The Best Australian Stories 2014 by Amanda Lohrey

Author:Amanda Lohrey
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Schwartz Publishing Pty. Ltd

Civility Place

J.Y.L. Koh

Breakfast is last night’s leftovers.

You leave your plate in the sink and splash water over it. You brush your teeth. You rub gel between your palms, work it through your hair and use a comb to arrange a neat side part. You cut Friday’s dry-cleaning tags off your suit. You straighten your tie. You pick up your bag, sling it over your shoulder and walk to the train station.

Thirty seconds after you arrive on the platform and walk to the point where you know the first door of the first carriage will open, the train arrives.

You’re on your way to work.

The entrance to the tower is comprised of six revolving glass doors. Their action reminds you of hand-cranked egg beaters, or one of those spy films where the hero is stuck in a tunnel in his battered suit, pitted against wind and gravity and tonnes of water that are bearing down on him and forcing him closer and closer to a giant fan with rotating blades.

You can feel the egg-beater fans sucking you in.

Whump, whump, whump.

You look up for a second at the tower looming above you. It’s so tall that you can’t see where it stops and the sky begins.

You steel yourself and walk in, preparing to be served as suggested – beaten or chopped.

On the front desk in the foyer stands, as usual, an extravagant floral arrangement. Today it’s an immense concoction of birds of paradise.

‘Welcome to Civility Place,’ grins the concierge, who is standing to one side of the flowers.

‘Hi, Serge.’

As usual, you stop to ask after his motorcycle.

He once showed it off to you at the end of one of his shifts. As it gleamed in the artificial light of the car park, he told you how he often took it on holidays up the coast to a little shack that looked out over the ocean, and how he was planning to ride it overseas one day – maybe around Japan.

Serge smiles when you enquire after the bike’s health. He says it is well. He is, however, thinking of selling the bike. He wants one that’s just a bit shinier and louder. Serge says that, in his last performance review, the head of the tower’s security team hinted that a promotion would be on the cards if Serge continued to demonstrate outstanding commitment to his role. A promotion would give him some extra cash for a new machine.

‘Wow, that’s great,’ you say.

‘Thanks, I reckon it’s almost in the bag,’ says Serge. He nods to others passing by. ‘Welcome to Civility Place,’ he says, giving them the same friendly grin of recognition you had thought was reserved for you alone.

The lift greets you, good morning in a recorded female voice, smooth and mature.

Beth from Banking steps in and greets you too. She has a voice similar to the recorded female voice. You wonder if she could simultaneously be a lawyer in your building and the smooth-voiced woman trapped in the walls of the lift.

You are

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