Elevator

“Jesus, I’m going to be late!” he muttered to himself as he was entering the elevator. John was never late. In the 20-plus years that he had been working at the office he hadn’t once been late. “God, if that idiot driving in front of me would have just driven at least a little bit over the speed limit like people are supposed to I would’ve gotten here on time!” he thought, “Or if my wife didn’t make me recite her ridiculous prayer every morning I wouldn’t be rushed like this!”
John was a man of action. As a CEO of a large manufacturing company, he didn’t have time to think about whether or not to make a decision, he just made one and moved on to the next big decision. He also didn’t have time to believe in anything that wasn’t concrete or couldn’t be proven. He was a Christian by blood, but by belief he couldn’t care less. He practiced the religion of business and making money, and worshiped no one or nothing but himself and his business.
You could tell just by his presence that John was a leader. When he walked into a room one could feel the aura surrounding him; he had a power in influencing people. He also possessed not only the power in himself to always pin the blame on other people, but also to make people agree with him. He made people believe that nothing was ever his fault, always someone below him. John was overall a content guy. Who wouldn’t be? Who wouldn’t want to be a successful, confident man with the power to influence anyone who he desired? When he was high up in his office on the 50th floor of his building, he had power any other person in his entire office building could only dream of. In his own mind, John believed that he was God’s gift to mankind.
And today was no different for John, except that he was, unusual to his nature, running late. He practically sprinted into the elevator to go up to his floor, already an hour late for his board meeting. There was no one else in the elevator except for a janitor holding a mop and a bucket. Just like he acknowledged anyone who was so obviously below him in status, John just glanced at the janitor and gave him a slight head nod, nothing more.
“What floor sir?” asked the janitor, standing next to the array of numbered buttons, 1 to 100, anticipating John’s response. John turned to look at the janitor, obviously caught off guard by the question. He simply stared at the man for a few seconds, analyzing him, before he graced him with the pleasure of a response from the top businessman in the building. He was a short, scrawny little man, with a sort of high voice. Almost balding, his face looked as if he was an old man, yet his body looked like that of a small boy’s. His nametag read “Dog”. Certainly undesirable features that went well together with his undesirable name, John thought, chuckling to himself.
“Listen here, um… Dog,” started John, unsure of whether to refer to him by name, “That is your name, right?”
“Sure is sir.”
“Well then listen here Dog. I don’t need anyone’s help with anything, especially by someone of your… well, your status. But thank you.” With that, John walked over to press the button himself, noticing that the button reading “Roof” had already been pressed.
“Are you really going all the way to the very top of this building?” asked John, curious as to why a janitor would need to go to the top of a building a hundred stories tall.
“Sure am sir.”
“Why?”
“That’s where I work. When I’m high up on the rooftops of the world and above, I can watch over everything.”
“Well I don’t believe-” started John, until the bell dinged, informing him that it was time to get off the elevator. “Well there’s my stop,” he said to Dog, and he jogged out of the elevator to get to his meeting.

● ● ●

Several hours later, John finished his work day. But for John, finishing a work day isn’t enough. He didn’t just finish his work day, he conquered it. After arriving late to his meeting, while weak, mortal men would just give up, he strolled in with confidence and charisma, ready to accomplish what he had to get done. And he did. All of the odds were against him, or at least it seemed that way to a normal man, but with the confidence he possessed, he walked out of that meeting feeling more powerful than he ever had before.
He got into the elevator, ready to unwind at home, and started going back down to the earth, until the bell dinged and the doors opened, revealing Dog. He started walking towards the open doors to join John in the elevator, his face lighting up after he saw him. But John, anxious to get home and to not have to deal with this dimwit, pressed the “close door” button, while Dog’s face slowly transformed from excited to emotionless, but never angry. John and Dog maintained eye contact until the moment the doors shut in Dog’s face. The elevator slowly started moving down again, and John once again chuckled to himself about how pathetic a man could be. John kept snickering to himself, slowing building into loud chuckles and eventually uncontrollable laughter, until he felt something above him suddenly snap. And in seconds, all of John’s success came crashing down, while the elevator fell, to the depths of Hell.



Well, here we go again. It's the same story, some dude who thinks he's awesome but turns out not to be. I'm so unoriginal. I have to say though I like this one a lot more than the others of this same basic story. With the religious symbolism and the actual dialogue between the characters, this one seems more complex and has more depth. But it still could use more. A lot more. Oh well. And now, for the best musical performance in history.