Is There Air?

I had in mind to post this for a while, it just seems that every time I am ready to lay it all down, I tell myself it's just too late now... the story came and went and it is just a strange, intense memory, but maybe not such a big deal to write about... but well, maybe it is...

It's 11:40pm and I am in a hotel near Montreal, QC, just 20 minutes away from 2008... I am tired after the previous days of the conference but in good spirits as we prepare to go downstairs to count our way into a new year; people laugh and are noisy, the cling-clangs of glasses and sweet zooming sounds of happy faces contracting muscles to smile all around...nothing out of the ordinary, just a regular New Year's Eve scene. The small clock-hand is ticking its way to meet the big one, we start walking towards the elevators... 24 of us await for the elevator to come... it comes... it dings... 3, 10, 12, 17, 22 of us enter... 2 are left behind as it's a sardine-can situation... we start cheering and we gyrate... people are loud...some are to crammed and I can hear someone say in a grave voice "I swear to God guys, stop it! What if it breaks?" I glance up and smile at my friend thinking "What if...?" but I don't manage to finish my thought as the elevator shakes and falls abruptly...

Lights get back on... everyone is in one piece standing, we try the buttons, people start wondering where we are... we are down and the doors are blocked... someone organizes us.... 1st row turns to the front, 2nd to the back... we push the alarm button but to me it sounds like a howl in the dark... I think we are deep... but I am calm. People start talking...everyone has something on their mind and they have to speak it.... I am still calm 5...4...3...2...1! Happy New Year!

The button gets rung again and we hear a voice... we all hear what we want "I am coming!" ...well, I guess that's good, at least they know we are here... the elevator is starting to get hot...1st person starts panicking... I call it a fluke... someone is asking if there is air "Is there air?"... no one answers... "Is there?" I ask myself... I am calm and think this is too real to be true... this is too stupid to be right... but I guess this is what it makes it valid... for one good minute I conceptualize... air... we need air to breathe... I need air to breathe and what if there is none?... they need to freakin' shut up and stop wasting air... 1st time I really thought this might be a real life threatening moment... do I start flashing my life in front of my eyes? Do I start praying? Think about a movie scene where the fireman drags people out of an elevator pit? Someone finds air... it's coming in... I am still calm but awake... wide awake! Sweat drops linger on the elevator walls... I sing "Frère Jacque... frère Jacque" to the person to my left as they get pressed to the wall and get claustrophobic... that's the only French song that I can remember... no other than that...

I look at people's faces... sweat drips from chins, noses, foreheads; some people are quiet... I like that... some start becoming agitated... it irritates me... it does... I always imagined that in trick situations calm people get hurt somehow as a reaction to the agitation of others... I am calm and I am selfish... I don't want to get hurt... I know I won't... it's just a waiting game and I like winning... it is just a waiting game... waiting... counting the reactions on people's faces, not managing to really put together a real thread of thoughts that would suit the situation... I am calm.

About 45 minutes, I estimate, they find us... tell us they are getting help... help is coming but now that we know it seems even longer... people get agitated again... it's strange... the players for the "waiting game" just got a bonus, the savior card, yet they start fidgeting more... all of a sudden the attention gets drown towards the outside... every sound and movement amplifies 10 times inside... every word gets round and round and round in people's heads and it seems to disturb the already disturbed ones... strange... I am calm...

Well, the doors open... fresh air pores in and around I hear cries, struggles to get out... my turn comes and I get grabbed and pulled out... outside people look at you if you are "crumpled", then with big eyes they come to hug you... I try to explain that I am OK but it doesn't matter... I guess it does them well to show you that they were worried, scared and now happy to see you out... I am happy to see the rest out...

Almost an hour in an elevator with 21 other people... and yet the only vivid memory that really bugs me is that 1 minute where I asked myself "Is there air?"... What if the answer was different? I am surprised and proud of how I kept myself for this elevator ride... different way of spending the count down to a New Year... thankful I get to write about it!

An elevator club member,
Miruna :o)