Our apartment building has two elevators. Easily enough, we’ll call them Left and Right. The left one is always “in maintenance” mode and stuck somewhere. But having said that, if its working we have caught it half as much as the other lift. Simple enough.
That is until the other night!
The lift had been out of service for days and it was surprising the other day that upon pressing the button, the left doors open. I looked briefly to my wife, but figured, “Oh well, it’s fixed. That’s good.”
Needless to say, it wasn’t.
We got to about the third floor and there was the sound of a metal scraping on the side of the lift. scrape, scrape, scrape, jolt, STOP! The lift just stops. And then falls (maybe 5-10cm, maybe not even that much). I couldn’t help it. I start laughing. Another guy in the life reaches across and presses the alarm. Then the phone. No answer. Alarm.
Alarm, longer press.
Eventually we hear someone on top of the lift, there must be controls there, right? Because the lift starts jolting up and down. Didn’t make the misses very happy.
After about 15 minutes in all the doors start to open. Yep, we’re between floors, could have expected that. The other guy in the lift (obviously having been in this position before), starts pulling on a rope that’s suppose to unlock the outer doors. But the rope breaks. A few moments later the building’s security guard appears as the outer doors open. Moments later we were free.
I do not want to get in that lift again. We do however get in it because often there is no choice. Fingers crossed.