Memories and more

They found a bench near the far wall, half-hidden behind a stack of empty crates the vendors hadn’t cleared yet. Miles set the bagged costume down between them and sat with his elbows on his knees, staring at the concrete.

John waited. The new clothes still felt strange looser across the chest, tighter at the hips but the quiet made it easier to sit with.

Miles spoke first, voice low.

“Before the machine, I was Michelle.”

He said the name like it still didn’t quite belong to him.

“I wasn’t even supposed to be in that line. Thought it was just another photo-op booth by the arts row. Signs said ‘character experience.’ I figured quick scan, maybe a filter for pictures. Door shut, tech asked me to confirm, I said yeah without looking. Then everything started shifting.”

He flexed one hand, watching the fingers move.

“Came out and the body under the clothes wasn’t mine. They handed me the temp card, pointed me at a changing stall, and left me to it. There was the Miles one off the rack inside and put it on myself. Took a few tries. I was still getting use to things when you came out of the one next to me. We bumped shoulders trying to get past each other in the narrow aisle. Both of us in the suits, both of us still figuring out how to walk in them.”

Miles glanced over at her, then back at the floor.

“After that we just… stayed together. Figured it was easier than splitting up while we were both still adjusting. Well. You know the rest.”

The crates behind them creaked as someone walked past on the other side. Neither of them moved. The bag sat between them, the costumes they’d put on themselves folded inside it, the regular clothes they’d bought later sitting easier on their bodies than the suits ever had.

John shifted on the bench. The jeans pulled differently when she did. She didn’t reach to fix them.

“Yeah,” she said. “I know the rest.”

They stayed there a while longer, the noise from the main floor a low roar behind the doors, the weekend still stretching out in front of them in clothes that almost felt like theirs.