Life in the fast lane

Life In The Fast Lane

‘Have you tried it?’ Megan peered suspiciously into the pod. ‘I mean, have you actually been anywhere?’
‘I set it up in the garage last week,’ Alan said. ‘It worked perfectly. Both ways.’
‘Yes, but it’s a bit different using it further afield. I must admit, it does scare me more than a little.’ She backed away from the strange looking black contraption, which Alan had secured in the corner of the spare bedroom. It must have been four feet high, with just enough room to sit on the small stool inside. She had felt very claustrophobic sitting there.
‘Don’t worry. It works perfectly. Trust me. Take the other pod to work in the morning. I’ll come and help you set it up. We can put it in your store cupboard,’ Alan looked over at his wife’s doubtful expression. ‘Then I’ll use it to get home. It’ll be fine.’
And it was. It was easy getting the pod into Megan’s office. There was no one about at seven in the morning, and once installed, it really took up very little room.
‘Right then,’ Alan studied the control panel. ‘All I have to do is set the co-ordinates for home, press the green button and I’m gone.’ Megan hovered near the pod, looking very unsure of her husband’s latest invention.
‘Come back,’ she blurted as he began programming. ‘Come back and show me that you’re ok.’ Alan smiled, pressed the green button and disappeared in front of her eyes.
For a moment the office was silent. Megan stood staring at where her husband had once been. She was just starting to panic when he appeared again.
‘Told you,’ he grinned triumphantly. ‘Now then, I’m going to take the car home, and I’ll expect you for lunch. Everything’s set. All you have to do is sit down and press the green button,’ and then he was gone.
Megan’s first experience of using the tele-pod was amazing. It was absolutely instant. No sooner had she touched the button, she was sitting in a matching pod in their spare room. She didn’t feel anything. It certainly didn’t feel as though her body had been changed into a thousand particles and transmitted faster than the speed of light. When she looked in the mirror she was still herself. Alan was a genius!
And that was the way it went for several weeks. Alan knew when to expect Megan, and she arrived. Who needed rush hour traffic and all the stresses that went with it?
But then the day arrived when Megan didn’t come home. She had phoned to say she was leaving in five minutes and the lunch was on the table. When she didn’t arrive, Alan phoned her, only to get her voicemail message. Strange, he thought. Then he checked the pod in the spare room. Something was happening, as the co-ordinates had been set for an arrival. So where was she?
In a blind panic, Alan pulled the control panel free from its housing and carefully examined its keyed in co-ordinates. It was definitely set for transporting from the other pod to this one, so where the hell was she?
‘I’m sorry, Megan won’t be in today,’ he told her work the next morning. ‘She’s not at all well.’ God how he hoped that wasn’t true. He hadn’t slept at all last night. Was he responsible for something awful happening to her?
Checking and double checking his programming, Alan couldn’t work out what had gone wrong. Everything was working perfectly.
As the week wore on, and Megan’s absence from work was still explained as illness, Alan started to wonder how he would ever get her back. If he couldn’t find her, how would he explain where she was? He would probably be charged with murder. This was just awful.
His morose thoughts were cut short by the phone ringing. Hoping it wasn’t someone for Megan, Alan answered it.
‘Alan, it’s me,’ came a faint voice down the line.
‘Megan! Where are you? I’ve been worried sick,’ Alan shouted.
‘You’re not going to believe this,’ came the voice he had wanted to hear for days. ‘I’m in a small village just inside the Arctic Circle. They have a pod too. It looks just like ours. Somehow I ended up here. There was no phone so we had to travel to the nearest town,’ she breathed, ‘but I’m fine, Alan. I just need to come home.’
Alan took the co-ordinates and tele-ported himself to her immediately. Once there he met the Russian inventor who had amazingly designed a set of pods almost identical to his own. Somehow, Megan had been picked up by his pod instead of theirs, and had then been too afraid to use it to get home again.
He couldn’t blame her. It must have been most unnerving arriving in a stranger’s basement halfway round the planet when you were expecting to go home for lunch.
Vladimir Tolstoyevski had been working on his teleportation theory for several years now, he explained. And it seemed that he and Alan were not alone. In the days since Megan’s arrival, he had uncovered no less than thirty similar projects around the world. It would now be possible to travel virtually anywhere, instantly. The world, as they say, was their oyster.
‘Wow,’ Megan marvelled at this revelation. ‘Think of the holidays we could have. No more long flights. No more checking in hours early and sitting around in airport lounges.’
‘Yes,’ Vladimir agreed. ‘But first we all need to establish a system whereby we don’t end up in the wrong pod in the wrong place.’
This was very true. Until this was in place, it was probably safer not to use the tele-pods. Of course Megan and Alan had to get home first, which, fortunately, they managed safely. Then Megan began the torturous job of taking the car to work every day and having lunch at her desk again while Alan and his fellow inventors around the world began setting up their destination codes. A lengthy and complicated process.
‘Shall we go to Paris for lunch?’ Alan phoned Megan at work several weeks later.
‘Paris in the Spring,’ Megan smiled. ‘Oh yes. Shall I meet you there at one?’
Sitting at a pavement café on the banks of the Seine, Megan sipped her café au lait. The ‘Paris Pod’ was in the shed of its inventor, a Mme Duvall, and was only a short distance from where they were now sitting, enjoying fine French cuisine. They were by now familiar with all the other inventors, and it was not uncommon for Mme Duvall to have several comings and goings from her garden shed each day. Anyone watching would have wondered what the attraction was, but no one ever questioned the strange goings on.
‘We’re going to Vlad’s at the weekend,’ Alan told Megan from across the table. He’s having a bit of a get together. We’ll be able to meet the Japanese and Kiwi guys.’
‘It’ll be great,’ Megan said happily. ‘We’ll have met everyone then. It’s like having an extended family. I’m so glad we all decided to keep the teleportation to ourselves. Wouldn’t it be awful if it got into the wrong hands?’
Alan nodded and signalled to the waiter for the bill.
‘Better get going,’ he said. ‘You’re back at work in ten minutes.’
As Alan and Megan left, the man at the next table put away his notebook, slipped a ten Euro note under his saucer and followed them at a safe distance out of the café.
‘I’m with them now,’ he said into his mobile phone. ‘I’ll call you when I’ve found it.’ He pulled up the collar of his coat and walked out into the spring sunshine.