{"id":1019,"date":"2020-05-07T19:13:14","date_gmt":"2020-05-07T18:13:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/grahamwho.com\/grahamwrites\/?p=1019"},"modified":"2024-10-17T17:11:04","modified_gmt":"2024-10-17T16:11:04","slug":"the-descent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/grahamwho.com\/grahamwrites\/2020\/05\/07\/the-descent\/","title":{"rendered":"The Descent"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1000\" height=\"667\" src=\"http:\/\/grahamwho.com\/grahamwrites\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/max-muselmann-9KF7A8PJFF8-unsplash.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1024\" srcset=\"http:\/\/grahamwho.com\/grahamwrites\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/max-muselmann-9KF7A8PJFF8-unsplash.jpg 1000w, http:\/\/grahamwho.com\/grahamwrites\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/max-muselmann-9KF7A8PJFF8-unsplash-300x200.jpg 300w, http:\/\/grahamwho.com\/grahamwrites\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/max-muselmann-9KF7A8PJFF8-unsplash-768x512.jpg 768w, http:\/\/grahamwho.com\/grahamwrites\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/max-muselmann-9KF7A8PJFF8-unsplash-750x500.jpg 750w, http:\/\/grahamwho.com\/grahamwrites\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/max-muselmann-9KF7A8PJFF8-unsplash-450x300.jpg 450w, http:\/\/grahamwho.com\/grahamwrites\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/max-muselmann-9KF7A8PJFF8-unsplash-280x187.jpg 280w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cYou know, pressing the button again and again like that won\u2019t make it get here any faster.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWhat difference does it make to you?\u201d The man didn\u2019t even look back at George. He just kept his eyes glued to the numbered display above the elevator doors, mashing the button like he was playing an arcade game. The car was still ten floors above them, stationary. It was not descending, as George had pointed out, any faster, despite the man\u2019s impatience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIt makes the difference between me losing my temper. And not losing my temper.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIs that right?\u201d said the man, turning around at last. \u201cWell, let\u2019s see.\u201d He put his hand behind his back, reaching for the button, and looked George in the eye. He resumed pressing the button, faster and faster, fast enough that a sheen of sweat formed on his lip.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>George took a deep breath.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The man smiled, registering the rise and fall of his shoulders. \u201cMaybe you should try counting to ten.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThat\u2019d be pointless. I lose it well before I reach five,\u201d said George, stepping forward and grabbing a handful of the man\u2019s hair, looping it around his fist until he had fashioned himself a good, strong handle. He had only begun smashing the man&#8217;s head into the same button he had been pressing when the elevator did arrive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWhat do you know?\u201d muttered George, as he let go of the man\u2019s hair and let his bloody head follow his crumpled body to the floor. \u201cMaybe you were on to something after all.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Photo by&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/unsplash.com\/@maxmuselmann?utm_source=unsplash&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_content=creditCopyText\">Max Muselmann<\/a>&nbsp;on&nbsp;<\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/unsplash.com\/s\/photos\/blood-splash?utm_source=unsplash&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_content=creditCopyText\"><em>Unsplash<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cYou know, pressing the button again and again like that won\u2019t make it get here any faster.\u201d \u201cWhat difference does it make to you?\u201d The man didn\u2019t even look back at George. He just kept his eyes glued to the numbered display above the elevator doors, mashing the button like he was playing an arcade [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1019","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-flash-fiction","category-short-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/grahamwho.com\/grahamwrites\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1019","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/grahamwho.com\/grahamwrites\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/grahamwho.com\/grahamwrites\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/grahamwho.com\/grahamwrites\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/grahamwho.com\/grahamwrites\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1019"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"http:\/\/grahamwho.com\/grahamwrites\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1019\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1413,"href":"http:\/\/grahamwho.com\/grahamwrites\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1019\/revisions\/1413"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/grahamwho.com\/grahamwrites\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1019"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/grahamwho.com\/grahamwrites\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1019"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/grahamwho.com\/grahamwrites\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1019"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}