The Elevator Ride to Awakening

Jason’s day started out like any ordinary day. He arrived to work at six sharp, before the rest of his employees started to roll into work. Mornings were his favorite. The sun had barely been out, and the sounds of nature serenaded him on his way to his car. The country was beautiful in the morning. Hues of pink and orange blanketed the sky and the area felt so open. This was the way Jason preferred. He was afraid of tight spaces and only made human contact when he needed to at work. He was the manager of a marketing firm that he had worked at for the past forty years. When his wife, Debbie, lost her battle to cancer ten years ago, he shut down emotionally and had become hardened.

“Hey Jason, I have a meeting with you in about an hour. Please make sure you are ready with your employee’s files.” Tammy with human resources must have gotten to the office early, Jason hadn’t heard her come through the squeaky entrance door. 

“I’m ready.” Jason grumbled. He ran a hand through his salt and peppered gray and black hair before turning back to the coffee that he had begun to prepare. 

The next hour went by and Jason sat at his desk with files spread out in a fan waiting for Tammy. He wanted to get this part of his day over. He hated going through the complaints. He felt that his employees were all whiny children that had no backbone. What happened that made this newer generation so soft? 

“Hey boss, I’m taking orders from anyone who wants something from the diner down the road around lunch time. Are you interested?” Megan’s blonde hair bounced as she popped into the doorway with her overly cheerful voice. 

“I brought soup.” Jason waved her away from the door. He couldn’t stand her bubbly demeanor. What on earth did she spike her coffee with during the mornings? Nobody was that happy, especially this early in the day. Jason would have loved to still be so young and naive again. He no longer had the pleasure of being blind to how terrible people are and how unfair life could be. 

Tammy sauntered in with a stack of papers that almost covered her rounded cheeks. She had pulled her auburn hair into a ponytail at some point in the morning. Jason thought that Tammy’s hair up accented her larger features. She was already a bigger and more masculine woman. This look did not help soften her look.

Tammy plopped the stack of paper onto Jason’s desk and blew a loose strand of hair from her face. “Let’s get started. We have a lot to go over this month.”

Jason tried to focus while Tammy droned on about the petty complaints and requests. None of this seemed important enough to take him away from the mounds of paperwork that he had waiting for him. Some women in the office felt uncomfortable with the new guy Scott being around. They called him a pervert that made them uncomfortable. Scott was a married young man with a lot of ambition. Jason had hired him to help with the accounting side of the company. Jason was sure the ladies were exaggerating. He dismissed the complaints and moved on to the next. 

Tammy pulled out a request with Megan’s name at the top in bold letters. Oh, great. It’s probably a request for a room full of puppies to help with productivity and moods. “Megan would like to leave work an extra hour early on Fridays for an appointment. Are you able to sacrifice that time each Friday?” 

Jason could use an extra hour in the day that he didn’t have to hear her bouncing around the room spreading her joy, but that would put them behind on deadlines. “I can’t afford to give her that much time off. Toss that request.”

The next thirty minutes dragged on. Jerry needed off for a funeral, Stacey wanted a raise, Larry requested a parking spot closer to the building. All these complaints and requests seemed petty. Jason was done hearing it and needed to dwindle down the stack of paperwork that was piled up in his tray behind his desk. He dismissed Tammy and started to work on the things that he felt were essential to keeping the company afloat. 

Jason’s phone rang, jerking him out of his thoughts. He did not recognize the raspy voice on the other end of the phone. The man spoke with urgency. “I need you to come down to the first floor. There is something crucial that we need to go over. Your company will fail if you do not show up for this meeting. I will be waiting for you in the lobby.”

Great, Tammy must have tattled to the head of HR about their short meeting. That was the only department on the first floor that he could think of that would want to talk to his division. The man was being over dramatic. Jason doubted that denying the request would crumble an entire company. He stood up and straightened his black and blue striped tie. He didn’t care for people, but he still liked to look good. He understood the importance of a professional appearance. 

 He strolled over to the elevator and pushed the down button. The building was old, and the elevator seemed to take forever to get to the fourth floor. Jason tapped his foot with impatience and filled with dread when he saw Megan’s petite figure coming around the corner. He really wasn’t in the mood to hear her joyful voice. The elevator made its familiar loud dinging noise and opened right on time. She didn’t have a chance to get a word in before the doors closed. 

The elevator began to make its descent to the main floor. The lights flickered as the elevator groaned. He really did hate small spaces. The elevator malfunctioning made him feel panicked. His chest tightened and a lump formed in his throat. The lights went out and the elevator stopped in mid decline. Jason could feel the sweat pouring from his head. He crouched into a fetal position and closed his eyes while hugging his knees. Surely there would be a rescue team coming to get him soon.  

His head swarmed with fog and he felt dizzy. How can I be dizzy while I’m sitting? He tried to do what his wife had taught him the first time she had witnessed his anxiety towards small spaces. He closed his eyes and started to count backwards from one hundred. He could feel his breathing slow down and his heart stopped beating as fast. Time sailed by at a slow pace. He never felt as relieved as he did when he heard the magical sound of the elevator dinging and the doors sliding open. Had he been moving? 

Jason stepped from the elevator with caution. The room looked familiar, but not familiar. It was his floor for sure. The desks were all aligned in the organized rows that he preferred, but there was something off about the colors in the room. It was as if they had all been muted. Even the plants appeared duller in color. 

The people who were sitting at the desks resembled his workers. He had to blink a few times to make sure there was nothing wrong with his vision. The woman at the first desk was Stacey, her usual ebony skin looked like a deep gray. Around her body was a mix of red and blue lights. That wasn’t even the weirdest part. On her shirt was a square that displayed words. It was like a tiny computer had been installed to her body. He hated to pry, but he couldn’t help himself. He strolled over close to her desk and saw the words that were scrolled out upon her chest. 

I have been in this damn company for ten years and I still can’t afford to put my children into the extra activities they want to do. Scott was openly bragging about his high pay. He has only been here for less than a year. Affirmative Action my ass. 

Jason felt uncomfortable with her thoughts and decided maybe one raise wouldn’t hurt the company’s finances. He walked away from her desk and hoped that he wouldn’t have any other weird encounters. Was he losing his mind?

A blue highlighted Jerry approached him to show him a document for a client that he was struggling to close a deal with. Jason saw the same screen upon Jerry’s chest. He wanted to look away, but he couldn’t take his eyes off the bold words that stared him back in the face. 

My wife just died, and this ass hat won’t even let me take off for her funeral. I am quitting after today. I can’t work for this narcissist any longer. 

Jason took the form with haste from Jerry’s hands and stammered, “I will … ugh … take this back to my desk.” 

Jason tripped over his foot and ran into a pink highlighted Scott in mid foot pivot. He really wished he hadn’t seen Scott’s screen. Instead of words, his screen was lit up with what looked like a bad porno. The stars of the show were Megan, Chandra, and Scott doing things to each other that Jason could not unsee. He looked away and noticed that an uncomfortable Chandra peaked back at Scott when she noticed his creepy eyes were undressing her. She tucked her hair behind her ears and got back to work. Jason made a mental note to himself to fire Scott and then give the entire company a training on sexual harassment. 

He wandered around the room being exposed to his employee’s inner thoughts. The whole time he felt like he was invading everyone’s privacy. He didn’t realize how much they all hated him, except for Scott. Of course, the overpaid work pervert was a fan of his. That just made Jason feel worse about himself. He bee lined for his office to try to avoid running into anyone else. He was done seeing what everyone thought of him. 

He entered his office and began to close the door. He paused halfway when he noticed a bright blue light shining from behind the balcony window. His curiosity got the better of him, so he decided to go check out who was outside of the window. He stepped with haste but caution. The balcony was small and had a tiny railing. If he startled the person, they would fall. 

Jason peeked his head out the window and saw a tear-filled Megan. The usually bubbly girl sobbed into her hands. He couldn’t see the screen on her chest, but he knew something was terribly wrong. 

He climbed from the window and put a hand on her shoulder, careful to not startle her. She looked up with swollen red eyes and stood staring at him in silence. He peered at her chest and saw the screen. It told a story of a woman that had endured abuse and betrayal. She had reached out for therapy finally and her request to attend the sessions were denied. She felt that her last chance at getting help had been squashed. The man that stood before her had taken away her possible salvation. She wiped a tear from her eye with the back of her sleeve, smiled and then fell backward. Her arms were spread out as if she would take off in flight at any moment. The look on her face wasn’t fear, it was relief. 

Jason stuck out his arm to reach for an impossible person to catch. He screamed her name and then scrunched back into the fetal position with his eyes closed. He rocked back and forth and started counting backward from one hundred. The wind seemed to stop hitting his shivering body. 

Ding. Ding. 

He peered up at the sound of elevator doors sliding open. How did he get back on the elevator? Did someone carry him here? Why would they carry him here? He stood up and bolted towards his office ready to call the police to report a suicide. The office was quiet. The room was back to being filled with normal color. Has everyone already gone home? 

“Hey Jason, I have a meeting with you in about an hour. Please make sure you are ready with your employee’s files.” Tammy said as she walked toward him. 

“Uh … well … I have something I need to do first.”

“Okay … Is everything all right Jason?” 

Jason ignored her question and glanced at the clock. It was only a little after six in the morning. How could that be? He went to his office and closed the door behind him, leaving a stunned Tammy gawking in his direction. He waited to pick up the phone to dial the police. He no longer was certain that what he saw had really happened. Maybe he needed a therapist. That thought snapped him back to the image of the sad and broken Megan falling to her death. The look of freedom on her face that made it even more disturbing to see. He flipped through his employee directory and found Megan’s number. A man with a deep voice answered the phone. 

“Is this the residence of Megan Loren?”

“Yeah, who is this?”

“This is Jason, I’m her boss.”

“What did the dumb bitch do now?” the man chuckled like what he had asked was a funny inside joke that Jason should be in on.

“She did nothing. She is an excellent employee. I just need her to come in a little early today.”

“Okay, yeah, she will be there.” 

The man hung up and Jason felt even worse. Her bubbly personality was just a ploy. How could he not see through the fake cheerful demeanor? Nobody was that happy all the time. 

Twenty minutes passed before a bouncy Megan appeared in his office with a large grin across her face. He wanted to hug her and tell her it would all be okay. 

“I just wanted to tell you in person that I have approved your request to leave early on Fridays. I have also decided that your time off is still paid time off.” Jason smiled at Megan for the first time. 

Megan jumped up and wrapped her arms around him. The bear hug felt nice. He returned the hug and fought the urge to cry. He couldn’t shake the image of her falling from his mind. She pulled back and wiped some tears from her red streaked face.

“You have no idea how much this means to me.” She let out a sigh of relief, “I promise I will work extra hard to make up for missed time.” Megan turned and practically skipped to her desk. Jason had to laugh to himself a little. He loved seeing her happy. This surprised him, before today he would have cringed at her skipping about like a child.

Tammy knocked on the door pulling Jason from his thoughts, “Are you ready for our meeting?”

Jason nodded his head and waived her inside. For the first time in over a decade he didn’t want to push anyone away. He wanted to be there for everyone. He knew what he had to do to make things right. He pulled out a pink slip and a form. 

“First things first. We are firing Scott, Jerry can have time off for a funeral, Megan can leave early on Fridays, and Stacey is getting a three dollar raise.”

“Sir, three dollars? Are you certain?”

“She deserves what we haven’t given her all these years. They all do.”

Jason laid back in his chair and looked up to the sky. Thank you, Debbie.