Dedicated to My Beautiful City that Never Sleeps

The elevator doors opened. That, in itself, was not a bad thing. What was awful was that they opened half-way between floors scaring the five occupants terribly. Considering that the elevator had come to a shocking stop with one jolt, the people contained within were not happy campers.

Five strangers, all trapped. Five hearts racing so fast you could almost hear the heartbeats.

"It looks we're stuck here, might as well introduce ourselves, I'm Linda," said a young woman with long blond hair.

A tall young man with dreadlocks, shook his head with a flourish saying, "I'm Sammy, I'm supposed to be delivering a package here."

 "Yeah, yeah who gives a crap who anyone is. Let's get this piece of crap moving, push a damn button or something",a heavy set middle aged man blurted out.

 "Now, that's not nice, introduce yourself the right way. This idiot is my husband Larry and I'm Barbara", she stated as she glared at her husband.

All eyes turned on the fifth occupant of the elevator a lovely dark haired girl, who was extremely pregnant and also in the throes of a massive panic attack.

The girl pressed her back against the wall, holding on to the brass railing that ran across the mid-section of the elevator. She held on so tightly that her knuckles were blanched white. Her breath was becoming more rapid with each passing minute and you could see the panic in her eyes. Looking at her you immediately thought of a deer trapped in someone's headlights unable to move even an inch.

Barbara moved slowly towards the girl, speaking softly as she moved, "Honey, just breathe easy now, everything is going to be fine. They'll have us moving in just a few minutes. What's your name sweetie?"

The girl raised a limp hand to her head, closed her eyes and started to slide down, Barbara and Sammy each grabbed one arm and let the girl gently down in a sitting position with her back against the wall.

Barbara felt the girl's pulse, which was returning to normal, saying, "She'll be alright, just a bit of a fright maybe she's claustrophobic. I was a nurse before I retired."

 

The dark haired girl was breathing a bit better.  She opened her eyes quietly watching everyone. "My name is Brittany and I'm very scared."

Linda knelt down towards the girl saying "Please don't be frightened, they must have people working on getting us out of here already, it will just be a short time, you'll see."

Larry was grumbling to himself, you could just catch some words, "Stupid, ridiculous, of all the crap that could happen, it had to be today". His wife was trying to calm him down also.

Sammy gave a huge sigh and asked,"What's up with him? Ain' none of us happy about this but no reason to carry on so."

"Well, today has not been a good day for my husband. He has been trying to get a patent for an invention of his for over three years now. Everyplace has him do more paperwork and then sends him somewhere else. It's very frustrating." said Barbara.

"Okay, well I've been run all over this town today, delivering one package after another. I'm still not done, have to be downtown before 9:30 A.M. and now I'm not gonna make it." Sammy said.

Linda looked up at the others, shaking her head making her hair bounce to one side. "I'm in a rush too, I have a job interview at ten o'clock, I can't be late. This is something I've wanted,something I've waited for, my dream job. How is it going to look if I'm late?"

Brittany had been sitting there listening to everybody speak, taking it all in. "If anyone is interested I was on my way to a very important appointment, one that would decide if I kept my baby or if I had found the right parents for him."

"Well, said Barbara, it seems that we all have our priorities in order. Maybe if we make a little bit of noise someone will answer us?"

Saying that, she proceeded to take her high heels off and using the metal end of her heel, started to tap out a rough SOS against the metal edging of the elevator.

Brittany had quietly started to cry, putting her head down on top of her arms so as to hide the fact from the others. Linda, once again, knelt down beside her and placed an arm around her, giving her a hug. "Hang in there kid, better days are coming!" she said to her.

 

Brittany looked up at her and said "I could see the look on everybody's face, you all think I'm terrible because I'm thinking of giving up my baby!"

"Hell, we don't even know you, much less know enough about you to judge you." Larry piped in. "All I want to do is get the hell out of here so I can keep my appointment!"

"Larry, you big ape, shut up and don't go yelling at this kid!" exclaimed his wife.

Linda said "Well, just think this over logically. Other people will want to use this elevator, there has to be a back up of people waiting for it to come down. So logically they should be aware of the fact that we are stuck in limbo. Unless someone has a cell phone on them?" Everyone shook their heads saying "No."

Sammy started to rummage around in his courier pack for something. He pulled out an old Walkman, turned it on, trying to get music. "I figured it might ease us up a bit, relax the moment."

The others nodded in agreement, the music even if it was Rap, it took their mind off their predicament. If only for a little while.

It seems like hours had passed, but it really had only been an hour since the elevator doors opened.

The music suddenly stopped playing, they were making some kind of emergency announcement. Something about a plane flying into the World Trade Building, a horrible accident?

"Please make it louder, if you can" asked Linda.

Sammy tried his best to readjust the sound and reception, finally getting it in the best he could.

Everyone in the elevator was stone cold silent. The impact of what they were hearing was beyond their ken. The news reporter only had sketchy reports at best, it seemed that chaos reigned at the scene of the accident.

Now the announcer was saying that a second plane had hit the other tower too, this wasn't any accident!

Linda slowly sank to the floor on her knees, crying softly as she did. "My interview was in Tower I on the 90th floor. This elevator saved me!"

The messenger, Sammy, shook his head saying "Dear Lord, I would of been there too, my next delivery was to Tower I, 91st floor."

Larry and Barbara looked at one another and grabbed each other. "That was where they had us going for the next step in patenting his invention!"

Slowly, they all turned their attention towards Brittany.  She looked up saying "I'm almost afraid to say that it was where I was headed. But, it's true. The lawyers office is on the 89th floor and I was supposed to meet the couple there."

Linda said I think I speak for all of us. "Dear Lord, thank  you for saving us and keeping us away from the awful danger that took place today, September 11th, 2001."

Everyone in the elevator was in a mood of quiet reflection.

 Everyone reacts differently to shock and this had shocked them to their core. The thoughts ran in unison, "I'm alive, I'm alive."


None of the pettiness that engulfed them before was even thought about, only life. Also the humble thought that in this huge city they should be the ones saved by fate?

All of a sudden the elevator gave a slight jolt and started to move downwards. The five people backed away from the open doors, waiting for the elevator to stop in a decent manner.

Five suddenly changed people exited when the elevator doors opened.