WEBVTT 1 00:00:05.000 --> 00:00:07.519 I've always liked finishing a job alone, especially when it's 2 00:00:07.519 --> 00:00:09.279 in a place you think you know inside and out. 3 00:00:09.839 --> 00:00:12.279 Old buildings have their mows, creek and settle after the 4 00:00:12.279 --> 00:00:14.519 close of business, the heating ducks sighing as though the 5 00:00:14.519 --> 00:00:17.920 place is exhaling. I'm not sentimental by nature, but after 6 00:00:17.920 --> 00:00:20.359 four decades of elevator work, you build a kind of 7 00:00:20.359 --> 00:00:23.559 six cents for what feels right. The Fawcet Building, Downton 8 00:00:23.640 --> 00:00:25.559 has been my territory for as long as I wore 9 00:00:25.559 --> 00:00:27.920 a blue shirt and patch, and I kept coming back 10 00:00:27.960 --> 00:00:30.160 even after I handed in the clipboard and name tag 11 00:00:30.879 --> 00:00:33.640 one day a month. Ms Vasquez still weighs me in 12 00:00:33.679 --> 00:00:36.840 for consults. Then you guys ask impossible questions, and if 13 00:00:36.840 --> 00:00:38.840 I'm being honest, I like hearing the old brass and 14 00:00:38.840 --> 00:00:42.000 gaze hum beneath my feet. That morning, I came because 15 00:00:42.079 --> 00:00:44.840 Kahashtree was due for a brass polish and master panel inspection. 16 00:00:45.520 --> 00:00:48.600 It's the prettiest elevator of the lot. Old Lacy Scrowick everywhere, 17 00:00:48.640 --> 00:00:51.079 the kind of design you can't imagine anyone just installing 18 00:00:51.119 --> 00:00:54.560 these days. The city's entire creative cost likes to instagram 19 00:00:54.560 --> 00:00:58.119 her at morning's dusk late night holiday parties. I put 20 00:00:58.119 --> 00:01:00.520 on my gloves, pocketed my forty year old screwed over 21 00:01:00.600 --> 00:01:02.679 for luck, and set about flicking the dust from between 22 00:01:02.679 --> 00:01:06.879 the buttons, methodically working down the columns twenty six, twenty seven. 23 00:01:07.000 --> 00:01:10.439 Then something tickled at the edge of habit and I paused. There. 24 00:01:10.560 --> 00:01:12.840 Beneath a soft sheen of years was a brass button 25 00:01:12.840 --> 00:01:15.280 I'd never seen, right between twenty seven and the little 26 00:01:15.319 --> 00:01:18.239 of are reserved for roof actus. It was old, worn, 27 00:01:18.280 --> 00:01:20.319 almost paper smooth in the middle, just enough for some 28 00:01:20.400 --> 00:01:22.799 numbers to catch the light. Two and eight, nearly the 29 00:01:22.799 --> 00:01:24.920 same font as the others, though a touch thinner in 30 00:01:24.920 --> 00:01:27.840 the ebbstroke. It wasn't a new addition, nor did it 31 00:01:27.879 --> 00:01:31.319 carry the telto shine of a replacement PARP. Whatever this was, 32 00:01:31.400 --> 00:01:33.760 it wasn't listed on the last panel referred job, and 33 00:01:33.799 --> 00:01:36.120 it certainly didn't belong to car Hash three. As far 34 00:01:36.159 --> 00:01:38.959 as forty years of memory go, you can't add a 35 00:01:38.959 --> 00:01:41.560 floor with a rugedi cast button, and I would know 36 00:01:42.280 --> 00:01:44.480 the routine is always the same, and I prided myself 37 00:01:44.519 --> 00:01:47.760 on noticing the difference. A person less invested in brasswick 38 00:01:47.840 --> 00:01:49.680 might have brushed it off as a novel day, some 39 00:01:49.799 --> 00:01:52.560 leftover flourish from the building's early days, but the faucet 40 00:01:52.640 --> 00:01:55.439 is famously, almost stubbornly set at twenty seven floors, the 41 00:01:55.480 --> 00:01:58.000 final accessible level marked by a slab of Kara marble 42 00:01:58.040 --> 00:02:00.879 and a gold plaque at purly told that to at 43 00:02:01.000 --> 00:02:04.200 least a hundred new tenants here on seventeen, you'll want 44 00:02:04.200 --> 00:02:07.239 to switch at the fourteen four lobby transfer twenty seven floors, 45 00:02:07.280 --> 00:02:09.680 then a roof nothing more. I not to brush the 46 00:02:09.680 --> 00:02:13.240 bristles over the twenty eight. It felt real cold beneath 47 00:02:13.240 --> 00:02:15.680 the glove set into the panel, as flush as its neighbors, 48 00:02:16.240 --> 00:02:19.439 no bits of glue, no telltal scoring. I even ran 49 00:02:19.520 --> 00:02:21.599 a finger nail under the edge, expecting it might be 50 00:02:21.680 --> 00:02:23.800 one of the stick on anniversary gag as the office 51 00:02:23.800 --> 00:02:27.759 designers play. But it didn't budge. I stirred, smiled to myself, 52 00:02:27.840 --> 00:02:31.000 curious but not yet suspicious if the distinction means anything, 53 00:02:31.000 --> 00:02:33.360 and lifted my phone for a quick photo. Could be 54 00:02:33.360 --> 00:02:36.280 a manufacturing slip, I've reasoned, or maybe an old repairment 55 00:02:36.319 --> 00:02:39.800 practical joke left baffle the next generation still if left 56 00:02:39.800 --> 00:02:41.840 an ode taste in the mouth, like realizing I love 57 00:02:41.919 --> 00:02:43.919 one's face as a new freckle you can't quite remember 58 00:02:43.960 --> 00:02:47.120 seeing before I finished the rest of the panel, working 59 00:02:47.120 --> 00:02:49.240 through the inspection, a weir of gears here, a rattle 60 00:02:49.280 --> 00:02:52.360 of the counterweight, the routine in my bones. Only when 61 00:02:52.400 --> 00:02:54.319 I was locking the panel covered did I realize my 62 00:02:54.360 --> 00:02:57.159 mind had circled back over and over to the twenty 63 00:02:57.199 --> 00:03:00.199 eighth A left coawhast re gleaming, rode down in the 64 00:03:00.240 --> 00:03:02.599 empty car and let the doors close on whatever puzzle 65 00:03:02.639 --> 00:03:05.199 the button had started to build. For the first time 66 00:03:05.240 --> 00:03:07.159 in years, I walked up with an h that wouldn't 67 00:03:07.240 --> 00:03:10.879 let go, not worry exactly. Curiosity, the kind that grows 68 00:03:10.919 --> 00:03:14.039 teeth chewing quietly on the inside of the mind, the force. 69 00:03:14.039 --> 00:03:16.400 It stands like a grand old woman amid the tower's chip, 70 00:03:16.439 --> 00:03:19.599 white cornices, green tile, awnings, faded to sea glass salad 71 00:03:19.599 --> 00:03:22.960 does memory itself. Downtown these days is a strange crossbery 72 00:03:23.039 --> 00:03:25.960 chain cafes crowding next after hours tailor shops, stacks of 73 00:03:26.000 --> 00:03:28.560 law offices of a glass walled started lofts, an old 74 00:03:28.560 --> 00:03:31.599 gentlemen's club held together somewhere on fifteen by leather, whiskey, 75 00:03:31.719 --> 00:03:34.639 and the kind of secrets that bypass city records. The 76 00:03:34.719 --> 00:03:37.560 law befloor is a collage of misakes, some arts and crafts, 77 00:03:37.680 --> 00:03:41.280 some pure nineteen sixties optimism. Even the ceiling vents have 78 00:03:41.360 --> 00:03:44.319 been painted over three times, always a slightly different cream. 79 00:03:44.599 --> 00:03:48.159 My affection for the place started accidental. Originally I'd been 80 00:03:48.240 --> 00:03:50.039 learned from the Union to fix what was supposed to 81 00:03:50.039 --> 00:03:52.719 be a twelve week modernization. New safety catatz were wiring 82 00:03:52.759 --> 00:03:56.479 the cold boxes, accessibility overlays for the voice panels. I 83 00:03:56.479 --> 00:03:59.599 stayed forty years. People are surprised by priding a job 84 00:03:59.680 --> 00:04:02.280 like this, but a good elevator is a packed irresponsible 85 00:04:02.280 --> 00:04:04.199 for not just a ride, but every moment of trust 86 00:04:04.240 --> 00:04:08.039 between strangers. The pitman chains, the champagne shape starters, the 87 00:04:08.039 --> 00:04:09.879 geometry of the shaft and counter which he is a 88 00:04:09.919 --> 00:04:11.719 sweat and routine have made these things as real to 89 00:04:11.759 --> 00:04:14.039 me as family. Some of the best hours of my 90 00:04:14.080 --> 00:04:17.000 life have come from maintenance. In the off hours, at 91 00:04:17.040 --> 00:04:19.120 chat with Turney, the old houd of security, he thought 92 00:04:19.160 --> 00:04:21.360 every lost staple was a preleuge to felony or with 93 00:04:21.399 --> 00:04:24.279 the young maintenance kids, whose main goals usually involve finding 94 00:04:24.279 --> 00:04:27.000 the air conditioning or a spare of ending machine. Tony 95 00:04:27.079 --> 00:04:29.560 was replaced by Franklin, a dull guye with a chess habit, 96 00:04:29.800 --> 00:04:31.480 but still the same sort to give your respect for 97 00:04:31.600 --> 00:04:35.279 nod on entry mess Vasquez, who manages the place, is 98 00:04:35.279 --> 00:04:37.839 the city's most digitally competent property manager, Quik, with a 99 00:04:37.879 --> 00:04:40.879 weekly email blast about bicycle parking or the pullet studios hours. 100 00:04:41.480 --> 00:04:43.920 She's proud of her digital tenant directory. Every time I 101 00:04:43.959 --> 00:04:46.240 see her, she tells me to software can predict Rincher 102 00:04:46.279 --> 00:04:48.959 in six months out. There's always a pulse of movement 103 00:04:48.959 --> 00:04:51.680 to Tiller in his immaculate vest, measuring a real estate 104 00:04:51.720 --> 00:04:54.519 agent's hemn by the brass lobby clock, a solicitor arguing 105 00:04:54.519 --> 00:04:56.759 a conference call in the echo chamber of the marble Hall. 106 00:04:57.399 --> 00:04:59.920 Most stick to their own floors, but old timers sometimes 107 00:05:00.040 --> 00:05:02.759 wander across the threads. M. S. Mc lane, who remembers 108 00:05:02.759 --> 00:05:04.920 when it was a steam laundry and own accounting, who 109 00:05:04.959 --> 00:05:07.720 stays late just to ride the elevator for peace. Then 110 00:05:07.759 --> 00:05:11.160 there is Olowski, who fancies himself part building historian, part 111 00:05:11.199 --> 00:05:14.680 tricks or snowy beard heavy glasses. He loves to ambush 112 00:05:14.759 --> 00:05:17.040 me in the lobby with complicated questions where's the foundation? 113 00:05:17.120 --> 00:05:19.600 Sterne really, why does the seventh floor air taste different? 114 00:05:19.680 --> 00:05:22.120 And enjoys catching me out, though I doubt he remembers 115 00:05:22.120 --> 00:05:24.480 half his stories after a single cup of black coffee. 116 00:05:24.920 --> 00:05:27.319 Month after month, I'd check the panels, listen to the 117 00:05:27.319 --> 00:05:30.120 submaines were uncabling up through the chase, and sign off 118 00:05:30.160 --> 00:05:32.800 on the locks. The blueprints stayed rolled in their row 119 00:05:32.920 --> 00:05:36.040 cabinet off the small basement office. I check them every 120 00:05:36.040 --> 00:05:38.680 few years. The elegant limeark, the certainty of fit pencil 121 00:05:38.720 --> 00:05:43.160 markings twenty seven fours, nothing more, nothing ness. That's the 122 00:05:43.160 --> 00:05:47.839 comfort I carried with me, routine stability, the slow heart 123 00:05:47.879 --> 00:05:49.279 beat of a building that trusted you to keep a 124 00:05:49.319 --> 00:05:52.759 slamps burning. Except on that Thursday morning, when a humble 125 00:05:52.759 --> 00:05:55.279 brush button threw everything off axis and the building, my 126 00:05:55.319 --> 00:05:57.600 building became less saddled, more like a maze, you sense 127 00:05:57.600 --> 00:06:00.319 only after the turn. I didn't tell anyone about the 128 00:06:00.319 --> 00:06:03.000 button at first. Maybe I didn't want to offer up 129 00:06:03.000 --> 00:06:06.000 a mystery A hadn't yet Errand besides, people in this 130 00:06:06.079 --> 00:06:09.000 business stay pride in not being easily startled. But the 131 00:06:09.000 --> 00:06:11.439 photo glowed on my phone's green over lunch, and I 132 00:06:11.519 --> 00:06:14.079 must have stared at a five maybe ten times before 133 00:06:14.079 --> 00:06:16.560 deciding it wasn't the trick of the light. The engraved 134 00:06:16.639 --> 00:06:19.319 twenty eight wasn't shiny enough to be new, was indented 135 00:06:19.399 --> 00:06:22.959 enough to have been pasted. Afterward, the curiosity nod quietly. 136 00:06:23.680 --> 00:06:25.879 Some days later the ah was too much to ignore. 137 00:06:26.519 --> 00:06:28.759 I come for a regular inspection, But the truth is 138 00:06:28.959 --> 00:06:31.839 it was a predix. I waited until the lobby cleared 139 00:06:31.839 --> 00:06:34.240 and used my service key to disable normal flock halls. 140 00:06:35.000 --> 00:06:38.079 Standing alone in Kahas three, I pressed twenty eight, half smiling, 141 00:06:38.199 --> 00:06:40.560 half bracing for the board cough of an unfunctional button, 142 00:06:40.600 --> 00:06:42.720 maybe the gentle stutter of the old lock aut relay. 143 00:06:43.360 --> 00:06:46.360 The button was colder than I imagined. For a brief moment, 144 00:06:46.439 --> 00:06:49.519 nothing happened. Then the early d above the panel, instead 145 00:06:49.560 --> 00:06:51.399 of flashing red for a locked floor or green for 146 00:06:51.399 --> 00:06:53.680 a standard stop, flickered once a skip in a beat, 147 00:06:53.879 --> 00:06:57.279 like a heart missing time. The curt didn't move, at 148 00:06:57.399 --> 00:07:00.879 least not as I understood. There was a slightly different 149 00:07:00.879 --> 00:07:03.439 than the baseline thrum off the main motor, a deeper vibration, 150 00:07:03.560 --> 00:07:05.519 as if I were lowering a stage platform rather than 151 00:07:05.560 --> 00:07:08.839 lifting people floor to floor. For several seconds, I couldn't 152 00:07:08.879 --> 00:07:12.040 tell if we were rising, falling, or simply stuck. The 153 00:07:12.120 --> 00:07:14.439 lights inside the car shifted, not a full dame, but 154 00:07:14.519 --> 00:07:18.079 a faint lumbercass, like sunlight filtered through paper. The display 155 00:07:18.120 --> 00:07:20.839 above the doors flashed twenty seven, then started up with 156 00:07:20.839 --> 00:07:23.120 one pixel forming a two to the right, then a blank. 157 00:07:23.759 --> 00:07:26.360 The doors parted, and sure enough I found myself facing 158 00:07:26.360 --> 00:07:28.879 the beage carpet and polished moldings of the twenty seventh floor, 159 00:07:29.560 --> 00:07:32.319 Or so I thought. I stepped out, half expecting to 160 00:07:32.319 --> 00:07:34.120 see a party of lawyers headed to court on mister 161 00:07:34.160 --> 00:07:37.360 Goebel from Insurance. Nothing out of place except the faintest 162 00:07:37.360 --> 00:07:39.720 whiff of something sweet and sharp, like old floor polish 163 00:07:39.759 --> 00:07:42.519 with the aftertaste of a just extinguished cigar. I ran 164 00:07:42.600 --> 00:07:45.199 a finger over the brass door number, checked the glass directory, 165 00:07:45.199 --> 00:07:48.160 twenty seven, clear as ever. I waited a minute and 166 00:07:48.199 --> 00:07:51.439 pressed the lobby button. The elevator hunt then delivered me, 167 00:07:51.480 --> 00:07:55.000 without comment to the ground floor curiosity to feed a pride. 168 00:07:55.439 --> 00:07:57.680 The next day, I slipped up stairs and tried again. 169 00:07:58.360 --> 00:08:01.000 Each time something changed, a slightly different hum, a whiff 170 00:08:01.040 --> 00:08:03.480 of pipe smoke instead of polish, the doors opening a 171 00:08:03.480 --> 00:08:07.160 half second too early, twice, the display blinking glitchy pattens 172 00:08:07.160 --> 00:08:10.160 once two minus seven, once a downward triangle I'd never programmed. 173 00:08:10.759 --> 00:08:13.279 Always I merged into what looked like the twenty seventh floor, 174 00:08:13.920 --> 00:08:15.879 Yet it felt less certain with each trip, as if 175 00:08:15.920 --> 00:08:18.000 the floor you returned from the elevator wasn't the one 176 00:08:18.000 --> 00:08:20.959 you left behind. I mentioned the button almost as an 177 00:08:20.959 --> 00:08:22.959 after fop to a mess Vasquez, while waiting in the 178 00:08:22.959 --> 00:08:26.240 hallway for a coffee Raphil. She's quinted, furrowed her brow 179 00:08:26.360 --> 00:08:29.360 and barked a chuckle. Oh, probably a gag from History Day. 180 00:08:29.399 --> 00:08:31.160 People love those steam of covers. Do you tell me 181 00:08:31.199 --> 00:08:34.000 if someone was monkeying with the panels right? I asked 182 00:08:34.000 --> 00:08:37.039 if she'd noticed it before. Nope, I'm in those cars 183 00:08:37.039 --> 00:08:39.279 every day, she said, dismissing the topic with the brisk 184 00:08:39.320 --> 00:08:41.559 swipe at her phone, already plotting the week's new security 185 00:08:41.559 --> 00:08:45.200 badge updates. That afternoon, I cornered Kyle, one of the 186 00:08:45.200 --> 00:08:47.879 new maintenance kids. See you get always ready to pretend expertise, 187 00:08:48.559 --> 00:08:52.000 remember ever seeing a twenty eighth floor in car hash three? 188 00:08:52.039 --> 00:08:55.799 He shook his head, grinning. Na man, that elevator's original 189 00:08:55.919 --> 00:08:58.080 has some hidden's cruise, but that's just for the roof 190 00:08:58.120 --> 00:09:00.960 lock up. Building only goes to twenty seven, right. He 191 00:09:01.039 --> 00:09:04.120 walked away, humming rber it's already in. No one thought 192 00:09:04.120 --> 00:09:07.679 it worth a second look, let alone a theory. It's strange, 193 00:09:07.799 --> 00:09:10.720 the feeling you've missed something right beneath your nose. For 194 00:09:10.759 --> 00:09:13.039 the first time in my professional life, I wondered if 195 00:09:13.080 --> 00:09:16.000 it was I hoodgone astray or the building itself. Forty 196 00:09:16.080 --> 00:09:18.440 years of routine and now a single button invited the 197 00:09:18.480 --> 00:09:21.200 possibility that both memory and blauprint carried less certainty than 198 00:09:21.200 --> 00:09:24.120 I believed, quieter knease, but more than that, a sense 199 00:09:24.159 --> 00:09:27.000 that some innocent mystery was now calling my bluff. I 200 00:09:27.039 --> 00:09:29.000 spent the next night a week longer than I should have, 201 00:09:29.080 --> 00:09:33.000 shoffing through old inspection checklists and panel photographs. No sign 202 00:09:33.039 --> 00:09:36.399 of twenty eight, no careless cruise or swaped face plates. 203 00:09:37.039 --> 00:09:38.840 The more I looked, the more I doubted that this 204 00:09:38.919 --> 00:09:41.039 was just an eccentric detail left over from some long 205 00:09:41.080 --> 00:09:44.360 ago prank. Eventually I drifted off, with the elevators hum 206 00:09:44.440 --> 00:09:47.320 quietly running through my mind, layering into an incomplete chord. 207 00:09:48.000 --> 00:09:49.960 Routine had always been my ballast, the weight that kept 208 00:09:50.000 --> 00:09:53.039 me tied safely towards real. But now the elevator's hum 209 00:09:53.120 --> 00:09:55.159 seemed to promise the opposite. Each press of the button 210 00:09:55.200 --> 00:09:58.000 of wager against servanty. I walked down to the basement 211 00:09:58.080 --> 00:10:01.240 arcave early the next Saturday. The fawset's blueprints are rolled 212 00:10:01.279 --> 00:10:04.320 in tissue, locked behind glass, only opened for five code 213 00:10:04.360 --> 00:10:06.200 updates or when a new tenant wants to punch through 214 00:10:06.200 --> 00:10:08.559 a service wall. The building is so old that the 215 00:10:08.600 --> 00:10:11.679 oldest plans is still marked with grease pencil legend incursive. 216 00:10:12.200 --> 00:10:14.559 I had always enjoyed handling them real paper, not the 217 00:10:14.559 --> 00:10:17.720 screen's cold gloss. My hands had worked these lines as 218 00:10:17.799 --> 00:10:20.559 much as any current living vain in the place. The 219 00:10:20.559 --> 00:10:23.320 sheet showed what I expected. Floor after floor, each cross 220 00:10:23.360 --> 00:10:26.720 hatched labeled, measured to the fraction of an inch, lobby 221 00:10:26.799 --> 00:10:29.519 mezzanine fifteen through twenty seven, then a roof drawn with 222 00:10:29.559 --> 00:10:32.120 a careful border, and not a millimeter to spare No. 223 00:10:32.279 --> 00:10:34.840 Twenty eight. Not on the blueprints, not on the cover legend, 224 00:10:34.960 --> 00:10:37.279 not in the long division of the elevator chaft profiles. 225 00:10:37.919 --> 00:10:40.039 But when I turned the last page in the oldest bundle, 226 00:10:40.120 --> 00:10:43.399 something jumped along the top margin, where the floor numbers 227 00:10:43.399 --> 00:10:46.120 were penciled in order one two, three, and on. There 228 00:10:46.200 --> 00:10:48.720 was a faint nearly a race mark, like a smadge, 229 00:10:48.759 --> 00:10:51.799 that repeated a curd shape, a lean close there had 230 00:10:51.799 --> 00:10:54.159 once been at the top of the sheet another twenty. 231 00:10:54.200 --> 00:10:56.600 It never wentked in, perhaps, but visible under the right 232 00:10:56.639 --> 00:10:58.799 ankle of light, as though someone had changed the mind 233 00:10:58.799 --> 00:11:01.200 in mid sentence or raised mistake, but left the pressure 234 00:11:01.200 --> 00:11:03.519 of their hand. I ran a gloved thumb over it 235 00:11:03.559 --> 00:11:05.960 and smiled, not certain whether I hoped it was accidental 236 00:11:06.039 --> 00:11:08.799 or intentional. Either way, it was the kind of contradiction 237 00:11:08.879 --> 00:11:12.360 I trained myself to solve. Pencil erased, but pressure remaining 238 00:11:12.919 --> 00:11:16.200 afour enamed, then unnamed, and gone, except maybe not. I 239 00:11:16.320 --> 00:11:18.240 left the arc of carrying that unease, the sense that 240 00:11:18.279 --> 00:11:20.279 the building knew more about its own history than any 241 00:11:20.279 --> 00:11:23.600 one would admit. Ol Lovsky found me brooding in the lobby, 242 00:11:23.840 --> 00:11:26.120 staring at the elevator with one hand pressed to my jaw, 243 00:11:26.840 --> 00:11:29.759 lost in time, He asked, gleam in his eye. Did 244 00:11:29.799 --> 00:11:32.279 you ever hear? I said, slowly, about a phantom floor 245 00:11:32.320 --> 00:11:34.799 in this place, someone putting an extra number on the elevator. 246 00:11:34.960 --> 00:11:37.440 That sort of thing. He grinned, as though this was 247 00:11:37.480 --> 00:11:40.000 the best question I'd asked all year. You know what 248 00:11:40.039 --> 00:11:42.000 they said, Every good city building has its share of 249 00:11:42.000 --> 00:11:44.840 missing floors. Some say there's a speakeasy on invisible fourteen. 250 00:11:44.919 --> 00:11:46.919 Others think it's a legal trick to avoid bad luck. 251 00:11:46.960 --> 00:11:49.360 But forced no, unless you can't a legal pooker in 252 00:11:49.360 --> 00:11:51.639 the sub basement, i'd have noticed an extra floor, a 253 00:11:51.759 --> 00:11:54.559 keep track of all the secret societies. I told him 254 00:11:54.559 --> 00:11:57.679 about the odd button. He laughed, her warm, deep sound, 255 00:11:57.960 --> 00:11:59.720 not at my expense, but of the general comedy of 256 00:11:59.720 --> 00:12:02.600 all buildings. Maybe it's just the left of her from 257 00:12:02.600 --> 00:12:05.320 a test pal. Remember they used to make elevator buttons 258 00:12:05.360 --> 00:12:07.840 spoke for certain buildings. Or maybe he'd fallen for one 259 00:12:07.879 --> 00:12:10.720 of the city's oldest tricks architecture, Plaine dress up a 260 00:12:10.759 --> 00:12:13.960 floor in memory, but never in stone. I pressed for more, 261 00:12:14.639 --> 00:12:17.000 any reason any one would erase a floor from the blueprints. 262 00:12:17.639 --> 00:12:20.960 Olovsky shook his head, then shrugged. Everyone wants to add 263 00:12:20.960 --> 00:12:23.720 a story to these places, literally and otherwise. Maybe the 264 00:12:23.759 --> 00:12:26.159 floor was drawn in then scrapped for budget. Or maybe 265 00:12:26.159 --> 00:12:28.480 he did bind a ball room but the city permit failed. Frankly, 266 00:12:28.519 --> 00:12:32.159 you'd find a hundred stories like that, none true. His answer, 267 00:12:32.240 --> 00:12:34.720 satisfied and frustrated, a contradiction wrapped in a joke, but 268 00:12:34.759 --> 00:12:37.600 not quite a solution. That evening, I wondered the lobby 269 00:12:37.639 --> 00:12:40.080 shoes echoing across the tile as only a person alone can. 270 00:12:40.639 --> 00:12:42.879 I ran into Franklin, the head of security, a night 271 00:12:42.879 --> 00:12:45.440 owl who never failed to supply some tibit of building fukko. 272 00:12:46.039 --> 00:12:48.480 I asked about last visitors, people who said they were 273 00:12:48.480 --> 00:12:52.159 coming from non existent floors. He paused mid sentence, unusually 274 00:12:52.200 --> 00:12:55.279 thoughtful at a guy years ago walked straight up to 275 00:12:55.320 --> 00:12:57.159 the desks, worrying he was lost off the twenty eight 276 00:12:57.200 --> 00:12:59.440 looked honest enough, might have been drunk or making fun. 277 00:12:59.519 --> 00:13:01.399 I thought. I let him out, showed him the number 278 00:13:01.440 --> 00:13:03.440 by the stairwell. He kept insisting he got out at 279 00:13:03.440 --> 00:13:05.559 twenty eight. But I mean it's the force that people 280 00:13:05.559 --> 00:13:08.279 get stories stuck in their heads. He shrugged, but his 281 00:13:08.320 --> 00:13:12.320 eyes flickered a hesitation. I recognized, Probably some prank, like 282 00:13:12.360 --> 00:13:14.480 that time somebody put a goldfish bowl by the second 283 00:13:14.519 --> 00:13:18.039 floor cobby machine. Don't think on it. So even security 284 00:13:18.120 --> 00:13:21.639 bones made from routine had a moment's dout. The next morning, 285 00:13:21.799 --> 00:13:23.960 determined to catch the elevator in the act, I set 286 00:13:23.960 --> 00:13:27.120 a watch to time the ride I entered carhastri, reset 287 00:13:27.120 --> 00:13:30.320 my phone timer and pressed at twenty eight button. This time, 288 00:13:30.440 --> 00:13:32.759 instead of staring at the panel, I listens, really listened. 289 00:13:33.399 --> 00:13:35.320 There was an extra beat between twenty seven and the 290 00:13:35.360 --> 00:13:38.480 softing before the doors opened. It was maybe a second 291 00:13:38.559 --> 00:13:40.360 and a half, nothing that would mean much to a 292 00:13:40.440 --> 00:13:42.799 rider in a hurry, but to a person who knows 293 00:13:42.840 --> 00:13:45.080 every hesitation in the main drive system, it was a 294 00:13:45.120 --> 00:13:47.759 no doubt of tune. There were sounds to a subtle click, 295 00:13:47.879 --> 00:13:49.639 and for a moment I thought I could feel a 296 00:13:49.639 --> 00:13:51.600 shift in the floor beneath my feet, as if the 297 00:13:51.600 --> 00:13:54.679 car passed an invisible seem in the shaft. Hard to 298 00:13:54.759 --> 00:13:57.960 describe a texture or a feeling of slippage. The door 299 00:13:58.039 --> 00:14:00.360 slid open on to the same beasing gold of twenty seven, 300 00:14:00.440 --> 00:14:03.279 but I felt, as very occasionally happens with old buildings, 301 00:14:03.360 --> 00:14:05.879 that something about the O skewed crisper, holding on scents 302 00:14:05.919 --> 00:14:09.159 that dissipate too quickly elsewhere. This time I lingered in 303 00:14:09.200 --> 00:14:12.799 the corridor, no visible difference save perhaps the corridor lights, 304 00:14:12.879 --> 00:14:15.440 which seemed to touch warmer. I pissd the length of 305 00:14:15.440 --> 00:14:18.960 the hall, listening marking every step. The exit. Stowe was 306 00:14:19.000 --> 00:14:21.360 locked as always, and I considered for a moment that 307 00:14:21.440 --> 00:14:23.519 the only way upoard down was by the car itself. 308 00:14:24.120 --> 00:14:26.360 On a hunch, I returned to the new digital tenant 309 00:14:26.399 --> 00:14:29.720 directory installed by a mess Pascus's crew. The touch screen 310 00:14:29.759 --> 00:14:32.080 listed floor after floor, Sweet after Sweet, all the way 311 00:14:32.120 --> 00:14:34.080 to twenty seven. But when I scrolled quickly for the 312 00:14:34.080 --> 00:14:36.159 briefest moment, a line of text seemed to jump chup 313 00:14:36.240 --> 00:14:38.360 of Sweet twenty seven O four or twenty eight O 314 00:14:38.519 --> 00:14:41.000 one horse and Sun's realty. Then, in less time than 315 00:14:41.000 --> 00:14:43.960 it took to blink, the entry was gone. I scrolled again. 316 00:14:44.600 --> 00:14:48.240 No trace, just a mechanical quirk, I supposed, but its 317 00:14:48.279 --> 00:14:51.240 crotch at the walls of certainty. Fueled by both amusement 318 00:14:51.320 --> 00:14:53.840 and a gentle desperation, I dug up the oldest maintenance 319 00:14:53.840 --> 00:14:56.559 locks needs massed, I suppose when a mystery hooks you. 320 00:14:57.200 --> 00:14:59.799 I opened leather band ledges in the engineer's nook, thumbing 321 00:14:59.799 --> 00:15:02.519 through faded pages, each signed by a series of hands 322 00:15:02.519 --> 00:15:05.399 had known in their youth and their retirement. April nineteen 323 00:15:05.440 --> 00:15:09.279 seventy five Czech penel wiring Jeanne nineteen eighty two updated 324 00:15:09.279 --> 00:15:13.120 safety break late in a shaded margin when entry stood alone, 325 00:15:13.200 --> 00:15:15.759 penmanship sharper than the rest checked all twenty eight a 326 00:15:15.960 --> 00:15:19.519 w v R just the phrase no explanation in a 327 00:15:19.559 --> 00:15:22.200 century of locks, only that one mentioned hidden like lent. 328 00:15:22.919 --> 00:15:26.399 By now, my simple question what is this button had 329 00:15:26.440 --> 00:15:30.320 graduated to something nodter. Someone at some point had accounted 330 00:15:30.320 --> 00:15:32.679 for twenty eight Someone else had erased it or trapped 331 00:15:32.759 --> 00:15:36.519 in a layer of near invisibility. Yet echos remained blueprint pressure, 332 00:15:36.600 --> 00:15:40.200 random visitors, even the digital directory's glitch. There was no 333 00:15:40.240 --> 00:15:42.480 satisfaction in this stage of the hunt, only the deeper, 334 00:15:42.559 --> 00:15:45.279 humming tension of living with an open question. The time 335 00:15:45.279 --> 00:15:48.360 had come to test the edges. That night, after the 336 00:15:48.360 --> 00:15:50.879 building had quieted, I fetched for my toolbox of relic 337 00:15:50.919 --> 00:15:53.399 the old Brassova's key, heavy and ornate, given to me 338 00:15:53.440 --> 00:15:56.200 by the last chief engineer when he retired. The kind 339 00:15:56.200 --> 00:15:59.120 of key can't duplicate at any kiosk. The grooves incomprehensible 340 00:15:59.120 --> 00:16:02.519 to modern machines. I kept it out of sentiment mostly, 341 00:16:02.559 --> 00:16:05.159 but every so often old mechanisms still paid their respects 342 00:16:05.200 --> 00:16:07.919 to tradition. I enter cart hash tree, slid the key 343 00:16:07.960 --> 00:16:10.840 into the mastive slot beneath the panel. The twenty eight 344 00:16:10.919 --> 00:16:13.960 button glowed warmer, almost the color of candied orange under 345 00:16:13.960 --> 00:16:16.720 the late evening lights. I pressed it with the certainty, 346 00:16:16.759 --> 00:16:19.799 not of habit, but of hope. This time the elevator's 347 00:16:19.840 --> 00:16:22.759 hum was lower, the vibration rounder. It felt as if 348 00:16:22.759 --> 00:16:26.120 the corsank could not by distance but by degree. Something 349 00:16:26.120 --> 00:16:28.799 about the shift was more than mechanical air pressure, perhaps, 350 00:16:28.960 --> 00:16:31.240 or some subtle tilting of the senses, as if gravity 351 00:16:31.279 --> 00:16:34.000 had listened a little. When the doors opened, I found 352 00:16:34.000 --> 00:16:37.200 myself blinking into corrid or newly unfamiliar. Vam was the 353 00:16:37.200 --> 00:16:39.840 bag and gold of the twenty seventh in its placetod 354 00:16:39.840 --> 00:16:42.879 A bright sunlit hallway walls alternately glass and polish walnut, 355 00:16:42.919 --> 00:16:45.279 the kind of mix that spoke modern and stubbornly pre war. 356 00:16:46.039 --> 00:16:48.200 The floor was covered in pale blue carpets, gray as 357 00:16:48.279 --> 00:16:50.360 flecked with the dull shine of recent paint spatters. Here 358 00:16:50.399 --> 00:16:52.960 and there. It was neither the past nor the present, 359 00:16:53.120 --> 00:16:56.279 but something coloshed in between. Office doors bore and names 360 00:16:56.279 --> 00:16:58.960 had never encountered a chancellor in dialegal a mode of 361 00:16:59.000 --> 00:17:02.720 line insurance gold square created. Some doors were half open, 362 00:17:03.000 --> 00:17:06.279 paper signs fluttering up of keep head locks. The perfume 363 00:17:06.279 --> 00:17:09.480 of metallic are dustened something flowery iris, perhaps zaib. Through 364 00:17:09.480 --> 00:17:12.160 the corridor. There was a sharp tang of newsprint, the 365 00:17:12.200 --> 00:17:14.880 trace of old paper stacked on you. People moved through 366 00:17:14.880 --> 00:17:16.960 the hall, some in business attire that seemed a half 367 00:17:16.960 --> 00:17:18.640 step out of sync with the city. One nine more 368 00:17:18.640 --> 00:17:20.759 a three piece suit with af for door. Another sported 369 00:17:20.799 --> 00:17:24.000 loafers and an id badge and uridescent plastic. No one 370 00:17:24.000 --> 00:17:26.359 spared me more than a passing look. Their routines fitted 371 00:17:26.359 --> 00:17:29.279 them as tightly as their wristwatches or morning coffees. I 372 00:17:29.319 --> 00:17:32.160 approached an open door and office sleek, complete with frosted 373 00:17:32.160 --> 00:17:35.519 glass and a plaque reading design poole, limited yon, the 374 00:17:35.559 --> 00:17:38.039 whir of a printer, someone fielding a coal tail George's 375 00:17:38.039 --> 00:17:40.640 fatalics can wait, but I want the digital proof before lunch. 376 00:17:41.319 --> 00:17:44.240 I caught the speaker's eyes nodded, but he turned unfazed, 377 00:17:44.319 --> 00:17:47.279 immersed in his own task. I tried the stairwell at 378 00:17:47.319 --> 00:17:50.000 the end of the corridor, extended two short flights, then 379 00:17:50.039 --> 00:17:52.759 stopped hot blank wall, stretch of concrete with no handle 380 00:17:52.839 --> 00:17:56.200 or pushbar. I checked the signage exit four twenty seven 381 00:17:56.240 --> 00:17:59.200 with an arrow pointing nowhere. If I hadn't known better, 382 00:17:59.279 --> 00:18:01.680 I'd have thought it set built for some fantastical movie, 383 00:18:01.720 --> 00:18:04.440 all perfect surface and no depth. But single pom against 384 00:18:04.440 --> 00:18:06.559 the wall told me the concrete still and rough texture 385 00:18:06.559 --> 00:18:09.240 were real enough. The old brass key now hung in 386 00:18:09.279 --> 00:18:12.519 my hand like an amulet. I stepped back toward the elevator, 387 00:18:12.559 --> 00:18:15.839 surveying the floor one last time. The people office workers 388 00:18:15.920 --> 00:18:17.759 seemed to went about their business as if my presence 389 00:18:17.799 --> 00:18:20.559 didn't register, some carrying folders with logos I hadn't seen 390 00:18:20.599 --> 00:18:23.480 in decades, Others passing the laptops and head sits oblivious 391 00:18:23.480 --> 00:18:26.599 to my scrutiny. I pressed the elevator call, re entered 392 00:18:26.599 --> 00:18:29.559 carhash tree, and closed the panel without the key, Though 393 00:18:29.599 --> 00:18:33.039 twenty eight button lay blank dormant. I pushed for the lobby, 394 00:18:33.079 --> 00:18:35.960 heart quietly drumming, and was deposited in the familiar marble hall, 395 00:18:36.039 --> 00:18:38.200 the cool air burdening the scent of the massive rubber plants. 396 00:18:38.200 --> 00:18:41.559 By reception, I made my way to a mess Vascus's desk, 397 00:18:41.759 --> 00:18:44.200 Mine crowded with too many questions to order into speech. 398 00:18:44.960 --> 00:18:47.279 As I tried to describe the situation and extra floor 399 00:18:47.359 --> 00:18:50.119 a corridor I had never mapped. Companies nobody had registered 400 00:18:50.160 --> 00:18:53.319 the words weltered in the Mida glare. She begun to frown, 401 00:18:53.400 --> 00:18:55.880