This was inspired by a random thought I had while waiting for my husband by a lift.
“I’ll race you!” yelled Jayne as she wrenched open the door to the stairwell. Nathan smiled as he pressed the call button. Every day, the same routine. Jayne insisted on sprinting up all five flights of stairs, as if she was in training for the Olympics, while Nathan waited patiently for the lift. She always won, of course. It had been a close call on occasion but usually the creaking lift, which was as old as the 1960s tower block they lived in, took its time to arrive and even longer to deposit you onto the fifth floor.
Nathan knew he could just take the stairs, and often he was forced to when the familiar ‘out of order’ sign was hastily stuck to the battered metal doors, but he preferred the lift, even if it did mean his inevitable defeat to his competitive wife. He secretly loved waiting for the doors to open, revealing Jayne leaning against the wall, trying to look like she wasn’t out of breath, as she gleefully proclaimed “I win. Again!”
As Nathan finally saw the well-worn doors slowly part, he grabbed the shopping and stepped inside. They closed behind him with a clunk as the lift began to make its descent.
Meanwhile, Jayne was already on floor three. Two years of climbing the stairs at least once a day meant this was a well practiced routine. Floor one had the step with the chipped corner, meaning you needed to stick to the middle, while floor three had a tricky step which was slightly wobbly around halfway up. Jayne knew every crack and crevice by now, her feet darting from side to side to climb up the optimum path. It was almost autonomous at this point, and she even knew how long before Nathan arrived.
The earliest he’d ever appeared was a split second after her. On that day, the lift had been on the ground floor when he hit the button. He’d been so surprised, he didn’t move for a second or so. If he had, then maybe he would have finally snatched a victory. In contrast, his longest defeat was the time the lift got stuck between floors three and four, and it took almost three hours before the maintenance guy was able to force the doors and get him out.
Usually it took around a minute or two for him to catch up. Just enough time for Jayne to catch her breath before standing nonchalantly against the wall opposite the lift doors. Today was no different as she grinned at the opening doors. At least it wasn’t before the doors opened to show the lift was completely empty.
Jayne assumed Nathan had forgotten something and darted back to the car, but the lift made two more slow and steady trips down to the ground floor and back up, and both times it was empty when it reached the fifth floor.
Starting to get concerned, Jayne ran back down the stairs, taking them two at a time, to find an equally empty hallway downstairs. Her heart pounding now, she ran out to the car park. There was their battered old Toyota, with no sign of Nathan.
Cursing him for pranking her, she began to check each floor in turn. Nothing. Then the flat. Nothing.
When she got back down to the ground floor for the third time, one of the flat doors opened in response to her shouting Nathan’s name repeatedly, her tone getting more and more urgent with each call.
“What’s happened?” asked Norma, an elderly woman who Jayne and Nathan often helped out with running errands.
“I can’t find Nathan” said Jayne, on the verge of tears, “He didn’t appear in the lift as usual, he’s not by the car, and I’ve checked every floor as well as our flat.”
“That’s weird” said Norma. “I saw him get into the lift not long ago. At least I thought it was him. Was he wearing that navy cap he loves so much and a black hoodie? Carrying bags of groceries?”
“Yes. That’s definitely him. Why hasn’t he appeared on our floor?”
Jayne was in a panic now.
“Did you check the flat? I bet he got off on the fourth floor then ran up as you went down to prank you.”
“That does sound like him,” Jayne sighed exasperated.
She decided to take the lift herself this time, wanting to figure this out quickly. She pressed the button and the doors opened. Jayne entered the lift and hit the button for the fifth floor. As she passed floor three there was a sudden weird flash as the lights flickered for a moment. “Stupid machinery” she muttered to herself as the lift continued to rise.
Shortly after the doors opened on the fifth floor, revealing an empty lift.