Children Short Story – Stuck up in an elevator
Photo credit: hamper from morguefile.com
Swapnil usually used to leave at 7 PM from the office, but still then also almost in 90% cases used to be alone in the elevator going down to ground floor, from his 14th floor, as most of them would had left by then and rest would be leaving at different times not clashing with any other’s timing mostly. Since he was working away from his home town, he just grew up a good habit of calling his home a lot of times a day at different specific times like after waking up in the morning, leaving for office, reaching office, before lunch, leaving from office at night, reaching home, after dinner and before going for sleep.
So like this once Swapnil was about to leave from his office. He got up into an elevator and just as he crossed 14th floor and was half way between 14th and 13th floor, there was a power cut and the elevator stopped immediately without moving a bit again. Now it was a small company where Swapnil used to work. This company hired a couple of floors in a flat and was running. Also except these couple of floors all other floors were under construction and none of the habitants did come. Also it was 5 minutes past 7 PM then and as mentioned earlier, almost 90% employees had left by that time.
Only one care taker was there who lived at the ground floor and it was his duty to turn on the generator during load shedding. But he also being aware of the fact that everyone might had left except only few cases, and that those rest could wait till the power is back again or would come down by using the stair cases if in a hurry, he thought of waiting till he gets special request to start on the generator so that one could use the elevator to come down, and just letting this particular idea to fly away, that one might even get stuck up in the elevator then itself during the power cut.
Also the elevator was having opaque doors and was also not having any opening on top for fans, viewable from the inside of the lift, rather was having one more shelf like thing on top which would allow the air of the fan above it, to come by its side to people standing below. So in one word Swapnil got stuck from all sides. Neither the door was opening, nor would his voice reach ground floor from 13th floor, if he had shouted. So how would he call the care taker? He had no network in his cell inside the elevator. Also if he continued waiting till the care taker to become aware of this, it could be next morning even or if he waited for the power again to come back, it could be more than hours. Swapnil started thinking deeply and suddenly a trick came to his mind.
He knew that just when he left from the office he used to call his mom. So automatically when she dint use to get any call at that time for a long time, she only use to call and then accordingly Swapnil used to inform her whether he would be more late or was just leaving. So that day also within another 15 minutes she would be calling but again that day she would not be able to reach him as there was no network in Swapnil’s phone. He was yet to call his mom and inform his that day’s leaving from the office and so immediately took out his cell and switched on the “Call Divert” facility in his mobile and diverted it to the phone in front of the care taker’s seat.
Naturally after 15 minutes when Swapnil’s mom called him, it got connected to the phone near the care taker. The care taker took the phone and automatically from the other side Swapnil’s mom said, “Hey Swapnil, what happened, you dint call me today? Will you be getting late or you were just about to leave and call me?”
To this the care taker said, “Mam I am not Swapnil but care taker. I guess you mistakenly called me.”
Then Swapnil’s mom said, “No I called him only but it got connected to this one. So I think my son has intentionally done this to make us understand that he is in some trouble and that he is unable to tell this to anyone.”
Immediately the care taker realised and said, “O yes, I got it. He might have got stuck up in the elevator. Since very few generally stays till this time, I thought of not starting the generator anymore till anyone requests me to do so, as there is a power cut here currently, and just completely forgotten that somebody might have just stepped in the elevator and got stuck in the power cut. But yes, from now on, rather than guessing I would first check and then draw conclusion that whether anyone else is still there or not and then stop switching on the generator during power cut. I am sorry. Now I also remember that I have seen Swapnil many a times leaving at this time earlier also. So I must have remembered this. I would immediately switch on the generator.”
He switched on and Swapnil then came down, thanked the care taker, talked to his mom, assured everyone that he is fine again and then switched off the “Call Divert” of his cell once more.
__END__
