The Invisible Touch

She recoiled like a mamba. Her skin turned dark and enveloped her whole body. Listy Lowell’s flaxen braids became kinky deep dark brown strands. Tears rolled down her cheeks. Her blue eyes turned hazel.

“I don’t want to be black! I don’t want to be black anymore!” The twenty-one year old shrieked.

“It’s too late. You’ve touched the orb I’ve conceived. It worked again….!” Bell Larrington shook with great delight. Her skin turned to buttermilk. Her hair became straight like ironed bed sheets. Her brown eyes became sapphire stones.

“Goddamnit! There has to be some way to reverse this! I just wanted a trial!”

“Hush up, now!” Bell bellowed. “When this experiment started, you knew what it entailed. You signed the contract. Now, you know that the Color Orb will be effective for a few hours now.”

“Yes, I know. I will have to be black, and you will be white.”

“You’re tracking. All you need to do is leave this laboratory, and experience what it is like to be an African-American. Meanwhile, my temporary whiteness will once again enlighten me about what it’s like to be the fairer shade,” Bell explained.

“I want to reverse it!” Listy shrieked.

“A few hours. That’s what you agreed on to, and you will get your fifty thousand dollars. That’s the deal.”

Listy exhaled. Her breath, released from her chest, sounded like a rattle. She cleared her throat.

“Okay. This isn’t going to be so bad. I have black friends. I’m down. I just want to make sure I don’t get caught up in anything where the law has to get involved.”

“Before this machine, I’d been black for over three decades. I’ve been white for a few hours tens of times. There are disadvantages and advantages for both skin colors. I haven’t had to put as much suntan lotion on when I go to Bethany Beach. While it would be easy to say that I have socioeconomic bonuses while I’m white, it doesn’t make a difference. As many times as I have transitioned, I have experienced virtually the same treatment by all colors and creeds.”

“I just want to see myself in the mirror,” Listy said. She peered at her ebony skin and locks. Her eyes blazed with an intensity that reminded her why she participated in this trial in the first place.

“Okay, I’m ready,” Listy said.

“I’m telling you, whatever reservations you may still have about being black, you don’t have to worry about anything negative happening to you because of your momentary identity. Hell, with this woke culture, you might find more benefits out there than the average white woman.”

Listy wiped a tear from her black cheek and grinned.

“I think I’m pretty at least. I mean beautiful. Black is beautiful.”

“You don’t need to turn into a Black Panther, goddamnit,” Bell laughed. Listy stood.

“I’m going out there to see what it's like to be part of the darker nation,” Listy beamed, fully accepting her choice.

“The door,” Bell lifted a finger and pointed.

Once Listy had stepped into the Wilmington, Delaware sunshine, she looked at people bustling about the streets. She saw red, yellow, brown, white, and black people all shoulder to shoulder, like a painting in motion. She stepped away from the nondescript hole in the wall that concealed Bell’s scientific laboratory.

Listy looked in her wallet and examined her smartphone. Everything had been set up for her to maintain a few of her credentials. She still served as an executive of operations at a financial firm from Boston. Her entire life had been determined as her own. She called a ride share car to take her to the office. Once she arrived, she shook hands with a black man who had the same title.

“We’re excited to have you here. I hope the flight didn’t have too much turbulence,” Holder Kith smiled.

“None at all,” Listy spoke up.

She knew all about the meeting and came to the conclusion that the mixture of races and sexes in the boardroom didn’t feel any different. No one scowled at her or gave the impression that she was lesser based on her physical features.

After the meeting, Kith came up to Listy.

“We’re going to share in a power lunch. You’d be our guest of honor,” Kith smiled pearly white teeth.

“Oh, of course,” she said.

At the Mercier Hotel, a yellow man and a red man chuckled over martinis. They both stood up in the presence of the lady and shook her hand.

“Raj Adalja,” the red man said.

“Philip Ping,” the yellow man addressed. “That was quite the performance you put on there, Alena. I couldn’t believe it was coming from a black woman, right guys?!” Ping asked, laughing.

“I resent that remark, sir,” Listy said.

“I just meant it as a joke,” Ikeda tried to clean up but the fuse was lit.

“I wouldn’t have this position without working like any other person regardless of race. So, I don’t think it’s funny to spit out generalities.”

Silence blanketed the table. Looks of awe fell upon Listy as she held her head high.

“Forgive me. I’ll think before I speak next time,” Ping wiped his brow.

“Gentlemen, I have business elsewhere. I must withdraw myself from this place. Good day.”

Listy exited the posh spot with anger in her head and bewilderment threatening to take over her entire being. She returned to the laboratory.

“So you experienced some racism by the yellow man. I get all kinds of hell when I’m white, too. Not just from blacks. Yellows, reds, browns, any color you wish when I’m white.”

“I only had that one incident. Otherwise, the experience was invigorating and stimulating. I felt as if I could be black forever. I know once I try this it’s a one-time deal.”

“For now.”

“Alas,” Listy sighed.