Five minutes to nine o’clock, two people walk into their mundane soul-sucking office building. A middle-aged man and a young woman both dressed in suits but one, the woman, clearly more put together as she confidently strides to the door. The man rushes from his car, worried he’ll be late again, juggling his bag and coffee as he fixes his tie. The woman walks inside and steps into the elevator, checking her watch, as she waits for the doors to close.

“Hold the elevator!” the man shouts.

The woman stares at him, motionless, through the closing gap.

The man rushes in before the doors fully close, “Morning, Odette…. Thanks for holding the elevator,” he says with a fake smile.

“Mark…” Odette replies with a dismissive nod as she presses the floor button.

They ride up the elevator in silence until they hear a loud clunk. The elevator shudders to a stop mid-floor.

Odette breaks the silence, “What just happened? Why aren’t we moving? I have a meeting in ten minutes!” Distress slowly creeps into her voice.

“I don’t know what happened, it’s stuck, sometimes that just happens with elevators,” Mark coolly replies in attempt to calm his own growing anxieties.

“It just happens? Just happens! I didn’t know that elevators just decide to stop working!” Odette cries as she frantically presses the emergency button, “Why isn’t this working!”

“There’s no point to pressing it over and over again! Stop acting like one of my kids!” Mark snaps.

“You and your damn kids…” Odette mutters to herself as she rolls her eyes.

Mark continues reassuring himself, “It’s all going to work out fine, the emergency button must have alerted someone. Help will come soon… I doubt we’ll be trapped in here longer than twenty minutes.”

Odette groans as she slides down sitting on the floor of the elevator, whispering to herself, “But… my meeting,” as she leans her head back in defeat.

Ten minutes went by, then twenty, then an hour comes to pass. Silence had filled the elevator once again, aside from the soft rustling of paper. Corporate documents were strewn across the elevator floor as they both tried to ignore their fear. Mark took a sip of his coffee, hoping to be comforted by its warm flavor, but was only greeted by the pungent taste of burnt swirled with sugary water as it slides down his throat.

“Ugh, this is cold!” Mark shouts in disgust. “I can’t take this anymore! We need to get out of here! I’m already in trouble for being late, and this will be the last straw. I can’t get fired; I need to support my kids!”

“Will you shut up! You already said there was no point in panicking because it’s not going to get us anywhere. Help is coming soon, that’s what you said.” Odette shouts in return, and then adds, “Isn’t that what you want anyway, to be fired?”

“Help isn’t coming, Odette! Wait, what? Why would I want to be fired?” Mark says, no longer shouting. His face being the definition of confusion.

“Because then you could spend the little time you actually are here, back with your kids.”

“Are you serious?” Mark rolls his eyes, but then realization hits. Shooting Odette an accusatory glare he exclaims, “I knew it was you that complained to corporate about people being late and missing work!”

“What- I- I don’t-” Odette stutters at a loss of words. Quickly recovering, she retorts, “Well some of us actually want this job! And- and you know there are plenty of people in the office that wouldn’t hesitate to throw you out in the cold!”

“I saw you! Last week, you were complaining to Colleen from accounting!”

Odette thinks back in her mind to the week before in the breakroom. Her mind pinpointing the moment Mark is talking about. The forgotten memories come rushing back. Pouring herself a cup of hot coffee, its sweet aroma filling the room, as she vents to her friend Colleen from accounting. She tersely says to her friend, “He was fifteen minutes late to the meeting, Colleen! I was in the middle of my presentation, and he had the nerve to make humor of why he was late, saying to the room, ‘You know how it is when your daughter can’t find her princess tiara for show and tell, it’s like unleashing Godzilla.’ And everyone in the room all laughed like, ‘Hahaha yes I have so much testosterone haha’ she adds in a pretending deep voice as she sips her coffee.

“Really, he said those exact words? That doesn’t sound like Mark or any actual men laughing,” Colleen says in a doubting tone.

Odette slams down the mug with a loud bang, scalding coffee splashing onto her friend’s hand, as Odette glares at Colleen, “I don’t know, it was something misogynistic like that!”

“I think he’s just trying his best at being a father and working, Odette. You know his wife’s overseas?” Colleen says beginning to defend Mark.

“SHH- shut up,” Odette throws her hand over Colleen’s mouth, whispering, “Here he comes.”

Mark sits waiting for an answer. He stares at Odette sitting in the other corner of the stuck elevator. Her eyes not focusing on anything as she stares at nothing.

“Hello? Odette, why’d you do it? Odette!” Mark waves his hand to get her attention.

Odette’s glazed over eyes snap back to meet Mark’s. Shaking her head to clear her mind of the hazy memory.

“Huh, what? Why’d I do it? I don’t know, I was just so angry.” Odette replies.

“That I was late to a meeting? Do you think people are actually listening to anything anyone says in those boring wastes of time?”

“I listen because they’re not ‘boring wastes of time’! They’re important! And none of them takes it seriously!” Odette exclaims.

“None of them take me seriously…” she whispers as she wipes away a single tear that slips down her porcelain-like cheek.

“What are you talking about?! They all take you seriously!” Mark says.

“They do?” she says meekly, the confident mask now vanished.

“Yes because you scare the living daylights out of them! I just hate that you’re so mean all the time, like... you’re constantly reminding them that you could do all of their jobs but better. Making them all redundant in an instant, so they ignore you and tell you that you’re overreacting.” He pauses and says thoughtfully, “You’re not though, you know. You’re just paying attention and seeing a better way.”

“You should work from home,” Odette says simply.

“Yeah, I should, but do you think I’m in the position to ask for something like that? Thanks to your complaint, right now I’m just focusing on not getting fired because at this time that’s what’s best for the family I’m trying to provide for!” Mark glares over at Odette.

Once again, the elevator is silent.

Odette opens her mouth as if to say something but then closes it and looks down at her feet. Her shoes are plain black heels that pinch the toes to look professional. Red abrasions on her heel are the beginning of a blister. The kind that causes agony for days. She gingerly slips the hot, sweaty leather off of her small feet in an effort to prevent more damage.

Mark looks around the elevator. He sees the papers still lying in a mess on the dirty carpet floor. It reminds him of his own living room floor, with toys scattered about and legos sitting patiently as they hide in the carpeted minefield. He leans his head back on the cold stainless steel walls and stares up at the mirrored ceiling. Pondering if this really is the way the man staring back at him and this woman die. His thoughts are pushed away by the icy breath blowing down on him as the air conditioner kicks in.

After a few minutes, the man and woman look over at each other. Then at the same time, they both speak.

“I’m sorry…”

“No, really, I’m sorry. I was rude,” Mark says but then Odette cuts him off.

“No, you’re right. I’ve been a terribly cruel person. I was just so focused on proving my worth that I didn’t realize how much I was hurting other people.” Odette says quietly.

“Jesus, if you weren’t so genuine right now that would’ve been the corniest thing I’ve ever heard.” Mark says chuckling.

“Oh god, did I actually just say that? Of course, I mean it but it sounded so much better in my head,” Odette says, beginning to laugh as well.

They both laugh in the faces of fear, hatred, self-depreciation and their shared vulnerability. The elevator fills with light-hearted joy as the robust laughter bounces against the faces of the elevator’s three walls, keeping it trapped with their owners.

Then Odette says, “I’m so stupid all the time. Everything I say or do always comes out wrong.” She’s still laughing but the smile doesn’t spread to her eyes. Fear and self-hatred resurfacing from the deep blue of her irises.

Mark’s face quickly sobers,“Stop that. You keep putting yourself down. What-who made you think less of yourself? I never want to see that look on my children’s faces because it will break my heart.”

“No, like I said earlier, you were right I was being stupid and just plain mean to everyone, so that they couldn’t ignore me.” Odette says.

“But why?”

Odette shuts her mouth, pausing, then mumbles, “Nothing, no one, it doesn’t matter anyways.”

Mark looks at her. His stare telling her to open up, his paternal side showing. As if he wishes for nothing but for this suddenly lonely little girl to laugh again.

“I mean, it’s just the world. No one respects me and when I first started working here you thought I was a receptionist so I guess you just became the symbol of everything I hated. But I just became so bitter and I think it’s because of this one professor I had.” As Odette speaks Mark can see her being transported back to her university days. “I’m pretty sure she was the Women’s Studies professor, ironically. I was really struggling in her class because I was too insecure to participate so I visited her during office hours for help. She didn’t help me though, just said I needed to speak up, fight for myself because I had to learn how to run with the big dogs. She said to me, ‘Girls like you, that don’t fight for their place and aren’t mean enough to keep it, are why there’s no women in the workplace. You can never succeed unless you think like the men in power.’”

“That’s actually the worst teacher in the world right there. I mean I had this one teacher in junior high that literally never had a lesson plan and the school couldn’t fire him because he had tenure, but wow. And she was the Women’s Studies professor?” disbelief that someone could be so wrong overwhelming Mark. “So when you made that complaint directed at me, you were just ‘being mean enough to keep your place’.” Mark says in an understanding tone.

Odette wipes away another tear that has escaped down her face.

“It excuses nothing, I was still a terrible person. Tattling like a five year old…” she says in a harsh tone filled with regret.

“I forgive you.”

“What?” She says looking up at him.

“I said I forgive you.” Mark repeats.

“I- I… don’t know what to say. All I have ever done was hate you for…” Odette struggles to find the words to describe it.

“Calling you a receptionist? Being the last straw of ignorance you face everyday? Having children?” Mark suggests, chuckling at the last option.

“Being human?” she says, “I guess that’s the best way to put it in words.”

Mark leans over and gives Odette a small hug. Odette tenses at the physical contact but returns the awkward sentiment. The warmth of their arms around each other washes away the ignorance and like the tides, replaces it with reverence.

The elevator rattles.

“Oh my god we’re going to die!” Odette shouts, releasing Mark from the forgiving moment.

“Shh, stop! If you start panicking, I’ll start panicking! Maybe we aren’t going to die!” Mark says in a high and doubting voice.

“Stop being the optimist, and let me die the way I wish!” Odette argues.

The elevator then begins to move up the shaft.

Mark jumps up, shouting, “It’s working again! We’re not going to die! I’m not going to get fired!”

“Mark, forget getting fired, if you don’t get to work from home slap a lawsuit on those corporate morons for this traumatic event!” Odette shouts in glee.

“Oh my god, you’re right! This is perfect, good thing we didn’t die!”

The elevator reaches their floor and opens to a group of custodians and elevator repair men. The man and woman happily step off the elevator with their neatly gathered belongings breathing a sigh of relief. They go to part ways, but before they do, the man and woman look over at each other. Their eyes filled with forgiveness, to each other or themselves, and smile. A knowing smile that comes from such shared experience and the understanding that came because of it. No longer trapped in a cold steel cage that waits to be dropped to its death, and no longer trapped within the walls of hatred and fear.