To Venus in Five Seconds: He Thought It Was a Date

When Zumeena invited Thomas into her summerhouse, he assumed she admired him. She did. Unfortunately, not in the way he hoped.

Thomas was a handsome medical student with a father in the pill business. Zumeena was a physician. She had taken a particular interest in his physique.

Inside the little building were padded walls and curious levers. Thomas shut the door. Something clicked behind him.

Zumeena touched the controls. Soon she told him they were above Venus. Thomas decided to be polite to someone who was clearly talking nonsense.

She opened a shutter. Light struck his eyes so fiercely that she handed him dark blue spectacles. He put them on and looked again.

Outside lay a garden enlarged beyond reason. Flowers spread like roofs. Strange creatures moved between enormous stems.

Thomas laughed. A magnifying glass! At last, something he could understand. He congratulated her, then began explaining how much money her invention could make.

Zumeena opened the door. Beyond it was empty air. Far below, the impossible garden rose slowly to meet them.

The summerhouse settled onto violet moss. Heat pressed through the doorway. The flowers were still enormous without any glass between them and his eyes.

Even now, Thomas had a proposal: his father’s advertising manager could help. Zumeena had crossed space. Surely she needed advice about selling tickets.

Zumeena looked at him. Was he really this foolish, she asked, or was he pretending? For once, Thomas could not find an answer.

Outside, a flower stood taller than a house. Thomas had arrived on Venus with an excellent opinion of himself. It was the only thing he had brought that still seemed large.