Mortal Desire (12 page)

Mr. Bellini hooked his fingers together in front of him, and looked at the list that rested on the desk before him. ‘It would seem that you are staying with us Mr. O’Connell, although you are the only employee with two yellow cards of warning, and although you are the only employee that did not arrive at their schedule appointment time. There are a certain number of residents that have demanded that you stay with us … so we have honoured their request. And besides, you have not finished your mission. The Establishment’s hunger has not been sated, and you still have eight days left to fulfil your requirements. And then we shall see about your job security. Rid yourself of my office Mr. O’Connell. I am in need of a beverage,’ he said. He avoided all eye contact with me, and waved me off with his hand.

I stood at once. ‘Mr. Bellini,’ I spoke in leaving, and bowed my head towards him before I headed out of his office to the safety of Elevator Thirteen.

After the doors closed, I placed both of my hands against the wall and leaned into it, then put my forehead against the cold metal wall. My heart ached for those about to lose their jobs today.

I rolled my body so that the top of my shoulders now rested against the cold metal wall. I looked up to the ceiling of the elevator, frustrated by my inability to help those who needed it the most, although I had tried.

The elevator stopped at the ground floor. I stepped out and stood to the left of the doors as we had been trained to do. I looked over at my fellow elevator dukes. They gave nothing away about their emotional state. They held their backs straight and their shoulders square. The closed mouthed smiles on their faces were nothing but professional.

It was getting late in the day. Time would soon tell which nine were to leave and which four were to stay. Guilt started to bounce around in my blood. It travelled everywhere causing chaos in my mind.

A familiar echo sounded throughout the ground floor and entered the elevator foyer. It was two pairs of shoes tapping on the marble floor simultaneously.

I grinned before I turned my head towards the two smiling faces of two women in love. It was Sarah Flynn and Mrs. Rossetti, and the new puppy.

They stopped in front of me with a look of pleasure on their faces. I looked at my wrist watch. ‘I do apologize ladies, but you have missed your opportunity to ride the elevator. Only residents with furry pooches may enter. Would you happen to have one?’ I asked and maintained a straight face while I looked at them and waited for their answer.

Sarah looked at Mrs. Rossetti and burst out laughing. ‘Why Mr. O’Connell, it just so happens that we do have a furry pooch. Montgomery is his name, and he has the key to our hearts,’ Sarah Flynn responded, speaking with a plum in her mouth, over-dramatizing her words.

I cast my eyes upon the little bundle of white fur in Mrs. Rossetti’s handbag. I smiled at them, and bowed to them with my hands out, as if receiving applause at the end of an act. They entered Elevator Thirteen, gushing over Montgomery as if he was a baby human.

‘Montgomery, meet Uncle Henry,’ Mrs. Rossetti announced whilst the elevator rose thirty-eight levels.

I put my hand into the bag and gave Montgomery a gentle pet. They were right. The dog held a key to hearts. I smiled at Mrs. Rossetti, approving of her new addition to the family, and then looked over at Miss Flynn. She held my gaze with a ‘told you so’ stare. The elevator doors pinged and opened, saving me from the stare of death.

Sarah and Mrs. Rossetti left the elevator and chatted in excitement as they introduced the puppy to his new home. I blinked, absorbing the cherished sight of happiness that abounded around the three souls.

Under my breath, I murmured a phrase of blessings to the long lasting friendship between the two women. They needed each other. And no doubt it had been planned long before they ever met.

The doors closed and I returned to the ground floor. My shift had ended.

I carried my heavy heart on my walk to the staff lockers to change out of my uniform and into my mufti clothes. I took a deep breath to steady my emotions. Men changed out of their work clothes in silence; some for the last time.

And the silence was deafening.

There seemed to be an elevator duke code of silence. Eye contact between comrades was fleeting. They just got on with the job of changing. Then it occurred to me. Mr. Bellini had put them on a gagged contract, preventing them from speaking of their conversations held in their appointment time today.

I was last to leave the locker room, and last to arrive at the bar for final drinks as one of the thirteen elevator dukes.

Come Monday night, there would be just the four of us wanting to drown our sorrows, but prohibited from doing just that because of our work contract.

‘Hazaar!’ they all yelled when I entered the bar and walked towards them at our usual round table. But there was something unusual at our usual table. Sitting in the centre of the table sat ten beer jugs. We only ever had one glass of beer each. Some were either celebrating their freedom, or drowning their sorrows, or perhaps both.

I sat down at the table and raised my glass to them, ‘Cheers!’

‘Hazaar!’ they yelled again and broke into boisterous laughter.

I chuckled under my breath and leaned back in my chair and studied each of the faces of my comrades while they talked and joked. I was looking for an emotional weakness on the faces of the ones who had lost their jobs. I found none. I wondered what the deal was that Mr. Bellini struck with them when he delivered the bad news to them.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the flowing scarlet hair of Sarah Flynn as she entered the premises. She strolled over to the bar, sat down and ordered a drink. I knew that she wanted to talk to Liam about something, not Henry. I ran my fingers over my jaw line and watched her.

She lowered her head and rubbed her hands over her face, then left her palm resting against her forehead and shook her head.

I slid into the seat beside her without a sound. I reached across in front of her to grab some peanuts. ‘Excuse me for passing my arm in front of you. But you do have a bad habit of keeping the peanuts all to yourself,’ I mumbled towards her.

‘It’s because they are a decoration. Nobody eats the peanuts at the bar Mr. O’Connell. You’ll probably get a miniscule piece of peanut stuck in your throat and start coughing your elevator germs all over the place. I do recommend that you leave the space of one chair between us,’ she retorted.

She had a bee in her bonnet about something.

‘Good evening to you too Sarah,’ I threw her way. ‘Good to see that Irish blood of yours mixed with your red hair is keeping your temper at bay!’ I sipped on some water, and waited for her reply, hoping that it would be heated with sparks. I liked a challenge with entertainment thrown in for free. I was surprised when she did not respond. So I moved down a stool as she had requested. We sat in silence for three minutes, like total strangers.

My energy force changed the moment that she moved to the stool beside me. It was like playing a game of chess. ‘Careful, I might choke on my peanut and then cough elevator germs all over you. You are in danger sitting next to me you know. Or, unknowingly, you might pass on some germs to that cute little puppy of Mrs. Rossetti’s.’

‘Liam, sarcasm is not your strength, so you should not engage it in our conversation,’ she replied in a flat voice.

‘Oh, we are having a conversation now are we?’ I asked and looked at her.

‘Perhaps, depending on you, of course,’ she said, and ordered another glass of white wine.

I looked away from her and sipped my water again. Now I was stuck for words. All of a sudden I did not know what to talk to her about. It was awkward and highly unusual for me to be without verbal communication at any time. I ran my hand through my hair. ‘Do you come here every night Sarah?’

‘I use to ... but since the attack, not so frequently. And you?’

‘I come here perhaps two or three nights a week, on work days, only to socialize with the other Elevator Operators. We are only allowed one alcoholic beverage a day you know—it’s written into our contract,’ I answered her.

‘I know … you have said that before … but really? By the looks of them tonight they have had far more than one drink!’ Sarah said with wonder in her voice.

I turned around and looked at the boys. They were making a raucous, spilling drinks and up to mischief.

‘Aye, we had forced changes at work today. It is their way of dealing with the hand that we were dealt,’ I said, still looking at them before I looked into Sarah’s green eyes.

‘What sort of changes Liam?’

‘You’ll see when you come to the building next time … you’ll see.’ I turned away from the dukes towards the bar again and sipped on my water. I felt Sarah shift closer to me.

‘Liam, I need to spend some time with you ... I ... I ... just need to spend some time with you,’ she said to me. Her voice was soft and lacking in confidence.

I turned my head towards her. ‘You are attracted to me because of the ‘halo effect’ Sarah. Give it time—it will pass,’ I responded to her, trying to fob off her feelings for me, even though I was well aware that it was the red thread that tied us together.

‘No, it’s not Liam. When we touch ...’

Trouble was brewing.
At once I sucked in a deep breath to pull my blue energy force under the surface of my skin.

‘When we touch Liam, I feel ... I feel like I am alive for the first time,’ she tried to explain as she placed her hand on my arm.

I breathed in impossibly more and tightened all of the muscles in my body to hold the blue energy force inside of me. ‘Then perhaps we should spend some time together Sarah. You will see then that it is the ‘halo effect’, and will be cured of its magic that binds you to me,’ I said quietly against her ear. I too, felt alive for the first time when I was with her. But we could never be together.

‘You will fall in true love with a mortal, but you cannot know

her in an intimate way. It is forbidden …’

‘Yes mamma …’

I closed my eyes, exhaled and breathed in deeply again, holding my blue energy field under my skin and brought my glass of water to my lips.

‘Well then, since you are so obliging and have played into my hands so perfectly, how about tomorrow, Mr. O’Connell?’

I choked on my water. I did not expect her to take me up on the offer so quickly.

‘Hmmm … Saturday … sure … sounds like a plan,’ I said, smirking at her.

She slipped me her business card.

‘Send me an email Mr. O’Connell. I will look forward to hearing from you,’ she asserted. Then she stood and left the bar.

Shocked by her audacity, I sat alone at the bar for a while longer before I went to farewell my fellow operator dukes, some for the last time. I knew which ones had lost their jobs because of the red energy aura that glowed around them. Their faces showed no emotion, but their auras did to those who could see it. Auras could not conceal true emotions like the face could.

I touched their arms with my fingertips, and sent my amnis of white healing energy through to the amygdala; the emotional centre of the brain. My eye contact and well wishes in words were sent there too, strengthening the healing bond.

I pulled my collar up around my neck when I exited the bar and
walked through the cool night air as the mist of darkness descended.

Albert was sitting in his reading chair knitting when I entered our apartment.

‘Buona sera Albert,’ I said and placed my coat and work satchel in the cloak room.

‘Good evening to you also, Liam. Sì sono io lavoro a maglia, fare quel sorrisetto dalla faccia!’ Albert said without an ounce of humour.

‘Who said that I was smirking at you knitting? Perhaps you are jumping to conclusions?’ I said and chuckled under my breath.

‘I know you better than you know yourself Liam. Are you mocking me for taking up the sport of knitting?’ Albert asked. He put his knitting down and walked to the dining table with me. He had prepared an interesting dinner.

‘Certainly not! I was thinking that you could knit yourself a head cover to stop the girls screaming and running away from you!’ I added, trying to judge his demeanour this evening.

He poked his tongue out at me.

‘Well that is certainly mature for a four hundred year old, Albert!’ I said through smiling lips.

‘Interesting day at the office, Liam. I see that your rebellious antics did not work in your favour.’

‘No, they didn’t,’ I said, shaking my head.

‘Do not despair Liam, everything happens for a reason. You will see.’

‘Have you seen already may I ask?’

‘No, you may not ask,’ he answered, and raised an eyebrow at me.

‘Spoil sport,’ I said with fondness of my Protector.

‘Spoilt brat!’ he added to the flying insults.

‘Knitting nerd!’ I retaliated.

‘Lover boy!’ he sneaked in.

I placed my knife and fork onto the table, clasped my hands together and leaned towards Albert.

‘Tell me what you know,’ I said in a low voice.

‘If I tell you, I will have to kill you,’ Albert joked.