Alicia works in a tall office building. She goes to work every day by lift. The lift is fast and easy. One Monday morning, Alicia gets into the lift. She presses the button for the tenth floor. The doors close. The lift starts to move. Then, suddenly, everything stops. The lights go off. The lift is dark and quiet. Alicia feels a little scared. She does not know what happens. She stands very still. She waits for a moment. Then she takes a deep breath. "Okay," she says to herself. "Stay calm." Alicia looks around the lift. She cannot see anything.

It is very dark. She takes out her phone. The phone has a small light. She turns the light on. Now she can see a little. She looks for a button on the wall. She finds an emergency button. It is red and round. She presses it. A loud alarm starts. Then a voice speaks through a small speaker. "Hello, this is building security. Can you hear me?" Alicia answers quickly. "Yes! I am in the lift. The power is off. I am on my own." The voice says, "Please don't worry. We can hear you. Help is coming soon."

Alicia sits down on the floor of the lift. She feels nervous but she tries to stay calm. She sends a message to her boss. "I am stuck in the lift. There is a power cut. I will be late." Her boss replies fast. "Don't worry, Alicia. We know about the power cut. Take your time." After about twenty minutes, the lights come back on. The lift starts to move again. It goes up slowly. The doors open on the tenth floor. A man from security is waiting there. "Are you okay?" he asks. "Yes, thank you," says Alicia. She walks into the office. Her hands are still shaking a little. But she smiles. She is very happy to be out of the lift.

Alicia was already running five minutes late when she stepped into the lift on the ground floor of her office building. She jabbed the button for the twelfth floor and shifted her heavy bag from one shoulder to the other, mentally rehearsing the presentation she was due to deliver in less than twenty minutes. The doors slid shut, the lift hummed to life, and for a few seconds everything felt perfectly normal. Then, without any warning, the power went out. The lights died, the motor fell silent, and the lift came to an abrupt halt somewhere between the fourth and fifth floors. Alicia stood completely still in the sudden darkness, her heart hammering in her chest. "Right," she said quietly to herself. "Don't panic."

She reached into her pocket and pulled out her phone, grateful for the thin beam of light it produced. A printed inspection notice on the wall reminded her that all lifts in the building were fitted with an emergency intercom, and she quickly located the panel beside the doors. She pressed the red call button and waited. Within seconds, a calm voice came through the speaker. "Building maintenance, how can I help?" Alicia explained the situation clearly, giving her name and the approximate floor she was on. "We are aware of the power cut," the operator replied. "Our engineers are working on it. You are perfectly safe, and we expect power to be restored within thirty minutes." Alicia exhaled slowly, leaned her back against the cool metal wall, and decided that worrying was simply not going to help.

To pass the time, she opened her notes app and quietly went through her presentation, whispering each section to herself in the glow of her phone screen. She even found herself improving a few of her opening lines, which struck her as oddly productive given the circumstances. After about twenty-five minutes, the emergency lighting flickered on, followed shortly by the main power returning with a low hum. The lift rose smoothly to the twelfth floor, and when the doors opened, her colleague Priya was waiting in the corridor with two cups of coffee. "I heard what happened," Priya said, handing one over. "Are you alright?" Alicia took the cup gratefully and smiled. "Actually," she said, "I think my presentation just got a lot better."