I’ve just finished an interview, and I’m standing at the door of a seedy hotel room. I hear a crowd of voices coming closer down the hall, and in my rush to exit ahead of the mob, I skip a formal goodbye and run out into an elegant, Art Deco style hallway. I don’t know the mob, I can’t explain the need to run, but the need is there, immediate. So I run. I run and run through the dimly- but beautifully- lit hallways until I spot an elevator. The light is off and the voice inside is saying “don’t go in,” but the voices of the mob are louder, so I take a chance and jump in. The doors close, but no lights come on. The lights on the panel are out and I can’t see what floor I’m selecting, but I don’t care. I’m just hoping the elevator takes me somewhere, anywhere at this point. It lurches, it moves a few feet, and it stops dead. Even if I could find the emergency call button, somehow I know it wouldn’t work- either because there’s no electricity or because there’s no one there to answer. I’m trapped alone in total darkness.
Being trapped in an elevator has always been a fear of mine. When I was 7, my brother and I and 2 friends were playing chase through the hallways of a condo in Hutchinson Island, FL. My brother and I were ahead and running for the elevator, we jumped in, but just as the doors were closing, for a joke, he jumped back out. I screamed the whole way to the lobby and wouldn’t talk to him for hours. Whenever possible, I take the stairs.
I think a lot of us are having nightmares right now. You can keep busy during the day, but the stress and anxiety settles upon us in sleep, manifests itself in dreams. I’ve made it a point not to watch the news before bed, to read instead, to watch something mindless. But, it’s enough to know that “it” is out there, that it’s changing lives and taking lives, that it’s turned our little piece of land into a private island- no trespassers. Every day we play, we bike and skateboard, we swing in the hammock and chase after the chickens, we read together and eat too much, we’re getting by ok in our private little world. But, then the night.
Bell & Pigeon 
Great post! Very well written. And so very true!
I, too, avoid listening to the news. I even avoid being around people who can’t seem to talk about anything else other than “It”. I am being safe and cautious and following the guidelines, but otherwise trying to live a normal life and think normal thoughts.
Yes! Stressing about it constantly will not make it better, only worse.
Very true!