The Elevator

            by Ariel Krizack

 

West Oak Apartments. Tucson, Arizona.

 

7 am

 

 

               

            “Where the hell did I put my keys?” Kyle asked as he walked into his empty living room. He rummaged around, looking under the mail and in the crevices of his worn-in sofa.

            “Ah ha! Here they are!” Kyle exclaimed. He ran to the kitchen to pour himself a cup of coffee. Splat. Kyle paused for a moment then touched the top of his head. A drop of water had created a wet spot on his perfectly tamed red hair.

            “God damnit.” He sighed as he clutched the hot coffee in his cold, dry hands. He glanced at the clock.

            “Shit, I’m going to be late for work,” Kyle mumbled to himself. He put the plastic top on his mug, grabbed his briefcase, and rushed out the door. He walked down the hall and through the corridor to the elevator. He pressed the down button, and waited in front of the gilded doors. Kyle could hear someone running down the hallway and through the corridor. A tall man with dark hair and matching dark circles under his eyes stopped in front of the elevator.

            “Do you have early hours as well?” Kyle asked.

            “Nope. Just trying to beat the crowd,” the man replied.

            “The crowd for what?”

            “The flower shop.”

            “The flower shop? I don’t think you need to worry about beating the crowd for flowers at seven in the morning,” said Kyle.

            “Well I need to deliver them to someone before they get to their office.”

            “Your girlfriend?” Kyle asked.

            “Something like that,” the man replied with a growing grin upon his face.

            “I think I’ve seen you around the building before. I’m Kyle.” Kyle stuck out his hand awaiting a firm shake and a “how-do-you-do.”

            The man looked down at Kyle’s hand then rubbed his tired eyes.

            “I’m Nate,” the man said. Nate’s hand gripped Kyle’s.

            “Nice to meet you,” said Kyle.

            The elevator doors opened. Nate and Kyle shuffled in and stared at the peach colored corridor and glass table with a tall porcelain vase of white lilies below a golden framed mirror, as the doors closed tightly.

            “First floor?” a friendly voice asked. Claire Lombardy was the tenant supervisor of the West Oak apartment building. Her father owned many buildings in Tucson, including the West Oak. When Daddy‘s little princess had graduated from high school she had been given only the best and most fabulous apartments Tucson had to offer. The West Oak’s were close to the restaurant where Claire worked and her bedroom had a view of all of Tucson. The city lights calmed her nerves and were her twinkling stars that brought sweet dreams into her head at night. Claire definitely took advantage of her privileged situation, but truly was a sweet girl. Her intelligence was questioned because she never attended college. “I just couldn’t do four more years of school. I needed to start a new life without teachers and homework,” she would say. That didn’t seem to matter to most people. Claire was a typical dumb blonde as Kyle would say, which was a little ironic considering she was a brunette. She had bright blue eyes and a 34D bra size. And after work she seemed to always have a bottle of Chardonnay glued to her left hand and a handsome fellow glued to her right. You could never blame the guy though. Her wardrobe consisted of items one might find on a stage in Las Vegas. The only reason her cleavage wasn’t exposed today was because she was wearing the black button up blouse required for all hostesses working at the Italian restaurant, Amanti. She had parties in her apartment almost every weekend, but she was a very respectful tenant. She never let the music go past volume 14 and she made sure her drunken friends never woke anyone up as they stumbled down the hallways in the wee hours of the morning. 

            “Claire, I have asked you multiple times to get your damn water situation figured out and you still haven’t done anything about it. There are water spots on my ceiling and I felt a drop of water plop on my head this morning. Do you know where it came from? My ceiling, which is attached to the floor of your kitchen.”

            “Calm down, Kyle. Don’t have a heart attack. I have been waiting for them to come see what the problem is. They said they were gonna come last Friday, but they didn’t.”

            “When did you call them?” Kyle asked.

            “Uh… Last Sunday.”

            “Last Sunday? I talked to you about this two weeks ago.”

            “Well I’ve been busy.”

            “Claire if this doesn’t get fixed soon I’m going to have to call my lawyer.”

            “Oh hush. You worry too much. Give it a rest. I’ll fix it.”

            The elevator made another stop on the fifteenth floor. The doors opened and a young man with a green Jansport backpack entered; his shaggy brown hair just short enough to reveal his large hazel eyes.

            “Good morning,” the young man said cheerfully. Adrian was a third year student at the University of Arizona and lived by himself in one of the West Oak apartments, rented with lucky lottery money won by his father. Adrian had been shy during his younger years. His father hadn’t been able to afford nice clothes or shoes so Adrian had worn oversized hand-me-down shirts and pants that would slither down his skinny legs. One year he received a new belt for Christmas, but it had been stolen by the tormenting bullies that had it out for awkward Adrian. But after the lotto, Adrian’s luck changed and so had his physical features. School was now something to look forward to and the University of Arizona fit him like the new pair of shoes he had once desperately needed.

            “Hello Adrian,” chimed Claire. “You’re looking very adorable, as usual.”

            “Thanks,” Adrian replied with a bit of a chuckle. Claire was a huge flirt, especially with Adrian. She had tried countless times to bring Adrian up to her apartment after they bumped into each other coming home from a late night party or work shift. Adrian declined every time. There was another girl that seemed to be occupying his thoughts.

            Nate pressed his lips together and glared at Adrian, not once blinking his puffy, dark eyes, all of a sudden everything shook, the lights flickered, and a huge thump halted the moving elevator. For one moment all was silent and still. Fear ran through the four individuals’ veins.

            “What the hell was that?” Claire shrieked.

            “The elevator must have broke or something,” replied Adrian.

            “Well, what do we do?” Claire panicked.

            “Just press that red button that calls for help,” Kyle said.

            Claire jabbed violently at the red button with the alarm symbol on it.

            “I’m going to call building security…Shit! No service. Does anyone else have service?”

            The three men reached into their pockets and pulled out their cell phones.

            “Nope.”

            “No.”

            “I guess there’s no service in elevators.”

            “Oh my god! This is horrible! We’re going to be stuck in this damn elevator forever. I have a date tonight. He’s going to think I stood him up and then he’s never going to want to see me again. And then he’s going to tell all his friends that I’m a B-I-T-C-H and oh god… Why me?”

            “You really need to calm down. We’re not going to be stuck in here forever. It will just be a little while until they’re able to fix it,” said Kyle.

            “There has got to be another way out of here. Isn’t there a fire escape door somewhere? Elevators usually have those things,” Adrian said.

            “I don’t think so. This building might look gorgeous, but it hasn’t been remodeled since 1926.” Claire closed her eyes, inhaled and exhaled a few times, and then sat down slowly on the cold, shiny elevator floor. The three men plopped down as well, each one sitting at least a foot away from one another. Silence filled the small space and added to the already unpleasant situation. Claire started picking at her split ends, Adrian fiddled with the shoelaces on his fresh pair of Adidas, Kyle rummaged through his briefcase for nothing in particular, and Nate’s hand stroked the cool, silver blade in the right pocket of his blue jeans.

            “So, is everyone going to be late for work now?” Adrian said to brake the suffocating silence.

            “Yeah, but whatever keeps me away from that office is a good thing,” said Kyle. “All my co-workers are so dull and boring.”

            “Really? I could say the same about you, Kyle,” Claire piped in.

            “You know, just because I don’t get drunk every night and spend all my dad’s money doesn’t mean I don’t know how to have a good time.”

            “Hey! That’s not all I do.”

            “Well I’ve seen no sign of anything different.”

            “I’ve been nothing but nice to you and yet you continue to judge me. Why don’t you get to know me and then make judgments.”

            The smirk on Kyle’s face quickly turned into a frown. His head lowered and for the first time, he didn‘t know what to say.

            Adrian attempted to change the topic as quickly as possible. “I don’t think I’ve ever met you before. Do you live in this building?” Adrian asked Nate.

            Nate’s glare moved from his pocket to Adrian’s face, but his hand remained inside. Nate paused for a moment to study Adrian’s facial features; the tiny freckles that covered his nose, his long, feminine eyelashes, and the small silver stud that pierced his left earlobe.

            “Yes,” replied Nate in his usual monotonous tone.

            “Well you look tired. Had a rough night?”

            “You could say that.”

            Adrian produced a small smile then turned his head upward to stare at the tall elevator ceiling covered with a blurry mirror.

            “This is taking so long. How many hours has it been?” asked Claire.

            “It’s been 45 minutes,” Kyle replied.

             Claire let out a big breath of exasperation before she pulled out a bottle of Dasani from her handbag. She took a giant gulp then trickled some water into the palms of her hands and splashed it onto her face. Then she reached into her bag hoping to find her sky blue handkerchief with initials C.L. embroidered in the corner. It was not to be found.

            The four of them did not say a word for the next 15 minutes or so. The noise of Claire’s throat swallowing the sips of cool, clear liquid sounded like 1,000 water pipes flowing into the sewers. Nate’s breaths became faster and louder with each minute while his shut eyes twitched in a fluttering motion. His sinus congestion grew more evident along with his abnormal sleeping habits. Adrian, Claire, and Kyle all focused on the tiny droplet of saliva slowly falling from the right corner of his mouth and dribbling onto his chin.

            “Is he okay?” asked Kyle.

            “I don’t know. I guess he’s just asleep,” Adrian replied.

            “Yeah, but he’s freaking me out. Why is he making those sounds and what‘s wrong with his eyes? I don’t know anyone who sleeps like that,” said Claire.

            “Should we wake him up?” Kyle asked.

            “I don’t know. What if he gets really mad and tries to kill us all?” Claire said.

            “Uh, I don’t think he would kill us just for waking him up,” said Adrian.

            “Probably not, but he seems so unnatural. It scares me.”

            “Now that I think about it, he said something a little odd before we got onto the elevator,” Kyle mentioned. “He said he was trying to beat the crowd to the flower shop. Who needs to beat the crowd to a flower shop at 7 in the morning?”

            “Oh that reminds me. I need to pick up a bouquet before this evening,” Adrian said.

            “Ooh. For your girlfriend?” asked Claire.

            “Well I guess she’s something like that.”
            “What’s her name? How did you meet her?”

            “Her name is Stella and we met at a jazz concert about two months ago.”

            “That’s adorable… Oh so that’s why you never wanted to come hang out at my apartment with me. You were with her.”

            “Um…Yeah…Sure.”

            “Well I’m very happy for you.”

            “Thanks.”

            Nate was still asleep only now the twitching motions in his eyes were more rapid and his heavy breaths developed into an even heavier wheeze.

            “He’s really starting to scare me. I think we should -” Kyle was interrupted by the gears of the elevator sluggishly turning and pushing the elevator down.

            “Oh my god! We’re moving!” Claire exclaimed.

            Although the elevator was moving at the pace of a tortoise, it was enough to startle and awake Nate.

            “What the… What’s going on? He asked, rubbing his eyes to clear up his blurred vision.

            “The elevator is moving!” exclaimed Claire, once again.

            Kyle, Nate, Claire, and Adrian all sat still as statues as they watched the glow upon the numbers above the elevator doors move from 13 to 12. The glow stopped on number 12 along with the elevator. The doors opened to reveal two firefighters, a police officer, and the West Oak Apartment’s building security.

            “Are you folks alright?” the police officer asked as the four people collected their belongings, stood up, and walked out of the elevator.

            “Yeah we’re fine. But we pushed that red alarm button like an hour and a half ago. You guys need to work on your speed,” Claire complained.

            “I’m very sorry miss. We had some complications. We fixed the elevator as soon as possible.”

            “Thank you very much. We appreciate it,” said Kyle.

            The two firefighters, the police officer, and building security stood in front of the open doors, discussing why and how the elevator had stopped. Claire quickly said goodbye to the boys before deciding to take the stairs to the bottom floor. Nate walked briskly through the corridor and down the hallway with his eyes on his watch and his right hand scratching his flaky scalp. A folded piece of paper fell out of his pocket and landed on the freshly vacuumed, royal purple carpeting of the hallway. Kyle bent down to pick up the piece of paper. It was folded three times with a red heart on the last fold.

            “Wait, you dropped something.”

            Nate was gone. Out of sight. And surely did not hear Kyle. Kyle hesitated before opening the piece of paper. He knew he shouldn’t read other people’s notes and things, but on this occasion he could not resist. It was a letter. It read:

           

            Dear Stella,

            My life without you is nothing. My life without you is a dark hole that has no end. I know you will never love me the way I love you. But the fact is, I need you. And yet, I can’t have you. You have moved on and now I must move on as well. Goodbye Stella. Maybe we can reunite someday in heaven. Or maybe it will be hell. I will always love you.

 

            Love, Nate.

P.S. I hope you like the flowers. I know orchids are your favorite.

           

            Kyle stared at the rigid writing on the paper. His eyes grew wide and his jaw dropped.

            “Hey, whatchya got there, Kyle?” Adrian asked as he walked out of the corridor.

            Kyle handed Adrian the letter, jaw still hanging open, with no words. Adrian’s eyes read over the text. Once. Twice. Three times. The letter fell from Adrian’s hands onto the purple carpet. He leaned his back against the bumpy hallway walls. His legs became numb. Collapse.