The Elevator

Several years ago we spent five nights at The Venetian in Las Vegas. For those unfamiliar with the resort, it's an upscale hotel in the heart of the strip and was (at that time) one of the most expensive places to stay. The cheap trip to Las Vegas is long gone.

On the last night of our stay, Bob was having a good time hitting the one armed bandits and I was ready to retire to our room. It wasn't extremely late, maybe 11 or so and there was still alot of activity in the casino. Actual access to the elevator to the hotel rooms was monitored somewhat by someone checking to see if you had a hotel room key.

While waiting alone at the bank of elevator, a tall, slightly older man also joined me waiting for the elevator.

I can't say that I felt entirely comfortable. There was not anything outwardly wrong with his appearance, it was just a feeling I suddenly had that raised the hair on the back of my neck.

Before one of the elevators reached the ground floor, there were a handful of other people that had also gathered in the area.

When we all got on the elevator, I sensed an uneasiness about the man, as if he wasn't thrilled to see other people get on the elevator. I waited to see what floor he punched on the panel. I was relieved to see that he was getting off on the floor before me, which was before the floor of the people that joined us. I THEN finally punched the button on my upper floor.

When we arrived at the man's floor, he didn't get off the elevator. The door opened and then closed.

My "fear factor" grew even more. I knew that the group of people that had joined us was getting off of the floor below mine, which meant I could be alone in an elevator with someone who was making me nervous and who did not get off on the floor he originally punched.

When I watched all of the other group get off on the floor before mine, the man still stayed on the elevator. Just before the doors closed, I heard some long ago advice. Do not find yourself alone on an elevator with someone who makes you uncomfortable.

I decided to follow the group out the door to the floor that was not the one we were staying on. I swear I could audibly hear the man make a very odd frustrated sigh. I left him alone on the elevator and scooted along with the group acting like I knew exactly where I was going.

I went down a hallway or two and waited for a couple minutes before I got back on the elevator to ascend to the proper floor. Luckily the elevator was empty so I made my way up. But that didn't stop me from continuing to look around on my floor for some Jeffrey Dahmer type finding me alone in a hallway to my room.

I would like to think that this guy was absolutely harmless.

But.

What if I had ignored my intuition?

Just to make it clear, the man was of my own race. So it was not as if I walked into an elevator with a black or hispanic man and was instantly afraid. I am not a racist or a bigot. This was just a creepy creepy feeling. To be honest, although he was older, he gave me the instant feeling of Jeffrey Dahmer and I cannot tell you why. My "creepiness" radar went off the minute he came in the aisle waiting for the elevator.

If I had ignored my instinct, I "probably" would have found that I would get off on my floor and the man I felt like was a creep could have just simply punched the wrong floor and realized it too late. He might have been some wonderfully sweet old man who lived a honorable life and I was just too quick to judge.

I considered all those options as the elevator was ascending, but.....what if my instinct had been right? What if his original frustration at having people join us in the elevator and me getting off on their floor was not some wild imagination on my part?

AND, what if he really was someone like Jeffrey Dahmer? And I lived my life in la-la land thinking there were only good people in this world and I didn't have to be aware of my surroundings and predicament.

The truth is. If the latter were true, I could have made one of the best decisions of my life by getting off the elevator with another group of people and not subjected myself to something I do not even want to have nightmares about.

If the former were true, I offended no one. I, alone, was simply inconvenienced for a couple of minutes by exiting on a floor that was not mine, milling around until I felt safe enough to get back in an empty elevator and go on to my room alone, locking the door and breathing a sigh of relief.

Being nervous about someone and insuring your safety does not make you paranoid (unless you find yourself in that predicament on a daily basis) and taking precaution does not make you weird or a racist or bigot if that person happens to be of a different race or color.

The only difference in my decision today vs that long ago decision, is that I would not gotten on the elevator to begin with. I know the experts tell women to not get on an elevator alone with an unknown man at all, but I don't have that fear. I have been on many elevators with very nice men, white, black, hispanic, etc who strike a short casual conversation and have never had that feeling. Which is scary now that I think about it, because I know this man below was a mastermind at hiding that he was sent by Satan himself.