Stuck

I was ready to leave the apartment to go to work this morning, when I walked past the fishtank in the kitchen and noticed how dirty the water was. I took a look at the clock on the wall, saw I was earlier than I usually am, and thought: what the heck. So I started refreshing part of the water of the tank, to make sure our fish would still be alive by tonight.
Ten minutes later - I really had to get going now - I looked at the water and it seemed even filthier than before. But it was all I could do for the moment.

I grabbed all my stuff, closed the door behind me and got into the elevator. I pushed the button to get to the garage, the elevator door closed and I greeted myself in the mirror like I do every morning. Yes, I'm nice to myself.

Why didn't the elevator start moving? And why was the door making that strange sound? I pushed the button again, waited for a few more seconds, held my breath and listened closely. A few moments later the feeling hit me. That one second of panic on the moment that you realize that you are stuck.
I decided to stay calm and think rationally. I tried pushing the button for opening the door, without any luck. I tried pushing the button of the floor I was on, but still nothing happened.

I checked my mobile phone, but it didn't have any signal of course. Who was I going to call anyway? Mónica was at work already, and her parents who live nearby surely weren't awake yet.
Should I push the alarm button? There probably wouldn't be a lot of people at home, and the ones that were at home were probably still sleeping.
But who hasn't been tempted to push the alarm button in an elevator, and now I had a real reason to do so.
So I pushed the button, and the alarm started making a hell of a noise. Cool. Come on, wake up and get me out of here, you sleepy heads!


About a few minutes later, I suddenly heard someone shouting: 'Cut it out! We heard you already!'. I had to suppress a smile.
I could hear some people talking below and all of a sudden the elevator started moving. What a relief!
The elevator stopped in the hall, the door opened, and there was a woman with a 1 year old kid on her arm, who was laughing at me as if he was making fun of me. They had just arrived, and had heard the noise I was making. Aparently it had happened before, and there seems to be a problem with the elevator door.
I think I'm going to use the stairs for a while.