Movie Mania Madness!

The elevator doors opened and Naomi walked out onto a floor of her building she’d never seen before. She bit her lip but she could not help but smile because she was free. She looked at the number at the top of the elevator. A gold 5. She looked at the four people behind her and smiled to herself.
“There is no way I am going back in there,” she announced.
“Oh was it really that bad?” A handsome young man teased. Naomi gave him a meaningful look as a little boy came from behind them and pronounced:
“I am never getting in a elevator again.”

Five hours earlier:

“Mommy!” A little boy tugged at his mother’s skirt. She was deep in conversation with a friend, “Mommy, I’m scared!” The little boy informed her. She looked at her seven year old son and then at her friend. Both were desperate.
“Look Raul, Papa’s home so you go upstairs to him and I’ll be there in a minute okay?” She looked at Raul’s quivering face and assured him “everything is going to be okay. I promise. Go on!”
Raul took one look at the storm outside and fled toward the elevator. An old woman and a middle aged man were waiting as well. The woman was short and sweet looking. Raul thought maybe she would have candies in her purse. The man though, he seemed tired. Maybe the woman would give him a candy. Raul shuddered as thought about the storm outside and heard the thunder. He made himself keep his eyes glued to the woman’s purse. His favorite candies were butterscotch.
The elevator doors opened and a group of people stepped out. Raul, the woman and the man stepped in and just as the doors were closing a young man and a teenage girl raced in.
“Whew,” breathed the man. He was wearing a suit and soaking wet. The other passengers in the elevator moved around him so he was in the center of the circle, and no one was getting dripped on or standing in the puddle he made.
“Sorry,” he apologized awkwardly as he realized they had all rearranged themselves on his account. Raul looked at the floor. The teenager pressed the buttons, quietly asking where everyone needed to go and tapped her foot nervously as the door closed.
“It’s alright dear,” reassured the old lady. Now Raul was sure she had candy in her purse. All of a sudden, the elevator lurched to a stop. The teenage girl looked at the lights on top which said they were at floor five. Then she looked at the buttons because she was sure they should not be stopping at floor five. The second she began examining the buttons so she could confirm what she already knew, the lights went out. She jumped back as her heart skipped a beat.
“Don’t worry dear,” said the old woman as she reached in to her purse, “I have my cellular phone so we can see.”
But when Kayla turned on her cell phone and shone it for Naomi to see, all she saw was Naomi’s panic stricken face. Andy, the young man, realized what was happening and went over to Naomi. He placed his wet hands on her shoulders, looked her in the eye and ordered her to breath. She inhaled and exhaled slowly, Andy nodding along with each breath encouraging her on. Suddenly, she jumped back, throwing his arms off her. He was startled but watched her with amusement.
“Oh My God!” She shrieked, “this cannot be happening. This cannot be happening!” Kayla opened her mouth to speak but Naomi cut her off.
“No. NO NO NO! Don’t you say anything y-y-you!”
“My name’s Kayla,” offered the old woman.
“KAYLA! This is NOT okay. This cannot be happening. I can’t. oh my god.” Naomi put her head against the wall and tried to calm herself down but she wrung her hands and lifted her head, tears in her eyes.
“This is like my worst nightmare. WORST.” She screamed as Andy tried to approach her. Raul had shrunk in to the corner and curled up in a ball.

“Okay kid. look. You’re freaking out isn’t going to make the lights come back on or the elevator move. This has happened before. We’re not gonna die. Sit down. Relax,”
Naomi was on the verge of tears.

“I wish I could,” she said shakily, “but I can’t just relax. I can’t!”

“Alright. Here’s the Deal,” the man raised his voice to keep her focus. Then he said: “Everyone, get in a circle and sit.”

“Why?”

“A circle?”

“Look, if you have a better idea of how to pass the time then do it but we’re going to distract this girl until those doors open again. And a circle because you made a giant puddle that no one wants to sit in” explained the man.

“Who are you?” asked Andy, annoyed.

“I’m Matt. and you?”

“Andy,” he replied and with a cold look sat down. They all assembled themselves in to a circle. Naomi still looked terrified. Raul had lifted his head from his shell and Kayla seemed excited.

“What’s the plan?” Andy challenged. Matt turned to Andy.

“You first. Tell us a story about you. And make it a compelling one since you’re vying for the attention of this mess here,” Matt told him smiling. Andy just looked at him for a moment to see if he was kidding or not. Then he looked at Naomi. She was sitting with her knees pulled in tight to her chest but her dark hair was hiding her face so he could not make out her expression.

“Fine. See these clothes I’m wearing? I’ve been wearing them since yesterday.”

“Let me stop you right there,” said Matt, “and remind you that as compelling as this story may be, there’s a six year old in the room.”

Andy nodded, “I know.”

“I’m seven,” Raul said.

“I thought you were eight,” Kayla whispered to him. Raul smiled shyly.

“Anyway,” continued Andy, “This is the one week of summer that me and my buddies are off. We’re starting our project in a few days and we wanted to celebrate. So we went out to dinner and a club and everything and it was all great. But now the story really begins because I woke up this morning with ‘the hangover’ of a lifetime,” Andy glanced at Raul and continued, “let’s just say I was not wearing the suit when I got up and while there were a few other people in the same bed as me, well none of my guy friends were there. The end.”

“That was a horrible story. I hope you still have a headache,” Matt told him. Andy shrugged and then turned to Kayla.

“Your turn!”
Kayla smiled and put her hands together.

“Well. Let me tell you. I will have been married to my husband for 50 years in August and of all the wonderful moments we’ve had over the years, my sixteenth birthday was probably the best.”
Her voice was warm and captivating. Naomi sat up to listen and Matt and Andy stopped glaring at each other. Raul watched her as if her face were the pictures of one of his bedtime stories.
“I woke up at five and all my brothers and sisters were singing happy birthday to me. Then, I put on a new shirt that I had just gotten and went in to the kitchen. We had cake for breakfast. I remember exactly what it looked like. It was vanilla cake with chocolate frosting, all of which my mom made from scratch. But when I got to school, things took a turn for the worse. You see, I had just started dating my husband and my best friend was mad at me because she liked him too. So she would not speak to me on my birthday and that made me very sad. And my husband, he’s a year older than me so I didn’t have any classes with him and I didn’t see very much of him either. So it was a normal day and I had normal, boring classes and took tests and went to swim practice and did my homework. My parents fed me my favorite dinner and I got a few little things from them. Just as I was going to get ready for bed my boyfriend knocked on the door and told me he was kidnapping me for a few hours. I readily agreed and followed him out the door. My dad was horrified to see his oldest daughter leaving the apartment with a boy at 10:30 at night. But he let me go and my boyfriend took me up to the roof of the building and he had two lounge chairs out and a beautiful cake resting in its box. We walked over and he lit ‘sixteen candles’ on the cake and until midnight we munched on cake and just lay there looking up at the stars and talking. It was that night that I knew I wanted him in my life always. Not even marriage but just always there.”

“That’s so romantic!” exclaimed Naomi.

“Yes, well, you should know he baked the cake and he’s a horrible cook so it tasted pretty awful. and we got kicked off the roof by the police who thought we were robbers trying to break in to the building,” she laughed remembering, “It was a wonderful night though.”
Her voice trailed off. Andy was rolling his eyes and looking at the ceiling.

“I’m hungry,” he said.

“Shut up,” said Matt, “the kid’s got a story.”
Naomi sat up straight and gave Raul, who was perhaps one of the cutest little boys she’d ever seen, her full attention.
“It’s not very long. or very good,” Raul began.
“That’s ok dear,” encouraged Kayla.
“This one time I was playing ‘Neverland’ with my little brother, Danny, and we played for so long and were having so much fun that we forgot all about dinner. Our Mommy and Papa were yelling but we never answered so they ate without us.” Raul thought his story was hilarious and he laughed like such a little boy that the others had to laugh with him.
“We only stopped when we fell asleep,” Raul finished between giggles. Now Naomi was sure she’d never seen anything cuter.
“Okay. My turn,” She said, “This was the best moment ever. or two I guess.”
“Just tell the story!” Andy interrupted her. Raul, who had still been laughing, stopped at the sound of Andy’s voice.
“I am if you would let me!” She retorted. He gave her a look and she stuck her tongue out at him which prompted Raul to begin another fit of giggles. Naomi smiled at him.
“I’m listening,” Raul confirmed with a wide smile. He had forgotten all about the storm.
“In spring, at Nationals, I was the underdog and this girl -”
“Nationals?” Andy asked.
“Gymnastics,” she responded lightly, “anyway, this girl was like out to get me. She was a stuck up snob and before every event she came over and tried to psych me out. I was so mad because she snarled at me on beam right before my front tuck and I messed it up.”
“You fell?” Andy was now completely engaged.
“No but almost which is bad. And she was in first so far. I was pissed. My best and favorite event is bars and she came up to me right before it just like before beam and floor and I wanted to slap her.”
“Did you?!” Andy asked, excited.
“No! I told her to ‘bring it on’ because I was a better gymnast than she was and I was about to prove it. She laughed but left and I got on bars and did my best routine ever. I didn’t win the all around but I beat her on bars and I got to stand in first on the podium and she was third.”
“Awesome,” Andy smiled, “Can you do some tricks in here?”
Naomi ignored him. Kayla sighed.
“I’m hungry,” Raul announced. Kayla fished around in her purse.
“I have some chips,” She placed a small bag of Cape Cod chips in Raul’s lap, “Share them,” She told him. He opened them hungrily, took a handful and passed the bag around. When he gave the chips to Andy who was next to him, Kayla pressed a candy into his hand and he thought to himself “I knew it!”
“How long have we been in here?” Andy asked with his mouth full. Naomi sucked in a deep breath. Matt looked at his watch.
“almost three hours,” he replied tentatively, glancing at Naomi.
“The storm won’t go on much longer. Or maybe it’s stopped. We’ll be out of here in no time,” Kayla reasoned cautiously. Naomi nodded but looked like she was going to be sick.
“How can you get up on those bars and flip and shit - stuff, I said stuff, and not be able to handle being in an elevator. I mean gymnasts do all kinds of crazy sh-stuff,” Andy said.
“He’s right. My dad used to say all the time to remember that there was ‘a man on the moon’ and if that’s true, then we can do anything,” said Matt.
“We’re safe in here,” said Raul, “you can’t hear the thunder.”
“Besides dear, you’re not alone.”

word count: 2251