The Lift That Knows Your Floor
The east lift in Tower 3 keeps taking Tes round to 11, where Tes does not live. Building systems say there is no fault. Tes’s mother on 11 says there is soup.
A fictional narrative within Callizto Dark Symphony.
Tes lived on 17.
The east lift opened on 11.
“I didn’t press that,” Tes told the empty cabin.
The lift, being a lift, said nothing, and dinged.
The corridor on 11 smelled of coriander. Tes’s mother opened the door before Tes had decided whether to be a person who visits or a person who reports a fault.
“You’re early.”
“I’m lost.”
“You’re on 11.”
“I live on 17.”
“I know where you live. I also know you skip lunch.”
There was soup. There was the particular look mothers invented for adult children who had become busy as a personality.
Tes ate.
“The lift keeps doing this.”
“Good lift.”
“I’m going to log it.”
“Log soup,” said Tes’s mother.
Civic Network returned: No routing anomaly detected. User destination may differ from user intention.
Tes showed the message to the lift on the way back up.
The lift took Tes to 17, like a cat pretending it had never been on the table.
Thursday it did 11 again.
Tes stopped logging it.
Some faults were a timetable.
Mentioned in this record
- Forge City Civic Network