Elevator by Abbey Beach ~Central Vermont Catholic School

I was walking down the hall to an elevator when I picked a hair off my shirt.  Just then I had a horrible feeling in  my gut that told me to take the stairs.  I decided to ignore it, so I got into the elevator and I saw this little girl and her mom.  I said hi and turned to face the door of the elevator.  Just then, the elevator came to a hard stop.  We braced ourselves. I fluffed my skirt and asked, "Are you O.K.?"  she replied with a "get me out of here" tone of voice.  "Ya, I'm good. You?"  I sighed and said "Sure".  Right when I said that, the child started to cry. "Maybe we should sit," I said, and we sat down.

About 10 minutes later, I looked in my bag. Tthere was a granola bar, a sandwich, 3 Hershey's kisses in a bag, with a note saying "Luv Ya."  My boyfriend does that once a month, so I have something to look forward to. "Hey," I said quietly, "Are you guys hungry?"  The child noddded and ran over to my side and pointed to a Hershey's kiss.  I handed one to her and she shyly mumbled, "Thanks," and ran back.  "You want one?" I asked the lady.  I stuck out my hand with a Hershey's kiss and surprisingly she said, "Oh, no thanks."  So I ate it and saved one for her for later.

"So what's your name?" I asked the lady.  "Maralyn, but you can call me Mary."  I smiled and said " I like that name. That's my sister's name.  My name is Nicole, but you can call me Nikky."  Right then the child looked at me. Mary smiled and said, "That's her name. That's so cool you guys have the same name!  How do you spell yours?"  "I spell it N-i-k-k-y."

Right then, the child got up,laughed, and ran over and hugged me.  I took that as a sign that we spelled our names the same way.  We chatted off and on for the next 1 1/2 hours, until the elevator started to lower.

When we finally got out of the elevator, we saw a small crowd of people.  I saw my boyfriend and another man standing behind yellow tape.  They both ducked under the tape and started running toward us. We both got big hugs, and we all went on to what we were doing before we got stuck in the elevator.

• 
• 172 of 807
•