Today I woke up as the mirror in the bathroom. Yesterday I was the cat. The day before I was a five dollar bill. Now that was an exciting day. I traveled halfway across the metropolis before night fell. Today Marina looks back at me and I so want to kiss her but it was not our luck to wake up as people on the same day. She doesn’t know I’m here staring back at her as she washes her face and brushes her teeth in front of me. All she sees is herself. I could let her know but I see she’s frustrated putting on makeup, checking it, putting on a bit more. Then changing her shirt over and over. First a blouse that seems fancy. Then a tshirt that’s probably too dressed down for whatever she’s getting ready to do today. As she reaches into a drawer with her back to me I do something with my mirror self. I’m not sure it’ll work exactly but I’ve got nothing to lose. Thinking hard, I try to be shiny, bright, happy, twinkling even. I think about stars and energy as hard as I can. Marina turns back to me and wraps a scarf around her neck. I’m hoping she’ll do one last make up check. I’m in luck! She peers closer for a second and suddenly her face brightens. It’s worked! I can tell she now likes the way she looks. She does look fresher, jollier, more like a good day. I’ve done my good deed for the day. I love her so much. Marina leaves the bathroom and I now have nothing to do. That’s what’s tricky about days you wake up being an object. You can go long hours with no activity. Sometimes it’s non stop. The Switch happened several years ago. Earth got too populated with humans and there just wasn’t enough room for all the people. Some scientists came up with a solution whereby some of the time some of the people would play the role of objects instead and leave more space for humans. Later they figured out how to let people wake up as different animals. Then they decided the people should also spread around the different jobs. That way no one would get stuck too long with a job they didn’t like. When you’d wake up you’d already know everything about what you had to do. It was really a clever solution. The trade off was you didn’t always get to be a human; on the other hand, you got to try out so many other things. Some people permanently chose to remain a single object. Others picked various animals. Still others liked the variety of a different form every day. It took awhile of getting used to but overall it was mostly okay. The best days were those he and Marina got to spend together but some objects and some animals were pretty fun too. Most people usually ended up picking 4-5 different people and things to stick with. That way you could pick up where you left off and build some continuity. However everyone every once in awhile had to be something completely random. The scientists realized this was a necessity because some objects jobs and animals just never got picked. Others were way too popular. The first year for example there were bears and swans everywhere. Also fancy cars. Cats and dogs too but there’s lots of them anyway so that wasn’t such a problem. They named the system “The Everything”. Why? Because it turns out the world needs everything and everyone in it. No matter who or what they are.