surreal

I was sitting with my parents having dinner in the living room when they suddenly turned to me and dropped a bombshell:

"You know, L, when you were six years old, we swapped you with a six year old girl in Scandinavia."

"What? For how long?"

"No, no. You don't get it. You are the swap. The original L is in Scandinavia now with her doctor-cum-researcher parents."

The info sat in my brain like alcohol on top of water, refusing to sink in. It didn't make sense, yet it made pefect sense as well. That would explain why I can't remember anything with my parents past the age of 6. But what was my original name? And why did they do it?

"Riona. Your name was Riona, but it was a swap, so you became L, and L became Riona. We did it because the original L was very sickly and we thought the cool Scandinavian air would do her good. Your real parents were interested in treating her condition, and so we made the swap, one for one."

They spoke as if this happened everyday, like a transaction in the wet market. It made me feel very weird, like I was two people at the same time. I couldn't help but wonder about the health of the original me. What did I do the first six years of my life? Why didn't I have blue eyes? I opened my mouth to ask my parents, but decided that I've had too much information for a day already, and so mulled quietly as I ate my dinner.