The Elevator By KArma The women from 'The Plane Trip' get stranded in an elevator together. The Elevator Gladys grimaced as she got out of the taxi. It had been a long, miserable ride from the airport, and Gladys wasn’t certain if her misery was a result of the rude, foul-smelling Caucasian cab driver, the blaring Tchaikovsky symphony on the car radio or the wicked thunderstorm now raging in the city. She hurried under the protective awning of the Century Building and gathered her thoughts. She had 15 minutes to kill before her scheduled appointment, and wondered what to do with her time. She saw a sign pointing to the observation deck elevator and decided that a bird’s eye view of the storm might work wonders on her psyche, as well as killing a few minutes. She quickly walked over to the elevator and got on the next one that arrived. The door was just closing when a long arm reached through the opening. The door, its electronic eye detecting an impediment, obediently slid open again. A tall blonde woman dressed in a mink coat entered, turned and stood right next to Gladys. The door closed and the cramped elevator started its trip to the top. Gladys had felt her breath catch as the woman entered, and now she looked over at her out of the corner of her eye. Sure enough, the same mink coat, the same long legs, the same impression of confidence and strength. It was the same woman that Gladys had "met" on an airplane several months earlier. Their plane flight had been one of the most mysterious and exciting times in Gladys’s life. Gladys wondered if the woman remembered her. She knew that she was hard to forget - how many 6’ tall women were there who had five earrings in one ear and three in the other? The two women ignored each other as the elevator continued its ascent. Standing side-by-side, they stared instead at the blinking lights showing their progress to the top. Gladys felt the other woman’s shoulder brush hers. She didn’t move. The shoulder brushed hers again, then pressed more firmly. Gladys smiled to herself. "Ah, she does remember," she thought. Gladys shifted her weight and pressed back, subtly at first, then a little harder. Within seconds, the women were straining against each other, still not acknowledging the other’s presence. Suddenly, with hardly a jerk or hesitation, the elevator stopped. The lights went out. Blackness reigned. Gladys was startled, and so, obviously, was the blonde. For several seconds they stood, still pressed together, but both now just waiting to see what happened next. "Shit," thought Gladys. "I bet that storm outside killed the building power! Now what?" A minute passed, then two. Gladys, with a mental shrug, nudged the shoulder of her companion and got a nudge in return. As if that were the signal, the two recommenced their struggle. The seconds passed as they pushed against each other even harder, trying to make the other move away. Gladys gritted her teeth and planted her feet. In the darkness it was impossible to make out even the silhouette of her opponent. There was just the feel of that firm arm against hers. Gladys heard the blonde grunt softly, and slowly, almost imperceptibly, the blonde began forcing Gladys to move. She strained in response, but could not recover the lost ground. Suddenly, with a surge, the blonde forced Gladys to step to one side until she almost bumped into the elevator wall. The blonde had moved away, and for several more seconds, there was just the sound of heavy breathing in the elevator as each woman tried to catch her breath. Gladys was rather ticked off - she had won two out of the three contests on the plane, and now Miss Blondie had evened the score. What should she do now? Not trying to stay quiet, Gladys felt for the wall, then slid down it until she was seated on the floor of the elevator, her back against the wall. Deliberately, she stretched her legs out across the floor. She felt the blonde almost trip over her legs, then she heard a sigh as the woman also sat down. By the sound, she was directly across from Gladys. Sure enough, a second later, Gladys felt the woman’s legs bump up against hers. Gladys pulled her legs back and took off her shoes. Once again she extended her legs out, feeling for the blonde. She felt her bare foot hit a high heel. Carefully, she pushed against it, and was rewarded with return pressure. The pressure was suddenly relieved, and Gladys heard rustling across the elevator. A moment later, she felt a bare foot brush her leg. As if of one mind, the women shifted around until their bare feet were pressed together, sole-to- sole. The elevator was so narrow that, to allow this to happen, both women were forced to sit with their knees bent. They began to push against each other as if they were doing leg presses on a machine. They tried to straighten their legs, as doing this would force the other’s legs back almost to their chest. Gladys was proud of her strong legs, and poured on the strength as if she were trying to exceed her own personal best on the machine. Her legs began to tremble from the incredible force being generated. For several minutes they battled, neither able to gain any advantage. Gladys’s thighs were cramping and her feet ached from the pressure against the blonde’s. The struggle continued, neither able to gain any advantage, but neither willing to concede to the other’s power. Gladys put her hands on the floor, pressed her back even more firmly against the wall and PUSHED! She was rewarded by a groan from across the darkness and the blonde’s legs began moving inexorably back. Gladys kept up the pressure, even when the blonde stopped her progression for a minute. Both women were panting as the slowly rising temperature made them both break out on sweat. It was suddenly as if Gladys’s legs had turned to rubber. Gladys struggled to keep the blonde forced back, but her opponent must’ve felt the pressure ease. She renewed her efforts and just as slowly and inexorably forced Gladys’s legs back. After a few more minutes Gladys’s knees were almost under her chin and she couldn’t take it any longer. She almost fell to one side, relieving the horrible strain on her hamstrings. Again the elevator was filled with the sounds of the women gasping for breath as they tried to relive the cramped muscles in their legs. After several more minutes of rest, Gladys heard the other woman struggle to her feet. Gladys pulled her legs back out of the way and waited. After a few minutes of silence, Gladys heard the blonde snap her fingers almost in front of her face. She groped in front of her and felt a warm hand clasp her own. With a smooth motion, Gladys rose to her feet. Right hands still clasped, the women stood face-to-face. Gladys felt the blonde’s left hand slowly feel its way up her arm to her right biceps, where it gently squeezed. Gladys grinned in the darkness. She shrugged off her jacket, and the invisible hand now squeezed a bare arm. Gladys almost gasped, but had enough presence of mind to reach for the blonde’s arm. In seconds, the blonde removed her mink - Gladys heard it drop to the floor - and Gladys squeezed the blonde’s arm. They both began to flex their muscles, and Gladys felt the other woman’s biceps ripple under her fingers as they grew larger and harder. Gladys flexed her own biceps, and was rewarded by a firmer grip on her arm. The blonde slowly ran her finger back down Gladys’s arm to their still joined and tightly clasped hands. Their right hands relaxed their grip, and hands met again, this time palm-to-palm. Gladys could feel that the blonde’s hands were almost as big - or bigger, she admitted to herself - as her own. Slowly and almost sensuously their hands rubbed together, entwining and releasing, until they suddenly interlocked fingers. Gladys moved a step closer and felt the blonde move as well. Gladys couldn’t restrain a gasp as she felt the blonde’s nipples meet hers. Neither retreated from the contact, but instead appeared to welcome it. Their interlocked hands came up to shoulder level, and slowly they began increasing the force they were applying. It was odd, thought Gladys, having a test like this in the pitch darkness of a stalled elevator. She couldn’t see the blonde’s face or eyes, and was depending on the feel on the blonde’s hands and the sound of her breathing. The pressure increased, until Gladys was forced to gasp at the effort it took her to resist the blonde’s strength. The pressure of their chests never changed - not increasing or decreasing. The position of their hands never changed, either. Hands gripped tightly as they strained against each other’s power. It seemed as if their contest had gone on for hours already. Gladys’s hands and arms ached and throbbed, but her magnificent muscles never let up their unceasing pressure. The blonde was matching Gladys muscle for muscle, and Gladys marveled at how even they were. Sweat beaded on Gladys’s face, and she felt her clothes getting damp. The elevator was getting even warmer as the air conditioning had also stopped working. Suddenly there was a loud bang from somewhere below them. Gladys heard a man’s voice shouting, "If there’s anyone up there, we almost have our problem fixed! It’ll just be a few more minutes." The women never let up their efforts. In fact, there was an added urgency to their struggle now that it appeared that the lights would be going back on very soon. Gladys wasn’t certain that she wanted to see her opponent’s face, and wasn’t certain that she wanted hers seen. Gladys redoubled her efforts, and heard a low moan come from the blonde. Slowly Gladys began forcing the other woman’s wrists back. Even more slowly she felt the pressure of their other’s chest against hers start to diminish as the blonde was forced down to her knees. For several interminable minutes the blonde managed to resist Gladys’s best efforts, and Gladys began to despair of ever forcing the woman down, when the blonde went to her knees, easing all pressure against Gladys as she did. Gladys immediately stopped her efforts, and collapsed next to her opponent. After painfully (and still silently) disentangling their cramped and aching hands, both women groped around in the darkness. Gladys found her shoes and put them back on. She had just shrugged wearily into her jacket when, with a jerk and squeal, the elevator began descending. Simultaneously the lights came back on, and Gladys had to shield her eyes from the sudden glare. By the time her eyes adjusted so she could squint around, the elevator had arrived at the ground floor. When the door opened, the two women walked out, ignoring the curious stares of several workers gathered around the elevator. They walked towards another bank of elevators, the ones that would take Gladys to her appointment. Without hesitation, Gladys, accompanied by several others, got on the first to arrive. Just as the door started closing, she looked up. Standing directly in front of her was the blonde. As the door closed between them, their eyes met and locked. Though they stared each other for only a few seconds, it was long enough for each of them to realize that this was not, by any stretch of the imagination, over.