Breathe in, breathe out. Okay, you’ve got this. This man must be really strange. I literally just told his aides there’s been a terrible mistake, that I am not him I am me, and they went along with it. As if it was completely ordinary for this man to come up with stuff like that. To be honest, what is anyone going to do if told of a body swap? Still, there was something about how unbothered they were to hear it that makes me think this man comes up with odd ideas.

Right, focus. The speech. Good news is that if the aides expect weird, possibly the audience does too.

“Sir, the stage is ready.” A small man looking like an old school butler is looking at me politely, extending his arm towards the thick burgundy curtain. I nod and breathe deeply one more time. Here we go.

The bright light blinds me for a second when I stepped out. I blink once, twice, three times and as my sight adjust I realise I can’t see the end of the sea of human bodies. They fill the public square and extend beyond to the adjacent streets. I feel a wave of panic raising.

“Welcome” my voice, well his voice really, comes out weak and high pitched. I clear my throat. “Thanks for being here.” The crowd roars, it sounds like a big storm of applause. It works like a lightning energising my whole being.

“I won’t keep you long today. I won’t keep you long, because your time is the most valuable asset you have.There’s no particular reason why I am the one standing here today - I bet any of you has thought about what life means as much as me.” I pause to look around. There’s smiley faces, there’s focused faces. All the faces are looking up at me, expectant.

“You see, the only answer is: no one knows. What are we doing here? Where are we going? Is there a point even. No one has the answer for these questions. There’s one thing we do know. We are all here now. Standing on the shoulders of those who came before us, and paving a better road for those who will follow our steps.” I notice the silence. You can almost feel the collective breathing, as if the crowd was synced as one entity.

“This is the principle that guides me. Leave everything better than you found it. Leave that room tidier than you found it. Leave your aunt happier than she was when you visit. Take your children’s hands and show them how you do this, so they can continue after you’re gone.”

“If we all live by this idea, we’ll manage to leave a world better than we found it. To me, there’s nothing more important than that.”

The crowd exploded. All of a sudden, my legs felt like they wouldn’t hold the body much longer. I waved, disappeared back into the big curtain, and immediately threw up.