Lizzy’s elated yet tinged with trepidation. Tonight’s the night. The grand opening. She closes her computer, straightens herself, and moves quickly to the elevator. The office is deserted. She does her best work after everyone has gone home.

She steps up to the elevator and presses the down button. A man, standing very tall comes up beside her. He’s rather handsome, she thinks. His suit is expensive and sits well on his broad shoulders. He carries an exclusively branded attaché case with gold initials J R. And his shoes, she always notices shoes, she thinks they are the gauge of a man, are so elegant.

They move into the lift, the door closes. The sound of the lift moving is suddenly interrupted by shudders and a loud thump. They look at each other.  The dim emergency lights flick on.

“I’m sure that it’s just stopped at the first floor…”

Anxiously he talks over her. “No, it’s hasn’t! Look at the lights! OMG I’m going to die!” She’s taken aback. “Sir, I’m sure that security is well versed in these sorts of emergencies.”

He begins to pace around the lift. He takes out his phone. There’s no reception. He throws it on the floor. She’s shocked. “Sir, please calm down.”

He yells at her. “Don’t tell me to calm down!” He attempts to pry open the doors. She cringes into a corner. He becomes frantic. He pummels the doors. Softly she speaks, “Sir, you’re only going to hurt your hands.” He continues to pummel the door, and the walls. He does not hear her.

            She begins to recite Shakespeare’s Hamlet.

            “To be, or not to be, that is the question:

            Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer

            The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,

            Or to take arms against a sea of troubles

            And by opposing end them.”

He spins around to regard her. He stares at her with dead, black piercing eyes, without word. She’s terrified.

“I’m preforming tonight at the Palace.”

He continues to stare at her. Then he screws up his face and cries. He slides down the wall and sits on the floor. “I’m sorry, daddy, I’m so sorry. Please don’t lock me in the cupboard. I won’t do it again. I promise. Please don’t hit me. I’m sorry, I’m sorry…”

            “To die—to sleep,

            No more; and by a sleep to say we end

            The heart-ache …”

He sits with his arms around his knees. Rocking himself. He continues to sob. “Daddy it’s so dark in here. I’m sorry, daddy. Please let me out.”

“…and the thousand natural shocks

            That flesh is heir to: …”

The lift shudders. She moves to the man and gently lifts him up. He regains his composure. The lift doors open.

“Sir, Sir, are you OK?”

“Of course,” he answers brashly.

“Ma’am… are you OK?”

“Yes, thank you. Who’s that?”

“That’s Mr. Richardson, the company president…”

“One can never know just how broken some people really are…”

Maree Collie dreams about her play opening on Broadway. One needs to dream! She has had two short plays produced, and four monologues. Short stories, flash fiction, especially science fiction is her preferred genre. She has had pieces published here (Australia) and in the USA and best of all, online in SF magazine [AntipodeanSF].