The Elevator

The Elevator

Matt squinted into the blinding afternoon sunlight reflected off the glass front of the hospital as he made his way up the walk to the entrance. He had been at work when the call came in just over an hour ago.

“We’re very sorry...single gunshot wound to the chest...sixth floor ER...it doesn’t look good.”

The admitting doors slid shut behind Matt as he paused to let his eyes adjust from the glare of the late July sun to the glare of the high-intensity institutional fluorescents. It was a straight shot from the admitting doors to the bank of elevators at the end of the corridor. With each step that Matt took toward the elevators he felt like he was being funneled, almost against his will toward a black hole. The pressure in his head and tightness in his gut steadily rising.

Paul…

He pressed the call button and listened to the elevator’s machinery hum like the exhalations of some great beast trapped within the walls of the building as the car descended. With a shudder, the car stopped at the ground floor and the doors slid silently, expectantly open. Matt boarded the elevator and pressed the button for the sixth floor. A red circle lit up around the button. It looked to Matt like a blind, bloodshot eye staring sightlessly yet accusingly at him. He shuffled to the other side of the car and looked instead at the floor indicator lights above the doors that closed as silently as they had opened. The quality of the light was different inside the elevator. In the corridor every surface was glossy and white, reflecting and amplifying the light. The brushed, stainless steel interior of the elevator diffused and weakened the light. As the car lurched into motion Matt noticed that the hum of the machinery was much louder here, as if he had been swallowed whole by that great beast and its dim digestive tract moved upward instead of down.

Matt shivered and turned his thoughts to Paul. Because gravity was still pulling Matt downward while the elevator lifted him up, it seemed like the latter was attempting to falsely raise his expectations while the former was preparing him for the worst. Although at the moment the elevator seemed the more powerful of the two forces, Matt knew that gravity would always have its way in the end.

On the sixth floor, Matt located the main nurse’s station and inquired about his brother, Paul. With a pained expression pinching her features, the nurse asked him to wait while she went looking for the doctor. Matt sank into one of the waiting area chairs and closed his eyes, trying to ease the throbbing in his skull.

“Ahem.” The doctor cleared his throat and offered his hand. “I’m Doctor Rosen.”

Matt took the doctor’s hand and let himself be pulled to his feet. “I’m Matt, Paul Sweeny’s brother.”

“Yes, Matt. I wish they would have caught you downstairs. Keep you from wasting the trip up here.” Doctor Rosen said as he steered Matt back toward the elevators. The Doctor punched the call button for the elevator. The car was still waiting on the sixth floor and the doors immediately slid open.

“They told me on the phone that Paul was here on the sixth floor. In the ER.” Matt said as he followed the doctor into the elevator.

“Yes, well we did everything we could. The damage was just too extensive.” The doctor reached out and punched a button that started the elevator downward.

Paul looked over at the panel of buttons on the wall in front of the doctor. A red light encircled the button marked B3. For a moment, the elevator fought against gravity and Matt’s stomach seemed to hover in the air. In the end, however gravity did have its way and Matt felt himself sinking as the doctor again cleared his throat nervously.

“Ahem. You are listed as Paul’s next of kin so I just need you to come with me to the morgue and identify the body.”