Mike waited patiently for the elevator. He hated his apartment building. It smelled bad. It was in a bad neighborhood. It was drafty. He sighed at the number panel that seemed to be stuck on "9". The elevator was slow. Still, it was cheap, and until he found himself a better job, it was going to be home.

The machinery groaned as the elevator lurched towards his floor. The "7" went out, then there was an excruciatingly long pause as the wires shook and the gears turned. Eventually, the "6" lit up, signaling that the contraption would now dramatically pause again before finally opening the doors with a metallic screech. A short, bearded man that Mike hadn't seen before was standing at the back corner of the elevator, watching him intently.

Mike gave the required smile as he stepped on and re-pushed the already lit button for the ground floor. He too assumed a position at the back of the elevator, in the corner opposite the short man. The man's gaze had shifted as he continued to stare at Mike.

Mike focused his gaze on the numbers above the doors, trying to will the elevator to move faster. He had yet to succeed.

"Elevator moves at its own speed. I been here a long time, I done know it."

Mike nodded and shifted to look at the wall, hoping the man would get the hint that he wasn't in the mood for conversation.

"Yep. Its own speed. Course, if you know how to talk to it, you can make it do some other tricks for you. Here, watch." Without turning away from Mike, the short man extended an equally short arm capped with stubby fingers and rapidly jabbed at various numbers on the panel. The elevator stopped with a bang as the cable tensioned and then reversed direction.

Mike sighed his weary sigh again. He was in no mood to fight, he just wanted to go out this evening. "Yes, yes, very interesting. Can we go down again, please? I'm meeting someone."

The short man pursed his lips, obviously annoyed that his trick wasn't appreciated. Once again, his arm shot out to the panel and punched in a series of buttons. The elevator picked up speed, but was still going up.

"See? You can coax her to move a little faster, if you want to. But you shouldn't do it too much. Can make her cranky."

Mike scowled. "Just make it go down."

The man hit the stop button and the doors opened on the 4th floor. "I think I'm done riding tonight, son. You want to get downstairs so bad, you can just try to do it yourself. I think I'll walk back to my place." With that, he waddled out of the elevator and down the hall.

"Fine! I can operate it just fine!" Mike hit the "1" button. The door shut, the cables whined, and then they snapped. Fasted ride he'd had in that building.