The Relevator

On a business day that is like every other, Wall Street broker MASON ANDREWS (39) fit, handsome and wealthy enters an empty elevator. It’s unusually ornate - gold plated control panels, circular, pearl white, floor buttons and cherry wood railings. As Mason moves forward to press a floor button, he suffers what appears to be a heart attack. As he gasps for air, the elevator ascends to the 39th floor (Mason’s age) and then jolts to halt just as Mason passes out. The elevator goes dark. Mason awakes to the flickering lights of the elevator’s ceiling panel and a mysterious voice emanating from the elevator’s speaker box. This Voice claims to be God and is here to render judgement on the life Mason chose to lead. Mason’s task is to select three elevator buttons corresponding with a specific year in his life. Mason, an atheist at heart, reluctantly complies, He has no choice. He’s trapped. Each time Mason selects a button, the replay of a significant event that year pours through the speaker box. They include his beating of his wife, his father’s funeral which he failed to attend and the suicide of a friend he cheated out of his retirement savings. All of these events caused by Mason’s desire for wealth more than anything else. Just before announcing his final eternal destination, the Voice offers Mason a chance at life. He asks Mason how much he would pay for more years. Would he surrender all of his worldly possessions? Mason challenges back. Sure that no real God would barter for a man’s life. As an insult, he offers one crumpled up dollar. The moment Mason makes the offer he collapses. The elevator goes dark and descends. Mason awakens to find paramedics rushing in to assist him. In his closed left where he had clutched the crumpled dollar bill he now finds evidence of merciful God. Or was it just a dream?