Thanks for that. You can always rely on blogger to mess things. They've just introduced new interface that doesn't even let you resize images (or I haven't figured out how) so had to use legacy blogger but even that didn't work properly as it's either two large taking the entire page or too small.
“My God! What have you done to me!” I gazed at the mirror in shock, wondering where I had gone. Of the blonde, blue-eyed white woman I normally saw reflected, there was simply no trace! “You asked me to arrange a disguise for you, so you could go undercover at one of your hotels, to find out what is behind this recent flood of complaints,” replied my assistant, “and I’m sure that no one will recognise you now!” “But why did you make me look Asian?” “Don’t you see? It’s the perfect disguise! You’re... er... petite, you speak fluent Mandarin, and many of your housekeeping staff are immigrants from China, legal or otherwise. You’ll fit in seamlessly!
“Ah yes... Yes, I see. I’m sorry, you’re right. You’ve done a great job as usual, Katie.” “That is Ms. Wade to you now. Or ma’am.” “What?! That’s ridiculous, I’m not real-“ “You’ll give yourself away in five minutes with that attitude,” she cut me off, “or get yourself fired! To bring this off, you must get into character, and we might as well start now.” “You are now Anli Feng, newly-hired hotel maid. I am Catherine Wade, the personal assistant of Helen Larson, owner of the hotel chain, and very much your superior, so you should address me with respect, don’t you think?”
“Huh? Oh yes... I suppose so... All right.” “Don’t you mean ‘Yes Ms. Wade’?” “Um... Yes, Ms. Wade... Ma’am!” “Very good, Anli. Look, here is your purse. I found it at a thrift shop, and isn’t it perfect? It’s obviously cheap, with exactly the right amount of wear. You’ll find your forged identity papers in there, together with your hotel ID-badge, and some odd stuff suitable for your new identity. I’ll take care of Ms. Larson’s things until... they’re needed again.” “Now, let’s get you finished off. Here is your maid’s uniform, so hurry up, put it on, and get down to housekeeping to start work. You don’t want to be late on your first day!”
"You won’t get away with this! You might have tricked me into meeting all the local ladies in this uniform, but I’m the mistress of the house, and you are my maid!"
"My dear, now they have seen you as a maid, no one will ever believe that you, an Oriental, are not my servant, or that I, a white woman wearing your expensive and elegant clothes, am not your mistress. Just look in any mirror, if you doubt me!"
Panel 1: I suppose it does make sense for me to clean the flat, while Su-Lin goes to the office in my place. She’s right that I’d sound like a mental case if I told anyone that we’d accidentally exchanged bodies. But how can she possibly pass as me, while we find way to switch back? I’m an smart executive vice-president, and she’s just a cleaning girl!
Panel 2: It has been a real eye-opener to live Su-Lin’s life. I can’t believe the way her other clients treat her! No wonder she was so grateful to me, and gave me that little statue for my birthday last week. OK, so it’s a bit crudely carved and rustic- looking, but I suppose it’s all she could afford, and it is the thought that counts, after all.
Panel 3: It’s been a month now, and I’m still stuck in Su-lin’s body. Heaven knows how she’s still managing to bluff everyone at the office into thinking she’s me! Nobody seems to be able to tell that I’m not the real Su-Lin either, but then I only have to pretend to be a cleaning girl, not an executive. It’s so humiliating to be treated like a maid. Everyone acts like I’m stupid, because I can’t help speaking with Su-Lin’s thick accent. I don’t understand how she’s not only able to speak in my voice now, but in perfect English too. She sounds so bloody condescending when she talks to me. I didn’t speak to her like that... Did I?
Panel 4: "RU ready Su-Lin? You don't want to miss your flight!" "Yes, packed and ready, waiting for taxi to airport :)" "Got your tickets, passport etc.?" "Yes, all in order. BTW I notice your visa expires next month. You'll need to sort that out when we get back." "Relax, you won't need to worry about that once we're in our proper places."
I wish she’d stop calling me Su-Lin, that’s her name, not mine! She’s become so bossy! Of course I’m ready. I’ve been travelling inter-nationally for years! I’m only nervous about travelling as her, in her clothes, and on her passport. Still, at least she’s found out how our bodies were swapped, and how to reactivate the statue to switch us back again. I don’t see why we have to travel all the way back to her ancestral village in the boon-docks of rural china to perform the ritual, but if that’s what it takes... I guess it’s a small price to pay to get my life back.
The first very much the new employee, so much so I went back and read my favourite chapters. Love that story. The second to the point Conjuring all kinds of possibility. The third. I cannot seen to get the print the right size to read. hopefully some help??
Nice to hear from you, Jackie; I always enjoy your stories. It's hard to comment on your difficulties without knowing how you're viewing the image, but I'm new to sharing my captioned images, and still learning the best format. I have reformatted "Cleaning Girl" into a more vertical format, so please let me know if this version works better for you.
You will probably find that your browser squashes the image to fit the vertical size of your screen, which will make the text small, and you might have to click on the image to get it to display full size (that is how it works in Chrome and Safari at least).
Blogspot seems to have shrunk my images to make the text hard, and in the last one impossible, to read, so:
ReplyDeleteHotel Heiress Humbled, Oriental Maid, Cleaning Girl
Thanks for that. You can always rely on blogger to mess things. They've just introduced new interface that doesn't even let you resize images (or I haven't figured out how) so had to use legacy blogger but even that didn't work properly as it's either two large taking the entire page or too small.
DeleteThanks Andi
ReplyDeleteGreat stuff as always
Hi, I was wondering if it would be possible for you to place the story as text outside the image or as part of the comments
ReplyDeleteis that I don't know English and the computer translator can't detect the letters
Hotel Heiress Humbled.
Delete“My God! What have you done to me!”
I gazed at the mirror in shock, wondering where I had gone. Of the blonde, blue-eyed white woman I normally saw reflected, there was simply no trace!
“You asked me to arrange a disguise for you, so you could go undercover at one of your hotels, to find out what is behind this recent flood of complaints,” replied my assistant, “and I’m sure that no one will recognise you now!”
“But why did you make me look Asian?”
“Don’t you see? It’s the perfect disguise! You’re... er... petite, you speak fluent Mandarin, and many of your housekeeping staff are immigrants from China, legal or otherwise. You’ll fit in seamlessly!
“Ah yes... Yes, I see. I’m sorry, you’re right. You’ve done a great job as usual, Katie.”
“That is Ms. Wade to you now. Or ma’am.”
“What?! That’s ridiculous, I’m not real-“
“You’ll give yourself away in five minutes with that attitude,” she cut me off, “or get yourself fired! To bring this off, you must get into character, and we might as well start now.”
“You are now Anli Feng, newly-hired hotel maid. I am Catherine Wade, the personal assistant of Helen Larson, owner of the hotel chain, and very much your superior, so you should address me with respect, don’t you think?”
“Huh? Oh yes... I suppose so... All right.”
“Don’t you mean ‘Yes Ms. Wade’?”
“Um... Yes, Ms. Wade... Ma’am!”
“Very good, Anli. Look, here is your purse. I found it at a thrift shop, and isn’t it perfect? It’s obviously cheap, with exactly the right amount of wear. You’ll find your forged identity papers in there, together with your hotel ID-badge, and some odd stuff suitable for your new identity. I’ll take care of Ms. Larson’s things until... they’re needed again.”
“Now, let’s get you finished off. Here is your maid’s uniform, so hurry up, put it on, and get down to housekeeping to start work. You don’t want to be late on your first day!”
Oriental Maid.
Delete"You won’t get away with this! You might have tricked me into meeting all the local ladies in this uniform, but I’m the mistress of the house, and you are my maid!"
"My dear, now they have seen you as a maid, no one will ever believe that you, an Oriental, are not my servant, or that I, a white woman wearing your expensive and elegant clothes, am not your mistress. Just look in any mirror, if you doubt me!"
Cleaning Girl.
DeletePanel 1:
I suppose it does make sense for me to clean the flat, while Su-Lin goes to the office in my place.
She’s right that I’d sound like a mental case if I told anyone that we’d accidentally exchanged bodies.
But how can she possibly pass as me, while we find way to switch back? I’m an smart executive vice-president, and she’s just a cleaning girl!
Panel 2:
It has been a real eye-opener to live Su-Lin’s life. I can’t believe the way her other clients treat her! No wonder she was so grateful to me, and gave me that little statue for my birthday last week.
OK, so it’s a bit crudely carved and rustic- looking, but I suppose it’s all she could afford, and it is the thought that counts, after all.
Panel 3:
It’s been a month now, and I’m still stuck in Su-lin’s body. Heaven knows how she’s still managing to bluff everyone at the office into thinking she’s me!
Nobody seems to be able to tell that I’m not the real Su-Lin either, but then I only have to pretend to be a cleaning girl, not an executive.
It’s so humiliating to be treated like a maid. Everyone acts like I’m stupid, because I can’t help speaking with Su-Lin’s thick accent.
I don’t understand how she’s not only able to speak in my voice now, but in perfect English too.
She sounds so bloody condescending when she talks to me. I didn’t speak to her like that... Did I?
Panel 4:
"RU ready Su-Lin? You don't want to miss your flight!"
"Yes, packed and ready, waiting for taxi to airport :)"
"Got your tickets, passport etc.?"
"Yes, all in order. BTW I notice your visa expires next month. You'll need to sort that out when we get back."
"Relax, you won't need to worry about that once we're in our proper places."
I wish she’d stop calling me Su-Lin, that’s her name, not mine!
She’s become so bossy! Of course I’m ready. I’ve been travelling inter-nationally for years!
I’m only nervous about travelling as her, in her clothes, and on her passport.
Still, at least she’s found out how our bodies were swapped, and how to reactivate the statue to switch us back again.
I don’t see why we have to travel all the way back to her ancestral village in the boon-docks of rural china to perform the ritual, but if that’s what it takes...
I guess it’s a small price to pay to get my life back.
I'm very grateful that you helped me read the stories.
DeleteI was fascinated by them all.
I think the first story, which is my favorite by the way, deserves a second episode.
I'd love to see Helen Larson perform as a maid in her own hotel.
- Cleaning Girl.
She is also very good although I suspect that her maid's trip to the village is a trap and she will never return to her country and body
As ever,I prefer more gradual,more consensual metamorphoses,even if in the end no less complete...
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteThe first very much the new employee, so much so I went back and read my favourite chapters. Love that story. The second to the point Conjuring all kinds of possibility. The third. I cannot seen to get the print the right size to read. hopefully some help??
ReplyDeleteThanks for posting
Jackie J
XX
Nice to hear from you, Jackie; I always enjoy your stories. It's hard to comment on your difficulties without knowing how you're viewing the image, but I'm new to sharing my captioned images, and still learning the best format. I have reformatted "Cleaning Girl" into a more vertical format, so please let me know if this version works better for you.
DeleteYou will probably find that your browser squashes the image to fit the vertical size of your screen, which will make the text small, and you might have to click on the image to get it to display full size (that is how it works in Chrome and Safari at least).
Thanks,
Deletenow waiting for more of the captions a picture paints a thousand words.
Hugs
Jackie J
XX
So jealous of the new Su-Lin. Getting a better Asian body and an all expenses paid trip back to her new home and life!
ReplyDeleteamazing stories!!!!!! ty!
ReplyDeleteCindy
Just amazing caption stories! Please please continue them.You're awesome
ReplyDelete-Cindy