 the real christine 

As I got in the somewhat stowed-away elevator of the University Student Union near the Subway restaurant, I began to wonder how many people would use this bright, clean elevator this early in the morning. I found a nice spot on the left wall where the buttons were, and leaned back and began my journey.

It was a slow start. I was bored so I decided to press random floors and do a bit of sedimentary traveling. As the elevator moved up and back down again a couple of times, I was surrounded by vast silence inside, but I could hear the creaking, groaning, and humming of the elevator as it traveled along the pulleys. The solid metal doors opened and I looked past them, hoping to find some other student, but none came.

The door closed again after each stop and I was back to my solitude in this confined, metallic cube. I looked up to find myself in the mirrored ceiling reflection, which was speckled with six bright lights that beamed down on me.

I let out a sigh and leaned back on the shiny and polished metal handrails that covered the three metal walls. These rails were lukewarm and not chilly, as I expected them to be. That was the moment I noticed that it was beginning to feel a bit stuffy in the elevator – this is something we overlook when we get on and scramble off on our floors. So this is what it kind of feels like to be trapped in an elevator? It’s really hot and stuffy. Well that’s no fun.

Finally, after about 10 minutes of solitude with the elevator in a still state, the elevator suddenly moved down from the fourth floor where I parked it and to the first floor. The doors opened again and I see a chubby Latino male wearing a navy blue hoodie and dark denim jeans step through the doors. His fingers hovered over the buttons and then he pushed the one he needed. He looked over at me as I scribbled in my notebook.

“That was one,” he informed me.

“Thanks, but I don’t need it,” I respond.

He gave me a weird look and then shrugged and went into the corner. My eyes glanced quickly at the buttons and I noticed that he was going to the fourth floor. As the elevator hummed its way up the floors, there was not another word that came from this student’s mouth as he busied himself with thumb twiddling on the steel handrails.

A ding broke the silence as the doors opened again and then the guy hurried out of the elevator. The doors closed again on me, cutting me off from the rest of the world. Another sigh escaped my mouth and into the silence, but no one heard me.

More minutes flew by, and then I found the elevator headed back down to the first floor again. This time, a single girl with shoulder-length black hair came in wearing a black pea coat and denim. She simply pressed the button and shuffled herself to the back of the elevator. She did not look at me or question me. Once her floor arrived, she stepped out of the elevator and out the glass doors and didn’t look back.

Only a couple of moments passed before I found the elevator moving back down to the first floor again. A group of three students came in which consisted of two guys and one girl. The two guys pressed separate buttons, while the girl clung onto one of the guys, which can only be her boyfriend. Then they shuffled themselves away from me and towards the back.

The floor that the single guy arrived first and he hurried out the door. Then the couple decided to get off on that floor as well, after the guy gave me another look. He placed his hand on her arm and tugged her out the door on the third floor. As they walked away from the elevator, I looked out the door as it was closing, and saw the guy turn his head back to me.

I could only imagine that his thoughts were ‘what is she doing?’

And the doors shut. I am with my own solitude again. Part of me began to panic, thinking what if I’m stuck in this elevator? But I looked up and above the button panel was a white rectangle with a single, green LED light. This reassured me that I was going to be ok.

Back down again – first floor. This time two girls came in, but did nothing else. Neither one of them pressed a button to go anywhere. The doors shut and it was only an awkward silence in the stuffy air. One girl, who was wearing a purple, white, and black striped shirt and carried a large, white tote bag with flowers over it, leaned against the wall opposite of me. She did nothing but stare in front of her. The other girl, dressed in black, leaned against the handrail in the back, and shuffled her feet. A minute passed, and they still hadn’t done anything.

Finally, the girl in black pressed the button to open the door and quickly scurried out the door – was the situation too awkward for her? After she left, the other girl reached over to the buttons and pushed the one for the fourth floor. We moved for a bit and then the door opened.

“Oh my god, this floor again?” she said to herself, and pressed the button again.

The elevator finally moved properly and she exited on the fourth floor. She kind of rushed away, as if she was pretending that entire awkward situation didn’t occur.

So that’s what 30 minutes in the USU elevator feels like.