Chapter 3

Ever since the elevator was built, the residents hadn't had to grope their way down the dark cliffs at night.

Five years was more than enough time for people to develop entirely new routines.

Now that they were stuck at the foot of the mountain, it didn't matter how much energy they had to climb the trail, for they were already going to miss whatever plans they had for the day.

They looked at me, their eyes filled with either guilt or remorse.

Walter, however, couldn't care less.

He barked at the crowd, "What, are you guys seriously itching to hand over your hard-earned cash? Let me be clear. He's standing right here, so you won't be saving a single dime if you fold now!"

A few of the older residents felt too embarrassed to stay silent. They shuffled over to me, their expressions sheepish.

"Look, Mitchell… We didn't mean it that way," Frank Dalton said, rubbing his hands together, with a sycophantic smile plastered across his face. "You know how Walter is. He just has a big mouth and no filter. Don't take it to heart."

Seeing this, the other residents quickly swarmed around me, all chiming in at once to change my mind.

"Yeah, exactly! None of us ever said the elevator was a bad thing. You can't just punish the whole town for one person's mistake."

"Seriously, we've been using this elevator for five years. Shutting it down out of the blue like this is just cold."

As I listened to them, I honestly thought my ears were playing tricks on me.

When Walter was blowing the whistle on me just a moment ago, every single one of these people had scrambled out of sight faster than jackrabbits.

Yet now, I was the one being cold.

I let out a bitter laugh.

"We got by just fine before this thing existed, didn't we? Walter's right. Before the elevator went up, everyone had lived perfectly normal lives."

The words hit them like a slap in the face, leaving the entire crowd utterly speechless.

Frank smacked his lips, stammering, "T-That's all in the past. Everyone's getting older now… Come on, can't you just cut us some slack?"

"Rules are rules. It is what it is."

I shut him down without a shred of hesitation. I turned on my heel and walked away, refusing to spare the crowd behind me even a single glance.

Five years ago, I had used my first real paycheck and a mountain of borrowed cash to install this 1,600-foot elevator.

On the day it finally opened, the residents had looked at me with tear-filled eyes.

I looked back at the crowd that day, seeing elementary school kids with hands calloused from climbing, young men who had been crippled by the trail, and middle-aged folks who had lost their children.

Finally, my gaze had landed on Dad's headstone.

He had tumbled right off the cliff, breaking every bone in his body, just like so many other elderly folks in our town had over the years.

This elevator, which had arrived decades too late, stood like a massive, powerful beacon at the entrance of the town, finally piercing through the pitch-black nights in the valley.

Every single resident who rode that outdoor elevator for the first time had broken down in tears of sheer relief as the cabin glided upward.

To ensure they would never have to shed those tears again, I spent years reinforcing and maintaining the elevator.

And this was how they repaid me.

I let out a heavy sigh and pushed open the gates of my house. As I stared into the empty front yard, the idea of moving away crossed my mind for the very first time.

Dad was gone, Mom was sick, and the only reason I had stayed behind was to take care of my extended family in town.

Now, the very last tie I had to this place had been severed by their own hands.

At that thought, I made up my mind, rolled up my sleeves, and started packing my things.

The town was so deep in the middle of nowhere that the earliest a demolition crew could get here was in two days.

Two days from now was the final deadline to tear down the elevator.

…

The next morning, I pushed a cart loaded with tools and equipment toward the elevator shaft.

From a distance, I could already see a massive crowd of people packed tightly around the foot of the mountain.

Right in the center of the crowd stood Walter, balancing on top of a small plastic stool.

He still had that same arrogant, self-righteous look on his face.

"Relax, everyone! Mitchell is just trying to scare us. This hunk of junk cost him an arm and a leg to build, and he needs to use it himself. There's no way in hell he's actually going to tear it down!"

The moment those words left his mouth, the anxiety vanished from the faces of the residents, and their eyes lit up with renewed confidence.

"Mr. Grady's right! He's just playing hard to get to force us to concede!"