The Lift - 1

The Lift

It all started with the sudden halt of the lift between 6^th and 7^th floor. I work at the 7^th floor and from where the lift stopped; I could easily see the small portion of the door which opens to my office. I am almost there, a few meters away but there is no way I can climb to that height and squeeze myself into that gap. I should say I am scared as this happens quite often in our building and usually the technician from the subcontractor company comes quickly and fixes it. Whenever this young funny fellow comes, he seems surprised contrary to the employees in my office. He keeps saying that “I will fix it so well this time that it will never halt again for the next 100 years.” We all laugh at his naïve words, give him a glass of tea after he finishes his job and let him chit-chat with the young office girls for a short time. Although we know that sooner or later the lift will be broken and he will be called again, no one seems being bothered.

Some people in the office even claim that the repairing company also belongs to the holding which also owns our company therefore there is no loss of money for the total business. This is why the boss never complains about it. The employees do not worry about the loss of time either but for a totally different reason. They have to be in the office from 8 am to 5 pm. If the lift is broken and makes the employee late, there is nothing the employee can do. S/he can just sit on the floor of the lift and wait for the daylight to appear. If the work is not completed by the evening, s/he will have a good excuse. However, this rationalization works for the young employees only who are told what to do. The ones like me work on certain projects and we have strict deadlines. Therefore, if I cannot finish my work by 6 pm, I will need to work extra hours without pay or take the work home to do it while feeding my children or looking for my husband’s sock.

Normally, it does not take more than 5 minutes for the young technician to come and start fixing the system. He usually comes, opens the nearest floor’s door and entertains the ones who are trapped in the small box with some silly talk. If the trapped employee is a young girl, he talks like a gentleman, seeming he is very kind and very interested in young girl’s problems with their oppressive fathers or their eagle-eyed mothers. If the trapped person is a man, the topic is usually football or politics. If the victim is a middle-aged mother like me, he talks like a son or a younger brother, keeps calling the woman “Abla” and makes comments on education, cooking or parking cars in small spaces. He is a natural entertainer and probably he does not know that with his talk, he keeps his audience calm enough till the work is done.

However, today seems a bit different. I have been waiting here for a good 10 minutes. I have already refreshed my make-up without the mirror, cleaned the old messages on my mobile phone and forced myself not to worry too much about the work. I am not scared of darkness at all but staying here alone for more than 10 minutes makes me feel bored. Where is this technician? Did he swap the order of things and now talking to the young office girls he fancies before his hands are dirtied? I tried to make a call but there was no network coverage inside the lift. Nothing to do, I leaned on the wall and kept counting down from 200. By the time I reached zero, still there was no sign of my liberator. Then I started counting down again… This time when I reached 128, the door on top of my head, opened.

“Helloooo, Fahriye abla! How are you? I know it is you because only your desk is empty.” said a familiar voice. This is the teamaker of the office. I looked up to see his face but the gap is too narrow. I saw his muddy shoes only. We all know he lives in the slums of the city where not all roads are asphalted. We all like him in the office, buy gifts for his kids on New Year or on bayram days. The only person hates her in the office is the cleaning lady because she needs to clean the floor more than once a day once he walks up and down in the office.

“Yes, Ahmet! This is me. Where is the technician? Isn’t he coming to repair the lift? I have been waiting here for more than 15 minutes…” I said. Expecting a quick response, seconds turned to minutes in that moment. He went away from the door and his footsteps faded away in the distance. “Ahmeeet, where are you? Where did you go?” I shouted this time. Perhaps my voice had some tension so it did not take long to hear his approaching footsteps. “I am here, Abla. I brought you tea! I just brewed it. It is really fresh, like the rabbit’s blood” I am surprised to see his hand coming out of that small gap and trying to give me the hot tea glass. I could not help myself and burst into a big laughter. Once I stopped laughing, I held the glass carefully, added one of the sugar cubes and started mixing. “Thanks for the tea, Ahmet! But when will the technician come?” His hand disappeared from the gap and his face appeared. “I don’t know, Abla! Someone called the technician but he did not pick the call. No one in their shop answers the phones. They keep calling. By the way, are you hungry? I have some peynirli poğaça.”

I admired his optimism or his expectation of me being optimist. I am stuck in a lift and all he offers me is the food. Actually this is probably the best he could do. I am hungry anyway. I prepare the breakfast for my kids and my husband every morning but I never have enough time to sit and enjoy my tea with them. Every morning is a rush, every morning is chaos. With a smiling face in the darkness, I said “Yes, Ahmet. Give me one of the poğaças. It will go nice with the hot tea. But please don’t ignore calling the technician. I cannot wait here all day. I have work to do.” He looked at my silhouette and smiled, showing his teeth, yellowed by drinking tea all day, “Don’t worry Abla. If no one picks the phone, I will go myself, if necessary find his house and drag that young fellow from his bed to here.” He handed me the poğaça and went to the office to make more calls. I sat on the floor cross-legged, drank the first tea of the day and ate my breakfast.

To be continued…

Turkish words

Abla: elder sister (commonly used by younger ones to address middle-aged ladies)

Bayram: Religious or national festivitals

Peynirli poğaça: pastry with cheese filling