Elisabeth Marie

Chapter Two

I was sitting in my room, going through and editing my photographs, when I heard a knock on my door. "It's open!" I called.

Mother walked in. "Hey, sweetie, it's three-fifty, I'm going to go down to the cafe now, okay? I'll be away for awhile."

"How long is awhile?"

"Oh, I don't know, I'll be back maybe around nine or ten."

"Five hours?!"

"Yes, dear. You can order takeout if you want from Pike's Pizza, but remember, request Mr. Jones for delivery. Okay? We can't have some stranger coming up to our little haven, now, can we? He's the only one allowed up here from Pike's."

"I know, Mother," I assured her.

"Good." Mother leaned in and gave me a hug. "I'll see you later, sweetie!"

"Okay. Bye, Mother."

She turned and walked to the door. "Bye, sweetheart. I'll need you to shut the elevator behind me with your key."

"Right." That was why I couldn't ever go down to street level, even if I was brave enough to. Because the entrance into the elevator from our apartment could only be shut (and opened) from inside the apartment. And since I had the key to the elevator around my neck, I would never be able to leave- Mother wasn't about to shut the elevator from the inside of the apartment for me, and even if she was willing to, I definitely wasn't too keen on wandering downtown by myself. Especially not after seeing the news stories every few months about downtown shootings, gang violence, people getting robbed... no, thank you.

I turned the key into the lock as soon as we reached the elevator. "Bye, Elisabeth. I'll see you tonight!" Mother said.

"Bye," I said, trying to hide my half-heartedness. When Mother was inside the elevator I closed it behind her.

Once the doors had slid shut with a gentle thud, I turned my back to the elevator again, just like I had done for years. One time, years ago, I ran inside it, but nothing really happened, since I couldn't go down in it or anything with the door open. I just stood there for a minute before Mother told me that I was being ridiculous and to please get out so that she could move on with her life.

I walked almost immediately over to the phone. It was only four o'clock, but I still felt like getting pizza. I was bored already, and after only about thirty seconds alone. That was no surprise though- I had been feeling progressively more and more restless in the past few months. Before she stopped coming, my childhood nanny Miss Nancy told me I was a 'people person'. She was probably right- I much preferred talking to people than sitting alone reading or playing an instrument to an empty room.

That was part of the reason that I had been working so hard at my schoolwork for so long and took as many extra lessons as I did: just talking to people like my language instructors and listening to my music teachers critique made me feel relaxed. Now where did I put the phone...?

There it was. I called Pike's and ordered a small Hawaiian, with delivery to my address, and promptly hung up. As soon as I did, I regretted it.

"Oh. No." I said aloud, sitting down with a start. "I didn't request Mr. Jones for delivery." I grabbed the phone in a panic and dialed Pike's again, but they put me on hold. Who buys pizza at four o'clock anyway?!  I couldn't find a reason I would have been put on hold.

It must have been at least five minutes before I got hooked up with some tired-sounding guy on the phone. "What would you like to order?"

"Actually, I need to cancel an order. A small Hawaiian under Elisabeth?"