The Elevator
By
Amy Suto
(c) Amy Suto 2012
EXT. LOBBY - NIGHT
A BUSINESSWOMAN, TESS, walks across a festive lobby, her
phone rings, and she puts it to her ear. A YOUNG MAN holds
out a pair of silly "2012" glasses.
YOUNG MAN
Come on Tess, join the party! It’s
New Years’ Eve!
She shakes her head and keeps walking.
TESS
Work stops for no holiday.
INT. ELEVATOR - 11:30PM
Tess shuffles into the elevator, closing her phone with a
sigh. She presses floor #20, and leans against the side of
the elevator, closing her eyes. The doors begin to close.
BANG! Somebody sticks a cane in between the doors. They
open, and a man in a paper top hat with a pair of 2012
glasses that partially impair his vision walks in.
TOP HAT
Glasses worked better when it was
2010. Leaving the party so soon?
It’s almost midnight.
TESS
I wasn’t attending it in the first
place. I’m a lawyer. I’m working
late.
Top Hat turns away from her and studies the buttons,
examining them. Tess taps her foot, looking at the time on
the screen of her phone.
TESS
Are you going to choose a floor?
TOP HAT
You act as if it is a thoughtless
choice!
TESS
It is!
TOP HAT
(gravely)
No choice comes without
consequences. You can pick a
different elevator you know.
2.
TESS
My God. Here, you want to go to a
floor? Go to a floor!
She starts hitting buttons randomly. The elevator shudders,
the doors slam shut, and the lights flicker on and off. Tess
and Top Hat grab the sides of the elevator for support. A
strange WHIRRING noise is heard.
TOP HAT
What have you done?! Any other
combination of floors... any other
night...
TESS
What are you talking about?
Top Hat points at the buttons.
TOP HAT
Look!
The buttons are no longer the same. Floor 3 is just a
horizontal squiggly line, Floor 6 is represented as a mixed
number (12/2), and Floor 11 has a giant X on it.
TOP HAT
We’re stuck in this elevator until
the cycle is completed!
TESS
What cycle?
They arrive at Floor 3 - represented as a wavy line. DING.
The doors open.
TESS
Why, this is accounting.
A RUMBLING noise. A TIDAL WAVE starts BARRELING towards them
from the other side of the floor. Tess screams, jamming the
door-close button, and the door closes JUST IN TIME, the
water hitting the other side with a steel-crunching BANG!
TESS
What was that?!
TOP HAT
Don’t you see?! It’s New Years’
Eve! Time is most vulnerable to
change. If I don’t get to floor
twelve by midnight, 2011 will
restart! That means I have to
endure Bieber fever all over again.
3.
The elevator keeps rising, slowing down as it approaches
another floor: 12/2. Ding. The door slides open, and Tess
cringes. But nothing happens. She opens her eyes, and sees
not a floor on the other side of the doors, but a floating
menagerie of fitness machines, scales, bags of money, and
cookbooks- all just hanging there, suspended in the abyss.
TOP HAT
This floor is where New Years’
Resolutions go to die.
She stares at him.
TOP HAT
What did you think happened to
these failed goals? Resolutions
never really disappear.
The door slides shut.
TOP HAT
What time is it?
TESS
11:57.
TOP HAT
We have three minutes. We have to
speed up the cycle!
The floor with the red button is reached. DING. The doors
open. A FIERY INFERNO is on the other side. Tess screams and
the doors close once again.
TESS:
Why is this happening?
The elevator ascends one last floor. The button is simply an
’X’. The doors do not open. The elevator shudders to a stop,
the lights blinking on and off. Top Hat jams the buttons. It
is of no use.
TOP HAT:
You need to do something Tess, you
need to set something right.
Suddenly, Tess’ phone begins ringing. She automatically
reaches to answer it, but stops herself. The ringing turns
malicious, the tone sounding off-pitch, like a dying circus
tune. She drops the phone and crushes it with her foot.
The elevator shakes, but begins ascending, dinging as it
reached floor twelve at the stroke of midnight. Top Hat
looks at her, a grin on his face.
4.
TOP HAT:
Happy New Years’!
Her eyes flutter open. She is back in the elevator, on the
first floor. No buttons are pushed and the elevator is
empty. It was all a dream.
EXT. LOBBY - NIGHT
She steps out into the lobby. People are hugging and
kissing. Confetti is being thrown. She smiles. She is about
to join the party when her phone rings. Without a second
thought, she throws it into a nearby trashcan and walks
towards her friends, who beckon her over. One of them hands
her a pair of silly glasses.
TESS:
These worked better back in 2010.
But she puts them on anyways and joins the festivities.
Standing by the elevator is TOP HAT. He tips his hat in
recognition and smiles.
CUT TO BLACK.
