Enjoy the chapter, my wonderful readers and especially my amazing reviewers!
Things are heating up for our fav couple…
Chapter 13
I admit I jumped when we heard the noise above us. I had been concentrating on our conversation. After I stupidly blurted out the question about going on a date, Carlos had made me at least feel better by taking the bait and talking to me about restaurants and movies.
I am taken aback by his suggestion that we go to his uncle's restaurant and probably meet his brother. At first, I am thrilled that he would take me somewhere so personal, and I want to try the food, but then I cannot help the wave of panic that rushed through me. I don't do very well with families; I tend to go quiet and withdraw. I can't help it, it's a hangover from my abortive marriage. Dickie's family hated me. Well, when we married, they were probably more just indifferent and a bit disapproving. Dickie's father was a respected attorney, and his mother was a high-society wannabe socialite. My family is middle-class at most, and we were not high society anything. I had only just finished college, and was not working, and I think the Orrs saw me as a social climber, if not a gold-digger.
But after the divorce, which I turned into a spectacle, yes, they hated me. With a burning passion.
I destroyed any political ambitions for Dickie by airing our dirty laundry very publicly. And Mrs Orr's greatest wish, (I never dared called her mom), was for Dickie to be Governor, if not a Senator. Honestly, I think she saw him as President someday. Not that Dickie necessarily wanted that, but Mrs Orr sure did. After I burned the dining room table on the front lawn of our townhouse and described his infidelity in detail in the divorce hearing, none of that was gonna happen. They got their revenge though. The infidelity was enough that I was not held responsible for his student loans, but he had a credit card in both of our names, that I was not aware of, and he spent up big. So, in the end, I had to pay $5,000 in credit card debt. It was $5,000 I did not have, and it crippled me financially for the next three years. I had only just started to climb out of that mess and rebuild a savings account when EE Martin went under.
So, a part of me is relieved when Carlos agrees his family's restaurant might be too much. I have never had Japanese food, and I'm not over-keen to eat raw fish, but I decide to trust Carlos that there will be options I'll enjoy.
I cannot believe he hasn't seen the Indiana Jones movies! Well, he said he saw the first one, but there's a definite movie marathon in our future if we make it past our first date. God, I hope we do. I am fascinated by this man.
Then came the noise and the voice. The Fire Department. Thank goodness! Carlos leaps up in a fluid move I can never hope to emulate, and yells back quickly, "Hello Officer! We can hear you!"
I scramble to my feet too, although far less gracefully, and clutch Carlos' arm in excitement. His lips don't smile at me, but his eyes do, and his arm comes back around my shoulders.
Officer Rodriguez spoke again, "I've opened these doors with a hydraulic wedge. Can you open the inner doors?"
Carlos replied, "I can open them, but only a few inches. They seem to be extremely difficult to open for some reason, and they won't stay open. Holding them open is very difficult and I can't do it for long."
He went on, "But if you have another wedge, I can open them, and you can pass it through to my companion. I can set it up to hold the doors then."
We heard distant sounds of conversation for a couple of minutes. Then Officer Rodriguez came back, "We'll have to get another hydraulic, one of my colleagues is going to track one down. But we can pass through something else to wedge it. How far open do you think you can go? We'll have to try and find something short enough."
Carlos looked thoughtful, "The most I've been able to open it is about 10 inches, and like I said, I can't hold it long. If you can find something less than a foot long, I can probably work with it. But I won't try until you're ready. Like I said, it's a bit of a strain."
"Ok," he replied, "Hold tight. I'll get back to you."
We waited in tense silence for about five minutes or so. Eventually, the Officer's voice came again, "We've got hold of a steel pipe, it's just under a foot. If you can open the doors, we'll pass it to your friend, and they can wedge it in between."
Carlos looks at me and I nod in understanding. I know I will have to move quickly, as I had seen the strain it caused Carlos several times. Carlos positioned me in front of him at the doors. He is very close behind me. In other circumstances, it would be an intimate position, but our focus is on rescue now. He touches my shoulder to indicate he is ready, and his arms come over my shoulders to grasp the doors. He murmured, "Wedge it in the door jams lower than my arms. You'll need to hold it as level as you can as I close the doors onto it but be ready to pull your hands back quick-smart if the pipe slips. Remember, your hands are way more important than the pipe."
I nod and look up towards the top of the doors as I shout, "We're about to open the doors! Are you ready with the pipe?"
"Yes, ma'am," came the reply, "ready and waiting."
From the corner of my eyes, I can see Carlos' arm muscles bulge in strain, and he inches the doors apart, eventually almost a foot open. As soon as it is wide enough, I reach up towards the top of the elevator, and I see a young, Hispanic man in fire rescue gear, but without the coat, helmet or mask. He hands me a steel pipe, about two inches in diameter, and about 10 inches long. It looks ideal, and I hope it will hold the doors and not slip. I carefully wedge it into the doors at about chest height, trying to make sure it is level and will sit firmly against each door. I can hear the exertion in Carlos' voice as he tells me, "Hold the pipe level in the middle with both hands. I'm going to try and ease the door closed onto it. Try not to let it slip or slide."
I did as he told me, moving my hands quickly to the centre and grasping the pipe firmly, holding it level. Carlos eased the doors onto the pipe, and then gradually, I can see him release the doors and let go. His arm came around my waist, probably to pull me back quickly if needed, and he said, "Ok, let go, but try not to nudge the pipe as you do." I open my hands slowly and pull them back to my chest. Thankfully, the pipe holds when I release it, and we both stepped back a pace from the doors to watch a minute to make sure it stays put.
It does. We both grin in triumph, and Carlos' smile almost blinded me again. He steps past me back toward the doors to look up and speak to the Firefighter, "Thanks. I'm not sure why they won't stay open, but they are definitely not working properly. There doesn't seem to be any ceiling hatch either."
"No, I can't see anything like that on the roof," he replied. "How did you two get trapped in there? What happened, exactly?" Rodriguez asked.
Ranger explained, "We both got on at the fifth floor. There was no sign to indicate the elevator was not working on the fifth, so we both assumed it was. We pressed the lobby button. It took almost two minutes to close the doors, and then it moved very slowly to stop and open again on the fourth. Same routine with the doors there. Then, when they closed again, the car jerked hard then went into free-fall. We fell about two stories before the emergency brake engaged. We've been stuck in here around two and a half hours."
"Did you try to call for help before the maintenance guy found you?" Rodriguez wondered.
Carlos seemed to tense slightly, and I wondered why? But then I realised he thought the firefighter is assuming we did nothing and sat around waiting for rescue. That wouldn't sit well with someone like Carlos, but he replied in the same even tone, "We pressed the emergency button, of course, but it did nothing, and we couldn't get a cell signal, even with the doors open. Like I said, no ceiling hatch, or I would have climbed through and tried to open the outer doors. We banged on the walls, to no result. Eventually, we decided to try and open the doors again, and Steph banged on the outer doors and yelled for help. A woman eventually heard us and, I assume, she was the one who alerted maintenance. We opened the inner doors when talking to him, but he didn't seem to have anything to open the outer doors or any kind of wedge."
Rodriguez looked slightly abashed, obviously realising how his question had been interpreted. "Ok, no problem. Like I said, we're trying to track down another wedge for the doors." He assessed our situation. He mused, "Problem is, we can't pull you through the gap up here. How much of the lower doors can you see?"
Carlos said, "About five or six inches. About the same as at the top. Don't think Steph could fit through either gap, and I certainly can't." Rodriguez can see us now, at least somewhat, and will see Carlos' muscled frame for himself.
"Hmm," came the reply. "Have to rethink then. Let me speak to my Captain and see what we can come up with. We might have to call in the elevator people too. They may have a better idea of what we can do. Can you see anything in there about who maintains it? Otherwise, I'll go back to building maintenance."
"No, there are no signs or maintenance notices. No phone or anything. Just the panel with the emergency button."
He nodded. He said, "OK, hold tight again. I suggest you move back away from the doors as far as you can in case that pipe slips and gets thrown towards you. I'm gonna go make some calls and I'll be back."
We did as we were told, moving to the back corner of the elevator car, and once more we slid down to the floor to sit and wait. Again. I had naively hoped that rescue would be simple and quick once the Fire Department came. I guess nothing is ever that simple.
Still, we are making some progress. At least we've got both sets of doors open and the firefighters here to help! I can see Carlos relax visibly as well, and it is now clear how concerned he had been that we would be trapped in here for a long time.
We settled against the back wall and Carlos put his arm around my shoulders, seemingly without thinking. It felt good, like he just automatically thought of me as being with him. I basked in the warm glow it gave me.
So will it be smooth sailing, or are there more rough seas ahead? He he, reviews feed my muse. :)