34

I am searching for a short story about a man locked in a madhouse who swaps his body with the guard/doctor while he tells him the story about his own body being swapped.

I remember the following:

  • The madman asks the guard for a cigarette and starts telling him his own story.
  • There was some relative of the madman who had a miserable life and one day he took the madman for a chat to a gloomy place where he would perform the conjuring to swap bodies.
  • When the madman reaches the end of the story, he has already swapped his body with the guard's and starts speaking as if he is in the corridor of the hospital and not in a cell.
  • The madman, who is now the guard, tells his victim not to yell nor to despair for nobody will believe him. He tells him of the importance of the burnt offering which, in this case, was the cigarette and not to forget 'the words'. Then he takes the guard's car keys and drives away, leaving the guard locked in his cell.

I read this story in 2006. I searched google but the keywords hospital/madhouse take me to news and the keywords cigarette/burnt offering take me to religious content. I have no clue as to where was this story published.

Thanks in advance.

Improve this question
5
  • 1
    Can you remember when you read this? If it was new at the time? What anthology/magazine it may have been in if one of the reoccurring ones? etc. If so you can edit your question with this information.
    – TheLethalCarrot ♦
    Commented Dec 3, 2019 at 13:41
  • I recall this story too. It trigger something... will try to remember. In the meanwhile I suggest you, with a very similar plot, the short story by Julio Cortazar, "Lejana" in his great "Bestiario": es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bestiario_(libro)#Lejana
    – Francesco
    Commented Dec 4, 2019 at 14:01
  • 1
    Sounds similiar in concept to the movie 'Fallen' (1998) link - but checking that I can't see anywhere that it was based on a novel...
    – Mike
    Commented Mar 4, 2021 at 12:26
  • I read this probably before 1986 and certainly before 1992. Maybe something by Zelazny or Harlan Ellison or something in one of the Campbell awards books.
    – bknights
    Commented Jul 21, 2021 at 23:22
  • The concept sounds similar to the A.E Van Vogt short story "Dear Pen Pal". In that one the story is a series of letters from an alien to an earth man. During the correspondence the alien performs a mind swap with the man, the last letter being written by the man (now in the alien's body). en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dear_Pen_Pal
    – Barry Haworth
    Commented Oct 11, 2022 at 7:01

0

Reset to default

Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.