Elevator

The scene could’ve reminded anybody of horror sequences, or of panic and world destruction. I was in an elevator with 4 others. One was a huge baldy guy. One was stocky, like George stocky from Seinfeld. One was a construction worker kind of guy. And the other one was a construction supervisor. We pinned our hopes on him.

Rewind the sequences a little bit and I was just awakened by 6am, on a small single couch. I had slept most of the night while transferring photos from the memory card on to the laptop. Imagine how sleepy I was to get bored by that. I woke up from that transitory sleep, with daylight bouncing off the walls. I blindly got up, and switched off the lights and hurriedly went to the bed to sleep. By 930am, I woke up again, aghast that I was already late for work. Kept a few moans, but still dressed up and fixed my do. What was I thinking before I closed the door and left the condo unit.

From the 27th floor, the lift was going down, picking people up, opening its doors and smiling for it had new things to eat. It was all mirrors. We could see everything from where we were, even that hidden nose picking. I, on the other hand, just kept on looking on the floor display, going down, lower and lower. I could’ve sworn the car fell and stopped around the ‘13th’ floor. That hidden floor in-between buildings. It was the 11th. I stared at that display for 30 minutes. The fall wasn’t like anything in exaggerated cinema; it was like jumping the last two or three steps on the stairs. I couldn’t even react that fast to panic.

Baldy guy uttered something like, “2nd time this week”, and looked at the construction supervisor. It was a Wednesday. Mr. C-S, wasn’t panicking; we should know, he worked here, worked the elevators. It was always him they called when people get stuck in the elevator. But we were with him, inside. He kept pushing the call button and banging the doors.

There was a CCTV camera installed above the doors. Mr. C-S kept waving and no one answered until. ‘George’ was getting a bit impatient and was ranting; “Is the CCTV even working? Is there anybody watching us? There should be a guard down there to monitor.” After all, we were just there, waiting. Like henchmen, eager to go out and rob the world. Waiting for the boss for orders. Waiting to be unleased outside.

I didn’t utter anything or even mouthed words of senseless help and cries of despair. I was looking beyond the people and their reactions. We were stuck and I was claustrophobic. We were five and we had air, lights, and sweat. I was amused at these thoughts. Hey, it was my first time stuck. I could’ve imagined being stuck with Twins, the Hollman’s, the Taylor’s, The Barbi’s, the Jaboom’s... We could’ve partied or sipped tea. We could’ve had sex; I could’ve been worshipped.

I smiled some more, and just then, we heard a knock. Someone from the other side said we were halfway between floors and weren’t able to open the doors. They had to go up the roof deck and restart the whole system. He warned Mr. C-S what would happen. And after a few minutes, there was a blackout, and the elevator conked those weird robotic sounds of heavy lifting once it gained power. The voice from the intercom was telling that everything was ok now. We were going down, back to being grounded.