Chapter 33
DELILAH
By this point, Delilah had become so familiar with the ladder that she didn’t even feel any fear as she climbed. She called, ‘Where are we going?’
‘Floor Maintenance,’ John shouted. ‘I need some extra tools in order to fix the lift. At a minimum, some ferrules and a crimping tool.’
‘Uh-huh.’ Delilah tried to pretend she knew what that meant. ‘Sounds very important.’
‘This would be easier and faster if some of the others would help us,’ John said. ‘Though I’m not optimistic.’
The hotel leaned again. Delilah clung on to the ladder with both hands, toes curled. ‘How much further do we have to go?’
‘Not much further.’ John hopped on to Floor Maintenance. He offered a hand to Heather, who was behind him. Jaime and Delilah climbed on to the floor last.
As they ran down the hallway, the maintenance crew stormed out of the break room to block their path.
Godfrey stood in the front, arms crossed and scowling.
In a menacing tone, he demanded, ‘What are you doing, John? I thought you were a team player. I thought you were one of us. You seemed like a good lad. You had us all fooled. Now you’re betraying us? Helping the enemy?’
‘We’re not the enemy!’ Delilah cried. Another tremor shook the building, sending her feet skidding.
‘Can’t you see that the building is falling apart?
This is no time for us to be fighting each other.
You should be helping us, or at least getting out of our way.
If the building collapses, then we’ll all be crushed but unable to die forever.
That sounds like a fate worse than death to me.
Trust me, I was trampled to death by a horse – it will be agonising. ’
A brief flicker of doubt passed across Godfrey’s face. Then he puffed out his chest and narrowed his eyes. ‘You’re bluffing. We’re in Purgatory! Nothing truly bad can happen to us here.’
‘That is not true,’ Delilah said. ‘I watched someone get swallowed in Limbo. We just came from the engine room, and it didn’t look good there. Seriously, we don’t even have time for this conversation.’
Godfrey cried, ‘This is a matter of principle! We’re underpaid and underappreciated!’
‘You don’t even work!’ she shot back.
‘I’m not letting you past until I at least get my clown car.’ The men behind Godfrey all murmured in agreement. Godfrey held out his hand. ‘John, don’t be foolish. I’m giving you a chance to be forgiven if you come back to our side. It won’t end well for you if you try to fix that lift.’
Heather stepped in front of John. ‘Are you threatening him? That sounded like intimidation to me. You’re a jerk, Godfrey. And I’ve had enough of your nonsense.’ She cracked her knuckles.
John put a hand on Heather’s shoulder. ‘Thank you. It means the world to me to have you defend me. But this is something that I need to do myself. I’ve changed as a person.
Now I know how to stick up for myself without bottling it up until I lose control.
’ He stepped forward, standing so close to Godfrey that their noses nearly touched.
‘Godfrey, you’re wrong. The very first and most important principle of maintenance should always be safety.
I learned that from my first teacher. Right now, people are in danger.
I’m going to fix this hotel and protect my friends. Get out of my way.’
Funnily, instead of looking angry, Godfrey gazed at John with shock turning into awe turning into something like hope. ‘You’re a real maintenance man? You actually know how to fix the lift? Why didn’t you say so sooner?’
John stared. ‘What are you talking about? Why would I need to say it? Aren’t we all trained in maintenance?’
The men behind Godfrey all shook their heads.
Jaime pushed her way forward. ‘I know Godfrey’s secret! I overheard him talking with the rest of the crew. He’s not a maintenance man. In life, he was a circus clown.’
Delilah laughed. ‘Nice joke! Godfrey does seem like a clown.’ Then her jaw fell open as Godfrey’s clothing transformed into a spotted red costume with two tufts of hair on an orange wig and a bright red nose. He squeezed the nose. It made a high-pitched sound. She snorted. ‘Are you serious?’
‘I was a clown for twenty long years.’ Godfrey shifted back into his overalls.
He hung his head. ‘A good one too. All the children loved to laugh at me. But then an elephant sat on me and crushed me to death. Now I never want to see another circus ring again. The only part I truly miss is my old clown car.’
‘That’s awful.’ Delilah was surprised by how much sympathy she felt. It must be solidarity for people squashed to death by animals. ‘How did you end up in the maintenance crew?’
Godfrey sighed. ‘The previous hotel manager was deeply sexist and perhaps not very bright. She thought that every single man on earth knew how to repair things. If a man applied for a job, then she’d stick him on the maintenance crew without asking any questions.
Once we had a woman with ten years of experience as a mechanic who wanted to work here, but the old hotel manager insisted that women couldn’t do the job.
I nearly cried when that applicant went back to pass her test on the sixth try and left the hotel forever.
None of us on the crew know how to do our jobs, but we were all scared to admit it for fear we’d be fired. ’
‘I’m a lawyer,’ someone called from the crowd.
‘I’m a musician.’
‘I’m a massage therapist.’
‘I worked for an insurance company.’
‘I worked in a supermarket.’
‘I was a lorry driver. I miss driving.’
‘Yeah, me too.’
‘I used to teach at a playschool.’
‘I’m a former member of parliament. I have no idea what I’m doing here.’ As everyone stared at him, the man amended, ‘I don’t know what I’m doing on a maintenance crew. I did a lot of questionable deeds to end up in Purgatory.’
Heather sighed. ‘All of you could have just admitted that you couldn’t do it. I would have understood. We could have worked together to find a better solution. Instead, why did you have to insult me and treat me like rubbish?’
Godfrey shuffled his feet. ‘I know I’ve been a jerk.
I’m sorry. The truth is, I got scared. I only became head of the crew because the previous hotel manager thought I had a cool moustache.
I can’t pass my test – I’m too angry at elephants to make it through.
This job is my only shot at getting into Heaven.
For years, I’ve been very slowly working on small tasks like fixing lightbulbs because that’s all I know how to do.
I came up with a long list of very minor repairs to put off the big ones like the water fountain.
Then the lift broke! I was completely out of my depth!
If I tried to fix it but screwed up, what if someone got hurt?
I faked this entire ridiculous strike so that I would have an excuse not to work on repairing it.
’ He turned on John. ‘But you knew how to repair the lift all along? Why didn’t you tell us? ’
‘I thought we were striking for real,’ John cried.
‘I didn’t know it was all an elaborate and ultimately pointless ruse.
I’m brand-new here. I didn’t want to rock the boat by refusing to go along with the group.
’ He shook his head. ‘And I suppose that was my sin. If I’d stood up to you sooner, then we wouldn’t have wasted all this time. ’
Godfrey clasped his hands in a begging posture.
‘Please repair this hotel. I don’t want to die being crushed to death twice.
I still have phantom aches. This hotel is our home too.
None of us have any experience, but if you’ll tell us exactly what to do, then we’ll help you. ’ The men behind him all nodded.
The hotel rocked again. Everyone grabbed on to each other.
‘We don’t have any more time to waste on life lessons.
’ John clapped his hands together. All the men stood to attention.
Turning to Delilah, John said, ‘I have enough people to assist me now. Could you go warn Damien to get out of the lift to the nearest alcove? It might startle him if we start working with him still in there.’
Delilah saluted. ‘I’m on it.’
John directed the men, ‘Let’s go.’ He set off, with Heather and Jaime on either side of him. The maintenance crew fell into step behind them, finally united.
Delilah got out at the reception floor. ‘Damien?’ She pulled open the lift doors just in case, but he wasn’t inside. He might be anywhere along the ladder.
The reception floor was even more of a mess than last time.
The desk had been toppled over during one of the quakes.
An open drawer spread crumpled sweets across the floor.
Pencils and pens had rolled against the wall.
Heather’s computer had fallen to the floor and smashed, small and hazardous fragments of glass blending into the carpet as little traps.
‘DAMIEN!’ she shouted louder, down the shaft.
Her voice echoed into the emptiness, all the way down.
With a long, tortured groan, the hotel tilted.
‘DA—Gah!’ Delilah grabbed on to the dado rail, trying to anchor herself. The room spun nauseatingly. Her fingers burned with the strain of holding on.
Overhead, the ceiling light snapped and fell.
Delilah looked up. As the bulb fell towards her face, she remembered the sensation of hooves striking her down.
But she wasn’t alive any longer, and she wasn’t alone. Lucy had said that their bodies could manifest their imagination. In Purgatory, she could do supernatural feats of strength. Her only limit was her imagination.
Leaping up, her arms stretched towards the falling light.