Pod Person

Story Submitted by Monica:

Drew and I met online.  He claimed to be quite the handyman and alluded to an involving project on which he had worked the summer before.  It wasn't long until he asked me out.

"Why don't you swing by my place, first?" he asked me over the phone, "There's something I want to show you that I know you'll love."

He gave me his address and on the evening of the date, I went there.  It was a large, beautiful brick house on a sizable piece of property.  He met me outside, down his driveway, where I parked and then followed him to the backyard, where a strange metal… pod sat in the grass.  It was about the size of a shack, but it was obviously custom made.  It had no corners and was rounded on all sides, like a riveted, silver cocktail wiener.  Its only windows were two portholes.

In the gathering dusk, he pulled the door open, poked his head in, and looked around.  "This is awesome," he said, "There's a couch in here and it's all wired up and everything."

"Did you make this?" I asked, "It's really cool."

He emerged and said, "Yeah.  It was a summer project last year, but it only took me a couple of days."

I looked within quickly and saw that there was a couch that curled around almost the entire perimeter, and there were a few colored bulbs wired in, although they weren't on.  There was also a space marked out in marker on the wall that said, "For air conditioner."

"Can I help you folks?"  The voice came from behind us.  We turned to see a middle-aged man in a jean jacket, glasses, and a baseball cap.

Drew said, "Oh, yeah.  Well, no.  I, uh… we… I was just… er, showing her the pod."

The man walked past us and closed its door.  "Why don't you get on your way?  This is trespassing."

Drew walked away from there, back towards my car, and I hurried behind him.  Once we were out of earshot, I asked him, "Is this actually your house?"

"No," Drew said, "It's that guy's house."

"And who is that guy?" I asked.

"I don't know.  So, dinner?"

"So you lied that this was your house to get me to go look at that stupid pod that you lied to me about building?"

"Yeah.  So, dinner?"

"No."

I climbed into my car and away I went.