Morpho Designs

Descent, Interrupted

Copyright © by Mitchell Allen

As the overhead light flickered on again, the shouts in the stricken elevator subsided. Beside me, a pretty, copper-colored girl was trembling uncontrollably. I knew better than to try to comfort her physically, but I made soothing, shushing noises in her general direction. She seemed to be on the verge of hysteria. I looked to my fellow passengers for help. A low moan escaped her lips, but it was drowned out by the other four voices.

“I’m claustrophobic! I can’t take this,” groaned a middle-aged man in a rumpled blue suit. He slumped against the back of the elevator, letting his briefcase slip from his fingers to bounce onto the floor. He stared at the lighted buttons and the big red digital floor indicator. It read 14.

“This is bullshit! Call the lobby,” ordered a young blonde fellow. He was dressed sharply in an expensive charcoal suit. He wrinkled his nose in distaste at the rest of us.

“Now, now dear. It’s going to be all right,” assured a little old lady. She was speaking to the trembling young lady. The old lady looked like she had been crying, though her red-rimmed eyes were now dry.

“Help!” The muscular teenager looked very frightened as he pounded on the elevator door.

Suddenly, the light flickered and the elevator dropped a few inches.

“Stop that, you dumbass! Do you want to get us killed? Just wait for the technicians!”

The youngster stopped abruptly, as if he had been slapped. Turning to the blonde, he said, “Who you calling a dumbass? Motherfucker, I oughta whip yo’ ass right now!”

“Chill out, young man.” I stepped between them, put my hand on the boy’s arm and glared at the white guy.

The boy swatted my hand away, but kept still. “I ain’t no dumbass. You don’t know me.”

“Well, I’ll be sure to check the six o’clock news tonight. You keep that big ape away from me, you hear?”

“Oh, for Christ’s sake! We had to get stuck in an elevator with Archie Bunker!” I stepped toward the man and stared directly into his eyes. “Listen, fool. I don’t know who you think you are, but this is not the time, and it is definitely not the place for your nonsense. Why don’t you call the lobby yourself!”

The little old lady gasped audibly. “Gentlemen, please! Control yourselves. We’re all upset, but this isn’t helping.”

The other white guy just looked back and forth between me, the youngster and blondie, his eyes taking on the crazed look of a deer caught in the company of tigers.

Blondie brushed past me to grab the elevator phone. “Damn!” He slammed the phone down and picked it up again. Impatiently, he jiggled the switch, listened for a few seconds, then threw the receiver down with a crash.

He then took out his cell phone and punched in the phone number listed on the elevator’s placard.

“Yes. This is Daniel R. Plum the Third. With whom am I speaking? Officer Delaney? I am trapped in elevator number four. No officer, that’s why I called you. Yes, that is correct. Yes there are. Excuse me? Five, officer. Listen, I have an important meeting in thirty minutes, can you please expedite this call? No, dammit! Nobody’s hurt! Just send the damned technician! I don’t have all day!”

“Mr. Plum, why are you so rude?” The little old lady was stroking the young lady’s hair, rocking her gently. She looked imploringly at blondie.

“I’m not rude. I expect people to do their jobs in an efficient manner.”

“You sound like a rude motherfucka to me!”

“Who’s rude, now? I know your mother taught you better …”

Smack!

Without warning, the young man was all over blondie. He grabbed the lapels of the man’s suit and started shaking him.

“My parents are dead! Don’t you say one word about my mother, you bitch-ass!” He pushed blondie so hard that he toppled over the briefcase and fell into blue suit.

“Stop it!” I roared. I grabbed the youngster and pinned him to the elevator doors.

Blondie jumped up and snarled, “I’ll have you arrested for that, you - you thug!” He got up and helped blue suit to his feet. “Sorry, pal. You all right?” Blue suit nodded silently.

The youngster’s breathing became labored. Assuming he was just angry, I kept my hold on him. Suddenly, he grabbed my shoulders and pushed me into the ladies. He fumbled in his pocket and drew out an inhaler.

“He’s got a gun!” Blue suit charged the kid, knocking the inhaler out of his hand. He rabbit-punched him twice, knocking the wind out of him and sending him crashing to the floor.

Everyone looked at blue suit. Everyone except the youngster, who was clutching his throat and making strangling, wheezy sounds.

The little old lady recovered first. she scampered over to the inhaler, snatched it up and rushed over to the youngster. He grabbed it gratefully, pumping and sucking desperately.

“What’s wrong with you, man?” I was furious. “Haven’t you ever seen a gun before?”

Blue suit was visibly shaken. “I – I’m sorry. I just thought …”

“Whatever, man! We all need to chill out! Listen Danny and you, young man. What’s your name!”

“Richard.”

“Danny, Richard. ALL Y’all. Stop the drama! We are stuck in here together. Can we just stay calm until help comes?”

“I think we should listen to him. He is the only one staying in control.” The little old lady looked at me approvingly.

“Thank you, ma’am. You ladies all right?”

They both nodded. The young lady still looked distraught.

Danny’s cell phone chirped. He answered it immediately.

“Plum. Delaney! Where the hell is that technician? What? How should I know?” He turned to the little old lady.

“Are you Barbara Green?”

The little old lady nodded fearfully.

Silently, he handed her the phone. She held it as if it were a poisonous snake.

“Hello? Yes, this is she. Dr. Carmichael? He’s right there? Oh god, please…is he all right?”

She took the phone away from her ear, staring at the device in confusion. Danny took it from her and spoke into it.

“What’s going on? Doctor? Please put Officer Delaney back on the phone. No she looks like she swallowed a frog. You people. Listen, I don’t care about that! I have a meeting in twenty minutes, now put Delaney on the phone!”

Barbara sagged onto the floor. The young lady knelt beside her and cradled her. Blue suit went over and sat down beside them. I just stood there, staring at Danny being a total ass.

“Delaney, godammit, how long can it possibly take for a technician to get here! What? Where is your supervisor! Well, I’ll be talking with her later! If you want a job to come to tomorrow, I suggest you get in touch with the goddamned technician right now!”

Barbara began to cry. “I should have stayed with him. Routine tests. Go get some breakfast. I didn’t know. God, why? Why? He looked so scared. I cried when they wheeled him into the x-ray room.”

The young woman spoke for the first time. “Your husband, he okay?”

Barbara shook her head, “He just went into a coma. He has lung cancer. They just found the tumor this morning.”

“I’m so sorry.” The young lady hugged Barbara as tightly as she dared.

“He never smoked a day in his life. It’s my fault! I tried to give up smoking, but I just couldn’t! He begged me to quit. He begged me! ‘Barbara, you smoke like a furnace. Barbara, you’re killing me.’ “

“I told him he was too mean to die. Oh God!”

“Aw, hell. I’m sorry, Barbara. I was with your husband this morning.” I stared at the floor.

Barbara looked at me questioningly.

“I’m the lab tech. I took Frank’s x-rays. I’m Mitch.”

“Oh God…”

The elevator shook violently. We could hear a clanging noise far above our heads. The young lady shrieked. With a second shudder, the elevator dropped several feet. We all screamed. The red number changed to 12.

“We’re going to die, aren’t we?” asked Richard.

“Oh, shut up!” snapped Danny.

“I don’t want to go out like this. Not after what happened to my dad and my moms.”

“What happened to them, Richard?” The young lady had a velvet voice. I could tell that she was trying to keep us from panicking.

“They were at ground zero.”

We were all stunned. Even Danny gave him a look of contrition.

“Look, boy. I’m sorry. I didn’t know.”

Ignoring the insult, Richard went on. “My moms was a secretary at one of the insurance companies. Dad rode the subway with her every day. They always had a muffin and coffee together in her office. Then he would come back home and sleep until he had to go to work.

“We never hardly saw each other during the week. My big sister would take me to school. I was only in the fifth grade …” He broke down, sobbing uncontrollably.

“I’m so sorry, Richard.” The young lady wiped a tear from her eye.

“It must be tough, growing up without your parents.” Barbara had composed herself, finding solace in the act of comforting Richard.

“Well, me and my sister, we stay with our grandmother. She just had her knee replaced. I guess it’s our turn to take care of her.” He sniffled, wiping his nose with the back of his hand.

“I am sorry, too.” Blue suit stuck out his hand to Richard, who clasped it in his own massive mitt and shook it.

“Thanks, man.”

“Name’s Marty. Marty Schwartz.”

“No shit?” Danny piped up. “You’re not with Cohen, Cohen and Schwartz downtown, are you?”

“Well, yes and no. I’m thinking of leaving.”

“Why? You guys are general counsel for half the hotels in the city!”

“Yeah, but how did you know that?”

“I own the Arcadia. We retained Hainsworth, Ackerman. But you were our next choice. Why would you leave such a lucrative practice?”

“Stress. My doctor told me that the next heart attack could be my last. I’m thinking of slowing down. Take the family out of the city. Get some horses. My wife is a writer and she makes a good living from it. She’s been begging me to retire while we both have our health.

“Our youngest daughter will be starting college next year. So it will just be four of us in the house. The twins will be starting high school.” Marty stared off into space.

I glanced meaningfully at Danny.

“Don’t look at me. I don’t have a story!” Danny puffed his chest out. “Actually, I do.”

“I was invited to join the board of directors of the hospital. I’m supposed to be meeting them right about now.

“That’s why I’m so cranky. I hate it when people slack off. That technician should have been here by now!”

“Well, since we are all sharing,” I quickly interrupted, “I am thinking of quitting my job here,” I took a deep breath.

“I’ve been working on some paintings, but I never seem to have time to devote to really getting some stuff down on canvas. My mentor thinks I have a good chance of showing at some of the local galleries.

“It’s just me and my wife, now. The kids are all grown. She breeds Leonbergers and she is always hinting about getting a place in the country. Hell, the suburbs is country enough for me!”

I sighed and looked over at the young lady. She looked back at me, then put her head down.

“How ’bout you?” Richard asked her. “What’s your story?”

We all looked at her expectantly.

“I’m an actress. My name is Ofelia Moreno, but I’m sure none of you know me.” She giggled nervously.

“I’ve been going to therapy.” She pulled out a vial of pills. “My doctor just prescribed these this morning. I was going to go home and take them all.”

We all gasped and clucked our teeth. Barbara spoke up, “How awful you must feel to even think about doing something like that!”

“I do. I’ve been trying to get help. My life is all peaks and valleys. Last year, I did three projects. Only one of them was released, but still, it was good to work. This year, I auditioned for six parts but nobody calls me.

“I go to mass every day. I study hard. I work at the Ruby Tuesday’s to make a little money. Nothing is going right for me. Even my boyfriend left me after he got a part in a television series!

“I thought, what’s the use of trying any more?”

“But, today, God sent you people to teach me a lesson. I know that it is very wrong for me to take my own life. It is His gift. And I should not toss it away!”

We murmured our agreement. Having spent ourselves emotionally, we ran out of things to say. Each of us sat or stood in our little section of the elevator, lost in our thoughts.

As if sensing that it’s job was done, the elevator rattled one last time and slowly began to descend.