Trapped!

Rushing to a team-meeting this morning, I never stopped to contemplate the fact that there was a storm outside my school building. No, I am just thinking about how I am already running late this early in the morning. In the elevator, the lights flicker and sputter. I think I blinked one too many times, but no, the lights have completely turned off and the elevator is no longer moving. Total darkness. As I stand in silence and shock, I was hit with one of those light-bulb ideas that usually come too late to me....Don't take the elevator during a storm! Only to me would this happen...well and maybe a few other friends (Holly, Molly) who seem prone to catastrophic stituations.
So I'm in the elevator and thoughts are racing through my mind so quickly that I am only able to hold onto a few of them, some being...Is this the end for me? Is this how I go? They find my rotting corpse in here and morn a good teacher's death? But then reality rushes back, and my fists are pounding on the door to life with a feverish strength while I'm yelling in a desperate voice that is trying to sound not-desperate. I mean, everything will be fine right? We'll all have a good laugh about this at the staff meeting later... I hope.
My calls for help were heard by a fellow 8th grade teacher, and the motion to "save" me starts. I must say- sitting alone, trapped in the dark for 45 minutes gets one's mind turning. I wonder if I have enough oxygen in this space to last the day? I could always use my coffee cup as a toilet if I am in here over night. Yes, the thoughts whirled but fianally I settled into the thought that I should make the most of the peaceful time I had without the demand of students and try to take a nap. Funny how the time had flown though, and by that thought, the lights flickered back on for a moment, ensuring me just a enough time to get out into the hall before the power went out again. The claustrophobic panic and reflective thoughts on my life faded as I went back into reality..into the normalcy of just another Tuesday.