The Stairwell

Jasmine slammed the door behind her and started toward the elevator. Her boyfriend’s muffled yells followed her. Although she couldn’t make out what he was saying, she let out a shout of frustration, UUUUGGGHH. Upon reaching the elevator, she reached and pressed the down button. The button glowed briefly while her finger was on it, but was extinguished as soon as she let go. Shaking her head, she tried several more times before letting out a heavy sigh. “Of course! Why would the elevator be in service!?”

She moved to the stairs, dreading the twenty floors she was going to have to descend to reach the bottom of her high rise apartment complex.

She tried to throw the stair door open, but the air pump attached to the top of the door prevented her. By the time she started down the first flight, her blood was boiling.

As Jasmine fueled her rage with a vague contemplation of murdering her boyfriend, Tom had just entered the lobby downstairs after being thoroughly chewed out by his boss.

Tom was practically racing through the lobby after thrusting his car keys into the doorman’s hands. He saw nothing and no one.

Just red.

He was sure that the vein in his forehead was prominent. He was one foolish comment away from putting someone in the hospital.

Approaching the elevator, a man in a boring black suit was standing and reading a newspaper against the wall. Tom was thinking about his conversation with his boss and let out a frustrated chuckle before saying, “What does she know anyway?!?”

The man with the newspaper lowered the article he was reading to look at the furious resident. Tom was still muttering and pressing the button repeatedly as the light continued to go off.

“Oh come on!” Tom shouted.

“Mr. Bailey?” The man in the black suit asked.

“What?!?” Tom said, practically spitting at the young man.

The man by the elevator held his hands up in a sign of surrender. “The elevators are down for the day. On behalf of Gold Crest Apartments, I sincerely apologize for the inconvenience.”

Staring at the man in disbelief, Tom went to say something disrespectful but thought better of it before storming off to the stairwell.

Just as Jasmine did before him, Tom tried to throw the door open but succeeded in only straining his arm. In his rage, he pretended as if it didn’t hurt, but he knew that he would have to ice that arm later tonight when he had calmed down some.

Jasmine’s pace had slowed as she grew more tired from practically sprinting down the steps. She thought,

Why are the stairs so steep and narrow anyway? Isn’t this supposed to be used in an emergency?

The people could not get past each other unless one person went back to the landing they started from. She knew because only three floors down and she had already had to make room for five other people. Why was she the one who always had to be so submissive? She was sick of feeling pushed around

She decided that she would not be the one to move the next time someone walked up these steps.

Tom was already regretting running up the first six flights of stairs. It had felt good to take out his aggression on the stairs initially, but now his face was red, his hands were grasping his knees and his lungs felt like over-inflated balloons, ready to burst. Curse my smoke-damaged lungs, he thought.

With that thought, he reached into his suitcase for cigarettes and a lighter. As if another stoge would help him breathe easier.

A young mother and her child came through the doorway on the landing above Tom.

“Mommy, it smells like smoking in here.” The small boy told his mother.

“Yes sweetheart, smells awful doesn’t it?”

The boy said, “Yeah, it’s awful.” They rounded the corner to find Tom glaring at them, blowing a large and defiant cloud of smoke in their direction.

The mother’s initial reaction was surprised, but quickly turned to disapproval. As they passed Tom, she said, “You know, you aren’t supposed to smoke in here.”

“Thanks for the update lady,” Tom said wryly.

The duo disappeared to the level below and Tom put out his cigarette, beginning his ascent again. Albeit, more slowly this time.

Jasmine had reached the 12th-floor landing, still not seeing anyone new coming up her steps. She couldn’t wait to bully some poor soul out of her way. Then I’ll feel better, she thought.

She pulled out her phone to call up a couple of girlfriends to see if they could go get a drink. She called Clarissa, but all she got was silence. She looked down at her phone, “No signal. Of course, there isn’t. This day just keeps getting better.” She let out a shriek and started banging her fists against the wall.

As she was hammering her fists into the wall, her phone slipped out of her hands and down to the next landing. She screamed again and started kicking the wall until she felt like she had broken a toe. Screaming, now from pain instead of frustration, she hobbled down the stairs to retrieve her phone.

Wheezing, Tom reached the top of the tenth flight of stairs and was looking up to the eleventh.

“Five more to go.” Tom panted, regretting his last smoke break.

About halfway up this flight of stairs, he noticed a train wreck of a woman coming down the stairs. She was gripping what looked like a shattered phone in her hands. Mascara running down her face, giving her a raccoon-like appearance. She looked extremely angry. Maybe she’d be better off if I threw her down the rest of these stairs with my boss. She might even thank me, he thought.

They met about four steps below the landing of the twenty-step staircase. Still somewhat short of breath and more agitated than he had been earlier, Tom said, “Excuse me, could you move? You’re blocking the way.”

The woman just stared at him and grabbed the rail like a vice grip. He looked at her hand and then back at her face before speaking.

“Really? You’re four steps from the top of the landing. Just move up and let me through and then you can come down.”

She took a spread her stance and stared at him. “How about you back your way down and get out of MY way. I’m tired of men thinking that they can just do or say whatever it is that they want.” Her voice echoed through the stairwell.

Tom chuckled, “You’re kidding right? Has nothing to do with you being a woman and everything to do with you being closer to that landing behind you.”

When she didn’t budge, Tom reached for her hand to pry it loose. As he was trying to work her fingers free, the woman placed a knee in his stomach, causing him to double over. Next thing he knew he was tumbling backward.

Blinking rapidly, he was now lying against a wall. Something warm running down the back of his neck. Everything was blurry.

Jasmine picked up her phone, crying out of frustration. She continued to trudge down the stairwell and rounded the corner of the eleventh floor flat to find an overweight man huffing and puffing his way up the stairs.

Perfect, she thought, this guy doesn’t even look to have the energy to argue with me. She proceeded down a few steps, blocking the sweaty and red-faced man’s way.

“Excuse me,” the man said, “could you move? You’re blocking the way.”

A smug sort of look came across her face as she grabbed the rail as tight as she could.

The man scoffed at her reaction. “Really? You’re four steps from the top of the landing. Just move up and let me through and then you can come down.”

She positioned her stance in a way that would make her prepared for a fight and tightened her grip on the handrail saying, “How about you back your way down and get out of MY way. I’m tired of men thinking that they can just do or say whatever it is that they want.”

The man seemed surprised by her response and said, “You’re kidding right? Has nothing to do with you being a woman and everything to do with you being closer to that landing behind you.”

The man reached for Jasmine’s arm. Between that and his disgraceful comment, the rage she felt before doubled.

Before she even knew what she was doing, she brought her knee into his solar plexus and pushed him down the stairs.

He tumbled like a rag doll. His arms and legs flailing down the stairs in a horrific way before his head slammed into the wall at the bottom.

Jasmine gasped and reached up to her hair in fear and shock.

What did I just do, she thought.

She saw the blood start to pool around him as he fought to get up without success. Jasmine rushed down the stairs, but by the time she reached him, he had already gone unconscious. She tried to wake him, and when that didn’t work she tried to carry him, but he was far too heavy for her.

Panicked, she decided that it would be best to go and get help. She raced down the stairs as fast as possible. She pushed the line between being helpful, or potentially being another victim if she fell down the stairs.

Tom woke up with a start. Head pounding as he looked around, trying to figure out where he was and what had happened. He realized he was in his room, but couldn’t remember how he had gotten there. There was a familiar man in the corner of his room sitting in a kitchen chair, but he wasn’t sure where he knew him from.

While munching on an apple he said, “Hey, you’re awake. I was starting to wonder if we should have taken you to the hospital after all.”

It was the man from earlier who was standing by the elevator. The man seemed much taller now than before. An awkward silence hung in the air for a moment as Tom’s mind cleared some.

Tom asked, “So what happened after that savage of a woman pushed me down the stairs?”

The man chuckled. “Savage? She’s a…” a knock at the door cut him short. “Oh, that must be Jasmine. Sit tight my man.”

Tom looked at the man in disbelief. “Are you serious? Telling me to hold on while you… you’re not even listening!” Tom stood up and hobbled after the mysterious elevator man. His head throbbed more and more with each step.

He opened the door to find the most gorgeous woman he had ever seen at the door. She had wine and a meal in hand. Her smile was sheepish and apologetic. It wasn’t until she spoke that Tom recognized her as his assailant.

She asked, “How are you feeling?”

Tom practically yelled, “You’ve got some nerve! You almost kill me and now you’re back at my door?!?”

She lifted up her gifts, maintaining the same smile. “I am sooooo sorry. I was having a horrible day. I know that isn’t an excuse, but it definitely didn’t help either. Luckily Jack uses to be an EMT and he came up right away to help you back to your room. You were pretty out of it, but look at you now! You look great!”

The displeased look on Tom’s face told her he wasn’t taking the apology.

“Look,” she said calmly, “I came to apologize, but if you want me to just go I would totally understand. I can just leave the wine and my world-famous lasagna on the table.”

Softening up a bit Tom said, “Well, it looks like you picked a good wine. And how could I say no to your ‘world famous’ lasagna? Plus there are no stairs in my room to push me down. Might hide the knives though.” He chuckled at his own joke before saying, “Come in.”

The man in the suit, Jack, dismissed himself, wishing Tom a swift recovery. Tom and Jasmine shared a bottle of wine and a meal while reminiscing and complaining about their days.

“Jasmine! Have you seen my keys? I thought I left them on the table.” Tom yelled from the kitchen.

Jasmine crossed the room with a coy smile and said, “Maybe if you put them on the hook by the door you wouldn’t misplace them so often.”

“Yes dear, but in the meantime, maybe you could point me in the right direction?” Tom sent a loving and sarcastic smile her way.

“Well actually, I tossed them down the stairwell. Would you like a ‘nudge’ in the right direction?” She smiled broadly at him. “Too soon?”

Tom couldn’t help but smile and shake his head at his wife of two years. To this day, she could not help herself with jokes like these, thinking it so funny that he married a woman who almost put him in a coma.

She tossed the keys at him and said, “Have a good day love.”

Tom told her he loved her, gave her a kiss and headed out the door and to the elevator, smiling along the way. The elevator was, of course, out again so he headed down the stairs. As he approached the point where he and his wife first met, he couldn’t help but laugh at what had become of them.

They both had so much anger and frustration with the world and their own lives when they had met. It was like they had to collide in order to learn to get rid of all the things that prevented them from having love and forgiveness in their lives.

They both had jobs they loved. Tom had quit smoking. Jasmine had opened a restaurant. They had completely turned their lives around. Was it perfect? By no means, and it was far from easy.

However, they brought out the best in the other and were able to navigate life with more ease than before.

Life was always good. They just needed someone to help them see the silver lining in it all.