The Elevator by Victoria Shockley May Shock Some Business Men... When Their Sons Starts Reading To Them...

Elevators. I love how they look, with their spotless, mirrored walls; sleek wooden hand rails and rows of brightly lit buttons. In the peaceful silence, when there aren't any passengers, I like to tidy them up, collecting the random trinkets left behind by the hotel patrons--earrings, hair ties, scraps of paper that offer up an insight into the owner's life. Usually, the insight doesn't extend much deeper than a grocery list. You wouldn't believe how many people buy those disgusting artichoke hearts...or at least set out to buy them--maybe it's a good thing they dropped their lists. I especially love seeing all the different types of people that this this elevator. Frazzled women in high-priced denim clutch the sticky hands of bawling toddlers. Young couples giggle, unable to keep their composure and dignity for even the short ride to the next floor. Somber old men with canes and spectacles stare into their reflection in the mirrored walls, wondering to where their youth has escaped.

 The Elevator

By Victoria Shockley

Yet , by far, the most peculiar group of passengers to ever board my elevator

were three businessmen, whom I later came to know as Ryan, William and Barry.

Before I begin my story of these three men, let me introduce myself. My name is Gorobash, better known as Gorb, and I am a gnome... with tatty clothing and a quite prickly attitude--if I do say so myself. I live and work in a fairly upscale London hotel--and maintain elevator 33. It's easy work, and as I said before, I love elevators, so I enjoy my job very much.

OK, so I can go along with this but I admit that I did try other elevators before I decided to enter beautiful elevator 33. Operated by a gnome. You bet I knew what a gnome was--my mother loved to place gnomes and chickens and other things in her yard...Our gnome was laying down on his side but Gorb was right there waiting for me to get in. But did you notice that it looks like he's equipped with a parachute... But this was a very classy hotel and I had a nice room, I hoped, waiting... There was a biker man and woman in the one I rode and some man stood in the corner looking into the mirror, pretending to talk on a phone, but I could tell he was just looking at himself. Anyway, I made it and quickly left, thinking I was very glad I was only on the third floor--I could take the stairs from now on...

The convention was about halfway through when
a sharp-looking chap with clean trimmed black
hair and a navy blue suit boarded my elevator.
He looked nervous, with shifty eyes and slightly
sweaty palms--being much shorter than normal
folk, we gnomes notice these things. He offered
not so much as a "good day"...
If I'm being entirely truthful, I have to admit
that I'm ashamed of what happened next. Before
I could inquire as to what floor the man wanted
to go, he opened his briefcase, out of which spilled
a tangle of glinting, gleaming, shiny jewelry. I
don't believe I've mentioned this yet, but I
adore shiny objects. I go made for them. I can't
help it; I think the desire to collect pretty items
is just pre-programming into gnomes' brains...
~~~

Don't you wonder sometimes who Fairy Tales are written for? Me, I watch Grimm every week, and have watched other movies based upon these stories... So I felt quite comfortable sitting back to get into the story, which undoubtedly would have a great moral...

I didn't realize it then, but during the short time
of distraction, the sneaky chap had messed
with my elevator...
~~~

How about you? Have you wondered whether authors really are directing the moral of the story to the parents, the adults who will read the book to their children
or maybe for their siblings, hoping they will be forced to read...and learn...

Because this Fairy Tale is definitely going to teach you...about the importance of Teamwork. Actually it is not too early to learn about that, is there, since children will begin to interact with others as soon as they enter school or when they join a sports team. Right?

Well, a group of businessmen entered and it seemed every floor had stops until 3 were left who were heading for the 7th floor, to a special meeting they had been told about...

There was enough time for Gorb to get them to introduce themselves. And about that time, the
elevator stopped.

So what does Gorb do? You'd think he would go about repairing his elevator...but, no... he started to tell these men a...wait for it... a Fairy Tale!

Well, as you can guess, that didn't go over well and the men started complaining. Gorb just talked them down! The funny part of this for me was that Gorb was using his personal evaluation of each of the men, to create the story, but we don't know whether each saw himself or merely started listening and learning! But it did work...

http://www.englishblog.com/2013/03/
Once upon a time, in a kingdom called Eggslandia, there lived King Hamalot, Queen Omelettia, and their three trip sons
Benedict, Sunni and Scramblio. Now, in Eggslandia, one could become kind at the age of 21, and the previous ruler
would be required to relinquish the throne. If he refused, he would be forcibly removed from power...
~~~

You know from some of my articles that I question the suitability of books as are marketed. While I wholeheartedly recommend this book, I have to admit that I doubt children, except maybe older or teens would be interested. In my opinion, after working over 40 years with many different people, I would market this book under Humor...If I were still working, I can think of many of the people I met in the work environment that needed a little nudge toward teamwork! This is perfect. Hand it to that individual that you can't get along with, and say, "hey, I just read this and thought it had some good points--maybe we can talk about it sometime..."

Or, if you're really brave, pass it out at the next staff meeting... Not kidding here!

This is very well written, is fresh and new and easy to digest and yet get the point across. Victoria, hope you don't mind my alternative genre, but having been a manager/director for many years, a light-hearted yet positive statement is a wonderful tool...for adults...

In my opinion, better consider your audience...when you share your pedagogical thoughts in the future! You've done a great job!

GABixlerReviews

Currently I’m a senior at North Carolina State University, with a major in English and a minor in French. I’m taking extra courses in order to graduate a year early (May of 2014) and continue on to graduate school. Ultimately I’m planning to pursue a career in professional writing or editing. My GPA falls in the top 7 percent of my class, and I am ranked #7 in GPA of the 100 undergraduate English majors in the university. I was also chosen as the College of Humanities & Social Sciences Student of the Month for January, 2013, and in the same month I was accepted into the English Honors Program, reserved for only the most highly motivated students.