Zekeriya Guser – Captivated conductor of my very own extraordinary journey.

A man walks into an elevator after a very long day, dreaming of sitting on his couch in his lonely flat with an ice-cold beer in his hand, maybe watching a silly TV show such as America’s Got Talent, and falling asleep. But as he steps into the elevator, he is shocked to find a green couch in that little space. He looks at the couch, thinking this must be a dream of some sort, so he stops thinking and just sits on it, facing the door. On his left, he realizes there is a mini-bar with a couple of six-packs, so he grabs one and opens it, wondering what is next but also just sitting there as if that’s the end of the world, sipping his beer with great pleasure.

After a few moments, he remembers that he was supposed to go to his floor, so he reaches the buttons just to be surprised by them. They aren’t your regular buttons; there are 5 buttons lined up as a plus. It says “past” on the button on the left, “yes” on the right, “red” on the bottom, “black” on the top, and “back” on the one in the middle. Even though he struggles to make any sense out of this, he still goes with it and presses the one that says “past.” As the lift starts to move, he starts to feel funny, a sort of childish excitement!

The lift stops after a few moments, and the doors open to the living room of his parents’ house. It kind of starts to make sense as he sees his 6th birthday party happening with all his favorite friends at the time, including the girl he loved at the time—a very childish love, but the first one of all. It was the warmest feeling inside, seeing the moment she kissed him for the first time, right after he blows the candle, knowing that she was the woman he was going to wake up next to every single morning for the rest of his life.

Doors close after a short while, leaving him with thoughts—things he hasn’t thought for years. Then he stands up again to press another button, which happens to be “yes.” He sits back down with another can of beer while wondering what will come next. So the doors open again. YES, it was the day he got married to that 6-year-old cute girl, 28 years after his birthday party. It was a small chapel where they got married and a small hotel on a tiny exotic island where they went for their honeymoon, which was definitely not remembered for a very long time.

Even though it seemed like a very happy memory, the only thing he could remember now was how that love ended in tears a few years later while the doors shut again. So he reaches for the buttons again, pressing “red,” hesitating for a brief moment as he kind of felt that he knew what red was there for. But he did press that button while pouring down whatever was left in his can, grabbed another one, sat back, and waited.

So just like he thought, the doors opened to the street lights that are only a few blocks from their home. At which, while she was crossing the road on a breezy afternoon with groceries, there was a car driving like mad on the empty road that didn’t feel like stopping at the red light, so it ended up hitting her and taking her away from him. As a few tears shed from his eyes, he just thought to sit there for a while before he tries another button, thinking all went by and how no one was waiting at home, so with one last effort, he pushed the button “black.”

The doors took a little longer than the ones before and opened to a dark night a few years after the accident. He was drunk, as he had been for the last few years, roaming the streets with no purpose, just like he had been doing almost every night. It was almost always a different route, but the only thing the same was the fact that he was passing “the” traffic lights. And this one that the doors opened to was the night he tried to kill himself. He was walking to the ocean to drown himself, but there was a guy standing at the dock who talked him out of it, with whom he came dear friends for years to come.

So it was time to press the last button, saying “back.” Even though he had been through some sweet and sour memories, he didn’t actually want to go back. But it seemed like it was the only thing to do, so he opened another beer and sat back, just letting events run their course. And the doors opened as the world stood still, and nothing happened between the “past” button and the “back” button.

So the door was open now, but he wasn’t sitting on a green couch; instead, he was crawled back at the corner of the smelly elevator at the bottom floor, at which point he realized that he passed away in the elevator, not even being able to press the button for his 3rd floor. There he was, drunk, as he had been for the last couple of years after his wife passed. Even though the wise man at the dock said, “The future depends on what you do today,” he drank that day and the next and the day after…!