Elevator Ride Gone Wrong

Friday night, Andy finally got home to his apartment building and entered an empty elevator. He thinks to himself aww a much-needed quiet elevator ride to my apartment to start a relaxing weekend all alone. But he was not even done with the thought as an old lady with a walker entered the elevator and a mom with a baby. Andy thinks here goes my quiet ride. As everyone chooses the floor, they need to get to the doors finally closing, and the elevator starts going up. Andy noticed the old lady had some groceries and the young Mom was rocking her sleeping baby. Everyone wants to get home and continue with their evening. As the elevator changes floors, it suddenly stops, lights go out, and emergency lights come on. The elevator is not moving. Everyone in the elevator looks at each other with a puzzled look. What should they do? Who should do something? Andy thinks oh boy, now he steps forward and says: Let me see what I can do to get this elevator going again. He pushes a few buttons, but nothing happens. The baby wakes up and starts crying. The Mom starts rocking it but no change. She quickly reaches for a bottle for the baby, and everything goes quiet. Andy looks at the old lady and asks, “Are you doing, ok? My name is Andy.” The old lady looks at him with a smile and says, “Yes, I’m doing ok. My name is Ruth. I want to get home.” Andy ensures her he is going to work on that. The Mom chimes in and says, “Thank you, Andy, for stepping up to help us all. I’m Mona, and this is Elli, my baby.” “So lovely to meet you,” says Andy; “I wish it was under better circumstances. Both ladies agree with him. Andy tries to get to the emergency phone and calls for help. He has it working in no time and is talking to a dispatcher. Andy explains the situation, and the dispatcher insures him that help will come soon. The dispatcher tells Andy there is a power outage in the city, and it could be a while before they can get to them. Before Andy hung up, the dispatcher made sure everyone was ok in the elevator and told him to call right away when something changed. Andy thanked the dispatcher. Then he told the ladies that help was on the way. Everyone was ok hearing that help was on the way. The wait, however, turned into an endless wait. A minute seemed like half an hour. Everyone was getting anxious to get out of that elevator. The baby, now with a full tummy, was sleeping again. Ruth looks at the baby and says, “I wish I could sleep like that.” Mona looks at Ruth and nods her head. Andy, just watching them talk, thinks, when is the help coming? I want to get out of here. But he did not let the others know he was getting that anxious. He thought, smile and stay calm, and all will be ok. After sometime passed Andy looked at the ladies and said, “so what plans of yours got put on hold for now?” Mona giggled and said:” Getting little Elli to bed on time and sitting down watching a good movie.” “Oh, just making supper and maybe playing cards later with my neighbor lady,” Ruth chimed in. “Sounds like some nice plans. I was going to relax and do nothing. Did not expect to be stuck in this elevator for that long.  Sorry I cannot fix it any faster. So, Ruth, how long have you lived here in the building? Most of the time I never see anybody because I work so much,” said Andy, who just wanted to distract the ladies from being stuck in the elevator. “Oh, I lived here for about 6 years now. My husband passed away about 5 years ago and I found this little apartment here and just love it here. I have a very sweet neighbor lady and we always get together to play card, shared Ruth with everyone. “Aww sorry to hear about your husband, but how nice you found a great new home,” Mona chimed in. “We just moved here temporary until we can buy a house. Would love to have a yard so our little Elli can play save outside. My husband is currently on a business trip and will not be back till next weekend,” said Mona. “I hope you will find a nice house just like you wish for. I myself have been here for about 2 years. Not sure for how long I will be here. For right now its a good fit for me. Single and close to my work,” Andy smiled. “Oh, you are all so nice, said Ruth’ “it makes me so happy to see I have such good neighbors even so we live on different floors. When you get older you often wonder who else lives around you.” “If you ever need help, just come to my door and ring the bell, I would love to help out,” Andy offered. “Oh, thank you so much Andy, that is very nice of you, “Ruth said with a big smile on her face. “Hello! Hello! Anybody here?” “Yes, we are in the elevator. Three adults and one baby!” Andy shouted to the voice coming from outside the elevator. “Great to hear your voices! I am Steve with the local Fire department.  Are you all ok? Anyone hurt?”  “No, we are all ok. Just love to get out of here, said Andy.  “Ok, I can help with that. The doors will open in a moment. Please step to the back of the elevator”, said the firefighter from the outside. “We will. Thank you, Andy replied. With a loud squeak the doors opened and everyone could see Steve the firefighter. Everyone was so happy to get out of the elevator. It had gotten a little warm in there and the air was a little sticky. A big thank you was given to Steve for saving the day. Andy helped both ladies and the baby, who was still amazingly sleeping, home and at last he was home and could begin to relax, even so it was way later than he expected it to start. But he was ok and that was the most important part. Thank God he was and the others!