Speaker 1: The elevator to floor zero. The elevator at Noor's aunt's
Speaker 1: hotel had buttons for floors one through eight. On Tuesday afternoon,
Speaker 1: it had one more. A small round zero glowed beneath
Speaker 1: the alarm button. Noor was helping Aunt Salma deliver clean
Speaker 1: towels while the hotel was busy with three tour groups,
Speaker 1: a wedding party, and a chess club that kept moving
Speaker 1: the lobby chairs. Fifth floor. Room 512, Aunt Salma said,
Speaker 1: handing her a folded stack. Then come straight back. Inside
Speaker 1: the elevator, Noor pressed 5. The new zero brightened instead.
Speaker 1: The elevator descended past the lobby. The floor display showed B,
Speaker 1: then two symbols Noor did not recognize, then a tiny
Speaker 1: picture of a clock. She pressed the door open button.
Speaker 1: Nothing happened. The elevator stopped gently. Its doors opened onto
Speaker 1: an underground railway station. Noor stayed inside. Six platforms curved
Speaker 1: beneath a ceiling full of brass pipes. Trains waited beside them.
Speaker 1: A blue train with square windows, a red one no
Speaker 1: longer than a bus, and a silver train with no
Speaker 1: driver's cab at all. Every destination sign read, Nowhere Yet.
Speaker 1: A station clock above the platforms had six hands. Each
Speaker 1: pointed in a different direction, and none of them moved.
Speaker 1: A conductor in a green coat hurried toward the elevator.
Speaker 1: You're from upstairs, he said. Good. Can you read this?
Speaker 1: He held out a hotel luggage tag. Nor recognized Aunt
Speaker 1: Salma's handwriting. Blue Harbor. Via Clock Bridge. Where did you
Speaker 1: get that? It arrived with the others. Behind him, hundreds
Speaker 1: of tags covered a long table. Red strings, blue strings,
Speaker 1: yellow strings, names, room numbers, and destinations were mixed together. Somehow,
Speaker 1: every luggage tag lost in the hotel had been finding
Speaker 1: its way down to floor zero. The tags usually told
Speaker 1: the station where it trains should go. That day, they
Speaker 1: had arrived without being sorted. and no train knew which
Speaker 1: route belonged to it. I need to take these towels
Speaker 1: to five, Noor said. The elevator will not go up
Speaker 1: while the station is blocked. Noor did not step onto
Speaker 1: a train. She stood on the platform where she could
Speaker 1: still see the elevator and called Aunt Salma. Her phone worked,
Speaker 1: though every word echoed twice. Stay where you are, Aunt
Speaker 1: Salma said. I'm coming down. There isn't usually a zero button.
Speaker 1: There is now. A few minutes later, the elevator opened again.
Speaker 1: Aunt Salma stepped out, carrying the front desk master key,
Speaker 1: a radio, and an expression, nor new, meant there would
Speaker 1: be questions later. She examined the nearest tags. These are ours,
Speaker 1: she said. The colored strings show which tour desk handled
Speaker 1: the luggage. The Blue Harbor group used blue string. Mountain
Speaker 1: travelers used green. The wedding party used gold. The chess
Speaker 1: club's tags were black and white, although several guests had
Speaker 1: tied both colors together because they thought it looked better.
Speaker 1: Noor and Aunt Salma began sorting. The conductor rolled empty
Speaker 1: luggage carts beside each platform. Blue Harbor tags went to
Speaker 1: platform two. Mountain tags went to four. Gold strings went
Speaker 1: to the long red train, which had curtains in every window.
Speaker 1: The black and white tags caused trouble. One read Castle Square.
Speaker 1: Another said East Terminal. A third listed only Checkmate. That
Speaker 1: one is a nickname, Aunt Salma said. Room 327. Mr.
Speaker 1: Cho is traveling home to East Terminal. Nor added it
Speaker 1: to the correct cart. As each group was completed, Letters
Speaker 1: appeared on a train sign. Blue Harbor flickered above Platform 2.
Speaker 1: Mountain Line appeared over 4. One tag said, Home, and
Speaker 1: had no colored string, room number, or name. Which train
Speaker 1: gets this? Noor asked. The conductor placed it on the
Speaker 1: small silver train. That one finds its own way. Noor
Speaker 1: wanted to ask how, but the silver doors had already closed.
Speaker 1: The final unsorted tag belonged to a red suitcase from
Speaker 1: room 614. Aunt Salma remembered the family. Their tag had
Speaker 1: disappeared when the lobby luggage basket tipped near the elevator
Speaker 1: that morning. How are the tags reaching this station? Noor asked.
Speaker 1: The conductor looked toward the ceiling pipes. Floor zero collects
Speaker 1: things that are lost between one place and another. This
Speaker 1: was not a useful explanation, but it seemed to be
Speaker 1: the only one available. When the last tag reached its platform,
Speaker 1: six whistles sounded. The trains departed one by one. The
Speaker 1: blue train curved into a tunnel painted with waves. The
Speaker 1: mountain train climbed a track that rose into darkness. The
Speaker 1: silver train simply became smaller until Noor could no longer
Speaker 1: see it. The elevator bell rang. Noor and Aunt Salma
Speaker 1: stepped inside with the towels. The conductor handed Aunt Salma
Speaker 1: a small brass clip.' For keeping loose tags together,' he said.
Speaker 1: The doors closed before she could refuse it. Back in
Speaker 1: the hotel, Aunt Salma moved the loose tag basket from
Speaker 1: beside the elevator to the space behind the front desk.
Speaker 1: She used the brass clip on the first bundle— Noor
Speaker 1: finally delivered the towels to room 512. They were 43
Speaker 1: minutes late. The next morning, the zero button was gone.
Speaker 1: One luggage tag remained in Noor's pocket. It said, Fifth floor. Towels.
Speaker 1: She placed it in the new basket before the elevator
Speaker 1: could collect it. The end. As always, visit us at ReadTheTale.com
Speaker 1: for all your favorite tales and stories.