“Thanks,” she said. He gestured wildly in response, and Jodie realized that he was deaf. Meanwhile, Sandra braced herself against the wall.
“A temporary halt, I hope,” she remarked wryly. They waited in silence for another ten seconds; time seemed to stretch into infinity. Outside it was summer, and many of them were wearing thin summer dresses or T-shirts under which body hair was visible. Humphrey could see Katherine’s nipples clearly under the silk shirt, her pale skin luminous against her red hair. He wanted to make her blush, he wanted to see crimson seep into those cheeks. He wondered about spanking her, imagining what that flesh would feel like under his palm. He felt a terrible desire to pull her pants down to the ground, to publicly humiliate her in front of all these people.
Dee offered Jerome a cigarette, who smiled and took one.
“No smoking,” Deidre snapped, her hysteria mounting. If only the elevator would move! Dee shrugged and Jerome couldn’t help but notice the beauty of his fingers wrapped around the packet.
The elevator shuddered then dropped several feet in free fall. For a second everyone held their breath, then almost palpably they exhaled together.
“We’re stuck, the elevator’s stuck,” Humphrey announced rather unnecessarily.
“Don’t be ridiculous.” Deidre’s voice was tight with tension. Dee pressed the control button; no response. “Well, how long do we wait until it’s official?” Katherine tried to inject some humor into the situation.
“Allow me,” Humphrey squeezed past her, the soft, pendulous weight of her breasts brushing across his chest sending a shudder down to his groin.
Please don’t get an erection, please, he thought to himself. His cock, ignoring all rational pleas, rose to the occasion and butted its head fast against his trousers.
“If I get to the panel in the ceiling, I might be able to reactivate the elevator. I did a stint many years ago as an apprentice electrician,” he announced to the rest of them, feeling uncommonly manly. Dee offered to give him a leg up and, with the others pressed against the walls of the elevator, they formed a triangle in the center of the floor. Humphrey stood on top of Dee’s back to lift off the metal panel in the ceiling. With Humphrey thus elevated, his state of excitement was obvious, and made rather a favorable impression on the women, Katherine in particular, who was partial
to the larger male.
Humphrey unscrewed the panel with the help of a key ring, shifted it across and stared at the complex junction of colored wires. None of them seemed to enter and exit at any logical point. He pulled tentatively at a green wire. He had been bluffing. The throbbing attraction he felt for the elegant redhead had temporarily sent him into a delusion of grandeur. He would save them all and, forever thankful, she would sink to her knees and throw her head into his lap, sobbing with gratitude. He peered down; her mouth did seem invitingly close to his crotch. His cock rose another ten centimeters. There was an audible sigh of awe that rippled gently but perceptibly through the female onlookers. Dee, kneeling and staring down at the floor, wondered what all the fuss was about, while Quin noticed a definite change in the air pressure. Humphrey pulled at the wire a little more sharply, and suddenly the elevator was plunged into utter darkness.
The screams and gasps calmed down. Stacey was now beginning to enjoy the drama of the situation. She calmly reached into her large shopping bag for the Christmas candle she’d bought. Holding it up high, she lit it with Jock’s lighter, the one he’d bought her for good luck. The pale light illuminated the faces of the trapped shoppers.
“That should do for a while,” she announced, looking like an oversized angel of mercy towering above the others, beacon held high, radiating calmness.
“Hello? Hello?” A thin voice with an Indian accent piped up from an intercom speaker set in the wall.
“This is a representative from the general office speaking. I just want to let you folks know that we have everything under control. The technicians are working on restoring power within half an hour. We suggest you relax and try not to panic. We will now play some relaxing music to help you with this task.”
The sound of waves crashing and the high sonic booming of whales singing flooded through the elevator. Jodie let go of Quin’s elbow and sank to the floor, resigning herself to a long wait. Dee felt quite elated; he’d taken advantage of the black-out and had run his hand across the front of Jerome’s trousers. Instead of being pushed away, Jerome had pressed his hand down firmly, and Dee had clearly felt his penis hardening under his touch. They now stood chastely side by side peering nonchalantly into the dark. A plan was forming in Dee’s mind. He felt in his pocket—the tabs of ecstasy were still there.
“How about a drink? We might as well make it a party since we’re going to be here for another twenty minutes at least,” his voice sounded warm and inviting in the candlelight. “I’ve got some champagne. French, of course.”
“Sounds civilized.” Sandra needed a drink. There was something about the candle-lit elevator, with the flame reflected a hundred times off the polished steel and the piped music, that was beginning to remind her of the bat caves. They agreed among themselves that champagne would be a good idea. Deidre, finally succumbing to the ambience, had begun to find Karl’s presence arousing, being especially partial to European looks and manicured fingernails.
Karl began to hum a libretto from The Magic Flute, beautifully and in tune. Quin vaguely picked up the vibrations of the tune and rapped out the rhythm with his knuckles on the glimmering wall.
“Stacey. I work as a marketing director for J. P. Motherwell’s Meats.”
“Humphrey. I’m an artist.”
“Sandra. Architect. Married, at least I was when I got on at the sixteenth floor.” Laughter.
“Katherine.”
“Wife to me. Karl. Conductor.”
Dee silently pulled out the tabs of ecstasy and slipped two tabs into each bottle of champagne.
“He’s being too modest. World-famous conductor and pianist.”
“Jodie. I’m a beautician and I’m due next April.”
“Deidre. I’m a friend of Stacey’s and I’m her husband’s stock-broker.”
“Jerome. I sell ice cream to little kids and their hungry mothers. And you?”