.  Seeing as how my normal attire is just gloves and shoes, I'm not exactly a fashion expert, and I didn't want to raise future tension between me and Amy by choosing some outfit that Amy wouldn't be caught dead in.  This was a point not missed by Blaze, who grew more and more frustrated as I turned her repeated offers down.  After four stores, Blaze had had enough.  "OK, Amy, I give up.  I don't know what's gotten into you, but we're wasting our time here.  I'll drop you off at home again, and maybe we'll try again in the future when you're back to your old self."  Little did she realize just how appropriate her choice of words were.

As we walked back outside, Blaze froze in place and her eyes went wide.  "Oh, look what you did, Amy.  You got me so worked up from picking out an outfit for you that I left my purse behind on the counter at that last store!  Now stay here and I'll be right back," and with that, she ran back inside the mall with surprising speed.  I stood there quietly for a few seconds, watching the flow of traffic in and out of the entrance, until I heard some odd noise coming from somewhere behind me.  I turned and looked around to determine the source of the noise, and found some odd craft flying through the sky above the mall, just high enough to clear the roof and no more.  I immediately grew suspicious, and started running after it to investigate, though I still wasn't fully used to how slow my legs were able to carry me.  Once I got close enough, I spotted Robotnik's insignia on the side of the craft, and I knew something fishy was going on, so I picked up the pace.  It was too fast for me, though, and I soon had to come to a stop to catch my breath.  I never saw it coming when some giant claw grabbed me from behind and started lifting me off the ground.  I yelped in surprise and tried turning around to identify my captor, but the claw's tight grip prevented me from doing so.  I suddenly remembered the words I'd muttered to myself the day before -- I wish I could be in Amy's shoes for just one day...I'd give 'em a beating they'd never forget -- and I remembered Amy's hammer.  Aside from pulling it from behind her back, I had no idea how Amy made her hammer appear from out of nowhere, and I tried reaching behind my back several times just like she did, but was unable to procure the hammer.  In a last-ditch effort, I tried wriggling my way from the claw's grasp.  I could feel my shirt being pulled off in the process, but right then all I cared about was getting free.

I finally managed to wrestle myself from the claw's grip, foolishly forgetting that I was some distance up in the air, and I fell toward the parking lot below.  I wanted to curl into a ball to lessen the impact, but the skinny jeans didn't leave me very flexible, and I was left flailing my arms, as if that would really do anything.  In a bizarre twist, I crash-landed right on top of Blaze's car, crumpling the roof and shattering the windshield, just as Blaze was approaching the car with purse in hand.  I could hear her scream in horror but could do little about it as I had no feeling in my arms or legs.  To make matters worse, the robot that had grabbed me had quickly noticed my escape and was back on the ground in no time, rushing forward presumably to finish me off.  Out of the corner of my eye I watched helplessly as Blaze readied a small fireball in one hand, but before she had the chance to use it, the robot grabbed Blaze by the waist and threw her across the parking lot against the side of the building, over a hundred feet away.  My vision started to blur from all the blood I was losing from the gashes on my back, but I could hear the scraping of metal and glass as the robot peeled away the wreckage of the automobile to grab its target.  I felt that monstrous claw grab me again as I was lifted into the blue sky, which slowly faded into blackness.
"Walking A Mile" continues onward with another chapter told entirely from Sonic's perspective. It's his first opportunity to get a real glimpse into Amy's life as he sees things through a new set of eyes (literally). But trouble looms on the horizon.

When I wrote out the events for this chapter, I did something unusual and actually started writing the story once I'd completed the plot events for only Sonic's POV, rather than finishing plot events for Amy first. In retrospect, it was a good idea, for two reasons: (1) The end of Sonic's POV is a good cliffhanger in my opinion, and (2) if I tried squeezing Amy's POV into this as well, I'd either end up with a very long chapter or have to cut out a lot of detail just to end up with a suitable chapter length, and I feel like I'm shortchanging myself and my readers if I do that.




First chapter: fav.me/d6epk5d

Previous chapter: fav.me/d6hge0r

Next chapter: fav.me/d6luai1
© 2013 - 2024 mjponso
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Chezzy-Am's avatar
:clap: thank you Sonic for doing this to Amy's body, and thank you claw for acknowledging my thoughts.

(me, robot, and Sonic :thumbsup: and a big flashing sign appears: "Job well done")

Now, onward to the story: still hate Amy but, with that said, this was a good retrospective. I mean it - Sonic, does have valid points about Amy (makes me wonder if she's a schizophrenic OCD patient with dementia. She probably does: I'll add that with a devoid self-esteem (making her an emo), bipolarity (critical), and maybe an inclination towards masochism) and the claw in the ending portion of the chapter taking Sonic away. I do love the way this chapter is leading to the third act - so far, the opening and middle act of this work did have a strong backing, reason, climax, and are heading towards a conclusion.