Angry Night
“What
in the hell just happened!?” I asked angrily though knowing fully well myself.
“Well,
the storm must have caused a power outage,” Howie supplied.
“Thank
you for that wonderful insight Einstein,” Nick retorted bitterly.
“Hey
you asked!”
“You
two are not helping,” Kevin stated authoritatively.
“Sorry
father what do you suggest we do?” Nick had never sounded more sarcastic.
But
Kevin ignored the attitude. Suddenly the blackness disappeared and a dim sort
of rosy light surrounded us.
“Emergency
lights,” Elyssa declared from her crouched in one of the elevators corners.
“Isn’t
there supposed to be a phone in here for emergencies?” Kevin asked no one in
particular.
“Hmm,
could it possibly be behind the panel that’s marked emergency phone?” Nick said
sourly.
Everyone’s
nerves had been on end before, so getting stuck in an elevator wasn’t
helping. Nick opened the panel and picked up the phone. He hit a
couple of buttons and then hit them again. He proceeded to slam the phone
down hard into the receiver.
“It’s
dead, not working or something,” he informed us.
“Now
what?” I asked as I felt my hope dwindle.
Kevin
shrugged. “I don’t know.”
“Do
you guys realize that no on knows we are here,” Elyssa pointed out drearily.
Nick
turned to me.
“And
we have no way of letting anyone know. Good plan Anita.”
“You
guys were the ones who wanted to sneak in to see Brian!” I shot back.
“And
you didn’t?” he accused me.
Comebacks
formulated in my mind but Howie jumped in before they could be said.
“Won’t
someone try to use the elevator, discover it’s not working and get help?” Howie
asked trying to sound optimistic.
“Not
likely. That’s why we took this elevator, because no one uses it,” I
said.
Everyone
was silent for several moments.
“I
guess we wait,” Kevin decided and sat down.
The
rest of us followed his example and sat down too. At least it was a
fairly large elevator. We all had room to lie down comfortably if we
wanted to. I sat as far away from Kevin as I could. Being
physically close to him did not seem like a good idea. For awhile we just
sat there. No one could think of much to say, but soon Nick put on his
ear phones and listened to his walkman. Elyssa began complaining about a
migraine so Howie offered to rub her temples. Kevin and I were left with
our thoughts. After almost half an hour of virtually no conversation I
felt as though I was going nuts.
“100
bottles of beer on the wall. 100 bottles of beer. Take one down
pass it around,” I began to sing lightly but was almost immediately cut off.
“Anita
please anything but that!!” Elyssa groaned.
“This
is the song that never ends it just goes on and on my friend.”
“Kevin!”
Elyssa growled already exasperated.
I
laughed slightly and looked at Kevin. He smirked at me as if we were
sharing some type of inside joke. In that instant I felt a
connection. A connection I had only felt with one other person in my
entire life.
“99
bottles of beer on the wall!!!” Kevin and I chorused simultaneously.
We
almost immediately broke into a fit of giggles.
“If
you two have to sing could you please sing something decent. That won’t
drive us all nuts?” Howie basically insisted.
“MMMbop!” Kevin began screeching in a high pitched whiny
voice.
I
immediately joined in. But about all we could sing of the Hanson song was
the gibberish they called a chorus.
“My
God!” Elyssa whined. “I do have a headache you know. I hardly think that
Hanson is the best medicine!”
“All
right, all right we can take a hint.”
Kevin
and I spent the next hour harmonizing on Top 40 hits and oldies.
“You
know you could go somewhere with that voice,” Kevin commented.
“You
think?” I shrugged.
I’d
never really thought about it. I mean I was studying to be a
doctor. Besides I hated performing in front of people.
“I
really do. If we ever get out of this mess I may have to drag you down to
Jive. They’d sign you instantly.”
“He’s
got a point,” Howie added.
“The
day you get Anita to sing in front of people is the day I’ll perform at an
“Can
we hold you to that?” Kevin asked stifling laughter.
Elyssa
just kind of mumbled something. She’d never been much of a gambler.
We spent about another hour belting out some tunes. Howie joined us, but
Elyssa seemed to be off in her own little world. After that got boring we
tried some word games we remembered from camp. But soon we were running
out of ideas and I began to feel like I needed to use the bathroom. That
was not good, definitely not good.
It
had been over three hours since we’d gotten stuck. Meaning Brian’s time
was up. Though the guys didn’t seem to be thinking about it I could tell
that Elyssa had. A couple of tears slid down her cheeks every now and
then. But there wasn’t much I could say or do. Nick was still
listening to that walkman of his. I began to think he had the right idea.
“Yo
Nick!” I called to him.
He
pulled back his earphones.
“What?”
he asked.
“Could
I listen too?”
“You
like Metallica?” he questioned raising an eyebrow.
“No,
but I thought you might sacrifice yourself to listening to the radio.”
“Sure
just let me find a station.”
He
put the earphones back on and began fiddling with the tuning. He seemed
to settle on a station for a moment and his eyes went wide.
“Holy
flying fuck!” he practically screamed.
“What?”
we all chorused.
But
he said nothing and motioned for our silence. Nick’s face seemed to drain
color with every instant. My impatience was stirring again.
“What’s
happening,” I hissed at him.
But
he almost waved hysterically at me to shut up. He began to breathe a
little hard as he listened to the radio. What could be scaring him so
much? What could they possibly be saying? After a couple minutes or
so he gingerly pulled back the earphones and ran a nervous hand through his
soft blond hair.
“What
is it Nick?” Kevin asked gently.
His
patience was stronger than mine was. My insides were screaming to learn
what he had heard. He looked up at each one of us before he cleared his
throat. His voice shook as he began to speak.
“You
are never going to believe this.”
***
