‘Heads up!’ Shouts a voice from across the road.

You look up and see the volleyball coming towards you, and while you are both a tourist in this land and not particularly sporty, you feel a strong need to pass the ball back. The feeling is so strong and sudden that you barely have time to register it before running towards the ball, getting ready to hit it back.

As you run, the firm sound of your comfortable hiking shoes changes to the patter of flip-flops as the clothes around you shift and reform. These new flip-flops would be much too small if it weren’t for the fact that your feet quickly change to match them: rapidly slimming down and taking on both a deep brown hue and the spread of a person who had spent most of their life barefoot. Your jeans and shirt follow as they become baggy and distinctly female in style. Clothes that would be much too small if your body didn’t shift to match them as your feet had. Your body is now slender and curved, with your muscle melting away.

Next, chiffon snakes its way up your neck, forming a hijab that tightly wraps around your head: crushing down like a vice. First, the pressure forces your hair to become long and black, and then it becomes more intense as it causes your face to become south-east Asian in appearance. Finally, the incredible pressure of the hijab’s grip gets so strong that it squeezes your mind: forcing it into a completely new form. Indonesian is your language, Islam is your religion, and you have always been an Indonesian woman.

SMACK! You hit the ball and pass it back. The pressure of the hijab relinquishes, and the elation from returning the ball passes. Instead, you calm down and get ready for the rest of your day. And the rest of your new life.

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