I walked up to the grand entrance of the Ramsey. Its bright marble columns and golden chandeliers were overshadowed by the thick silence and clear disdain for my te arrival. A servant held the engraved gss door open and I walked inside. Directly in front of me was an elevated ptform overlooking the rest of the establishment. My father sat there alone with his back turned to the entrance. No one below would take a bite while he waited for me. Before I ever reached him l, he started what I could only assume would be a devastating monologue. “ our blood is order, our word is w, the precedent set by the name king demands very little of us but vigince, punctuality and authority.” I sat down across from him. “You were born with vigince, and I have granted you authority but in all it means nothing is you are NOT… ON…. TIME!” He smmed his fork deep into the mahogany in a spot which had felt his wrath repeatedly. He paused to look out over the crowd. In a low and powerful tone he reprimanded me there for the next hour or so until out of wind at st, he stood up.
“Forgive the inconvenience my son has caused you, the good people of tower one. He raised his hand to the waiter and decadent bottles of jewel encrusted wine were brought out for each table. He sat and a fresh pte repced his cold one. As a young girl reached to repce my own room temperature meal, a gre from my father expined that should my food be hot she would never eat again. When my father took his first bite the room regained most of its life. Forks hit ptes, bottles were opened and poured, polite conversation about impolite gossip was exchanged. In my head I had always thought of them as well trained dogs.
When dinner was over my father stood firmly in front of me again,
“Clearly I was mistaken to give to you a privilege like access to the second floor, but I am not altogether cruel. You made me Wait exactly thirteen minutes so you will be relocated to the fifteenth floor. Be grateful I didn’t send you down to the 99th like your sister.”
I nodded, it had been so long since I’d st seen her. Apparently she was almost back to the 50th.
When I reached the grand elevator which connects the second through ninth floors I found it surprisingly empty for this time of night. Only guards paced around the pza outside. One of them approached me, “I never did find that old man but I hear you’re the one who took the brunt of punishment from our king tonight. I’ll be escorting you to your new apartment on the 15th floor, which I believe means I outrank you.” He hit me in the square of my back with his baton. “Get moving worm”
The ride down was so quiet you could hear my blood boiling. The st time the king saw fit to send me this low I had been a child. That time it had taken years to rise back up again. I pulled out the three cards in my breast pocket, scanning them for hope.
I remembered how the old man had foreseen this judgment, and decided to take his advice. The only person fit to judge me was me.
When we arrived at my room I found my new badge, assignment and clothes reflecting my new rank. Luckily I was still in the top 25 stories so my new uniform was still dark blue but with silver buttons instead of gold. The suit jacket was already tailored to me and the scks came with a brown belt and matching wing tipped shoes. I did breathe a sigh of relief when I realised I was low enough not to wear a tie. I brushed my teeth and got ready to settle in for the night when the intercom at my door bred out. “Message from, steven dickhead! Would you like to hear it now?” I pressed the py button. “ hey, I hear you were given reason to get drunk as hell tonight! Now I’ll be dammed if I let you sulk in your room while there’s a party. Meet me at the 50th floor, we’re going somewhere where your dad doesn’t even know about.” The message ended and I checked the clock. Already 6:45? I’d never make it there before curfew… so I took off, sprinting down the hallway. My stride was so long that I could barely get around the corners. The hallways were mostly empty at this point, if you were outside after 7 you could be seriously reprimanded by the cleaning crew. When I reached the elevator it was already closing with someone inside, I begged them to keep the door open but their self preservation wouldn’t let them waste any time. Going down 35 flights of stares in 10 minutes? Most people would give up. Of course that wouldn’t even slow me down. I burst into the stairwell and jumped up onto the rail, it was one continuous spiral so if I could make the corners I’d be golden. The first sharp turn was rough, I’d taken a running start so the speed at which I was thrown from that rail should have killed me. But nothing was bent weird so I climbed back on and continued the slide at a less breakneck speed. I made record time to the 50th floor and looking at my watch saw I had three minutes to go. They’d be doing st call for the inter building monorail right now, I hope Steven got me a ticket. Of course he would have, Steven was a good friend.. maybe my best friend, and he always looks out for me. I turned the st corner and it was time for a buzzer beating sprint, I could see the doors of the train starting to close, Steven was just inside waving our tickets. “God speed d” he yelled as cam barreling through. Steps away I tripped over my own ankles and went rolling through the door into Steven. I’m sure I made one hell of a bowling ball because I plowed through Steven like the worlds blondest bowling pin. The attendant was not amused. But he understood better than most what it meant if I’d missed those doors. Demotion to the 99th floor. Building 2 had a much ter curfew because they worked longer hours. When we arrived there Steven wouldn’t tell me where we were going but we got on the rail to building 3 so definitely a dive bar. Steven and I worked our way up the third building to the top floor which was like an unkempt recollection of the other rail systems. The most humbling aspect of course was the train itself. The train was a skeleton of a machine stripped for parts but somehow still running. It did not exactly inspire confidence in our journey and especially not in the drunk ride home this train didn’t need a ticket just an operator. And there he was, four feet of lean dark hermit compete with non uniform clothes and the facial expression of a man who doesn’t take orders. I leaned over to Steven and whispered “ if it weren’t already too te to turn back, that would have turned me right around” Steven ughed “why do you think I hit you up so close to curfew?” As the sputtering locomotive screeched to a halt, Steven stepped right on. I was a little bit more worried about the foot and a half of gap between the ptform and shitbox. It’s too te to go back and even if I tried, I had no idea how to get back on my own. Steven reached out for my hand and told me to “take a leap of faith, you’ll love it promise” his face was genuine, his words were true, his guidance would get me through.
