I know this may sound cliché, but I'm not really that kind of guy.
Now, let me explain what happened. You'll see that I'm mostly innocent here.
I work in an office building. Its not the oldest one in town. There are a few newer and bigger. Various small businesses spread over several floors. One single, old, slow elevator and a couple stairwells.
There is a small answering service, a couple photographers that work together most of the time, a geological survey business. What do they even do? I don't think they know half the time. But their receptionist is cute.
There is a web design business run by a young man. Very smart, a bit brash, but doing well for now. He does half of the web sites for the businesses in the building.
A mailing company, writing a few newsletters and sending them out periodically.
An art studio on the first floor split with a small designer clothing store. They do mostly consigned hand made work for local artists and authentic western apparel.
All in all, its a random slice of small town businesses. Everyone pretty much knows each other. You pass in the lobby, or using the common restrooms. Its comfortable and things move at a pretty average pace. This isn't some high-rise office building in a big city after all.
People in the building? Typical cross section of ethnicities and genders. A few old guys that have been working too long. They're bored and tired. Young men, on their way elsewhere, anywhere else but here. Just not sure how they're going to get out. But they will. A few working moms. And several attractive girl-next-door types.
Then there's me, the token nerd I guess you'd say. I work as a graphic design slash data entry specialist for a no-name business that barely keeps enough business to require me being there. The name is not really important anyway. Nothing happens in my own office. The boss is gone most of the time.
But, my cousin got me this job, and I cant say that I have found anything better.
Its boring, but I have other hobbies at home. I'll admit it, I'm a gamer. With ambitions of designing my own games. But that's not really important here.
I have to tell you, something weird has been going on for a couple months. I'm close to figuring it out. I'm a little caught up in the mystery of it. Cant really decide who I should talk to about it. All I know is that if I'd been caught in any one of the situations I've found myself in lately, I'd be lucky to just get fired.
Well, maybe I should just tell you the first story and you'll see that I'm honestly not that kind of guy. I would never force myself on a woman. I'm not into one night stands. Just haven't found the right girl for me, honest. And I'm not the kind of guy to do things that will make things awkward in the future.
Seriously, I'd describe myself as one of the nice guys. Probably too nice.
Anyway, back to the story, which, as you'll see, has a certain amount of random blind luck. Without some of which, I'd never have figured out what was going on.
I was helping put some supplies away. There is a common loading dock for the building. It is usually me helping put things away. My boss doesn't mind, even when he's around. Its usually slow, remember?
"Thanks for your help, Joe. I 'preciate that you're always willing to do most of the heavy lifting." Karen smiled over her shoulder. Shifting a few lighter packages and a stack of letters, she managed to push the UP button for the elevator. She's the freckled brunette who works in as cashier for the combined art studio and clothing boutique.
She had a cute southern accent. Definitely not from around here, but I didn't know her whole story. Just that she was nice and treated me kindly. She's a few inches over five feet. When she wears heels, she's close to my height. I'm not that tall I guess.
I actually did most of the heavy lifting in the building. Not sure how that had become my thing, but I did help with rearranging office layouts and furniture sometimes. And I was by no means the strongest guy, but I'd always been willing to help. Maybe it was part of my upbringing.
And did I mention, that my boss didn't really care? He was hardly there most of the time. I just had occasional graphics deadlines. And sometimes there was a shit ton of data that he wanted entered in to some spreadsheets. He had me make some detailed spreadsheets occasionally
But back to Karen. She held the elevator door while I maneuvered the dolly loaded with 50 reams of paper into the small elevator car. One tire was mostly flat and it made a dangerous wobble if you loaded it too heavily. Like I had done today.
As the door closed slowly, I turned the dolly around to be in a better position for exiting. The wobble of the its almost flat tire caused the precarious stack to teeter dangerously. I barely caught it, but not before it bumped Karen in the hip.
That bump knocked her into the elevator car wall slightly, jostling the packages she carried. She tried catching the top one, but it bounced on the tip of her fingers seeming to float.
I over corrected the stack of paper on the dolly causing it to bump the other wall of the small elevator car. It shook ominously making weird noises in the elevator shaft.
I absently wondered what the weight limit of the elevator was. It should be posted somewhere, right?
TCHINK!!
The fallen package made the sound everyone recognizes as glass breaking.
I flinched.
"Ooops. I'm really sorry, Karen." I reached out to pickup the package, but the stack of paper on the dolly chose that moment to wobble as the elevator began to move adding to my challenge of keeping it balanced.
Karen stabilized her stack of letters and small boxes, but the stack of paper tipped the other way, swaying right into the exposed red stop button of the elevator.
We lurched to a halt. I struggled with the reams of paper and almost got them to hold still. It was worse than trying to settle down my 5 year old cousin after a sugar binge.
Karen however, in trying to avoid stepping on the package at her feet bumped into the wall again and it threw her off balance. She bumped into me as the elevator car swayed a little due to the off balance caused by the heavy reams of paper on one side. It shouldn't have swayed that much, right? I was starting to worry about this old elevator. Maybe I'd have to look up its inspection papers later.
Then her low heel caught on an old wrinkle in the carpet and rolled, dumping her into me again and tossing the remaining packages and envelopes she held up into the air.
It seemed to go in slow motion like in the movies. I knew what was going to happen before it happened.
Most of the letters slid sideways. They still made a mess. The small box she'd been balancing in the middle went higher than I thought it would. It wasn't too heavy but had a weird balance. I remember holding it as we sorted the packages for the day.
It went up and slowly came down on the top of the dolly's rounded handle. There was a cracking sound. Something in there broke. Hopefully not too far beyond repair.
