sometimes you forget to get off the elevator.
you’re just standing there, and then it starts moving, and you realize that it's going away from your floor not towards it. sometimes you never pressed a button at all, and you just stand there, no closer to your destination, until you’re startled by the elevator suddenly responding to someone else’s commands instead of awaiting your own.
and then someone gets on, and as they ride to their destination you wonder if they realize that it’s a mathematical impossibility for you to have been in the elevator before they got on and yet still not have reached your destination by the time they get off on the lowest possible floor.
and you wonder what you would think if you saw someone riding the elevator not between any two destinations, not getting off at any floor. what reasons you would come up with to explain their behavior. could someone ride the elevator maliciously?
sometimes people talk to you when they get on the elevator, and it’s interesting because their greeting is accompanied by a number, one of exactly how many floors you will need to maintain the conversation for before they depart, and you think that you probably answer their questions differently depending on their number, anticipating their brief departure or extended companionship.
sometimes you haven't spoken to anyone in five hours, and you're genuinely glad to hear about the wedding that they left early from, about their flight the previous day.
you always feel as they depart like they're somehow dissatisfied with your contribution to the conversation, or if not, that they should be.
time to return to your floor and actually get off before it happens again.