"Lift Capacity" by Finnian Burnett—Our June 2023 Gold Medal Winner
Finnian Burnett is our first place winner from the contest posted in our June 2023 issue and their story will be published in the September 2023 edition. Congratulations, Finnian!
What the judges had to say:
“The trajectory of the main character’s thoughts is both engaging and believable, and the setting works perfectly to provide a backdrop for the sense of escalating drama.”
“The metaphor of the elevator as a vehicle for emotional growth, maturity and evolution is very clever.”
“Tight and insightful.”
“An endearing love story, bolstered by details that fill it with colour. It’s a common story, yet the author has used the elevator as a way to create tension and pacing. Sweet, familiar, and somehow surprising.”
“The mirroring of the rising action with the trope of the elevator is both subtle and clever; this interweaving of form and content is reminiscent of Margaret Atwood’s craft.”
Meet Finnian
Finnian Burnett is a college educator, a writer, and a cat person. Their work has appeared in Blank Spaces Magazine, Reflex Press, Wordworks Magazine, Daily Science Fiction, and more. Finn's recent collection, The Clothes Make the Man was published through Ad Hoc Fiction and another flash fiction collection, The Price of Cookies, is forthcoming through Off Topic Publishing. Finnian lives in British Columbia with their wife and Lord Gordo, the cat.
Lift Capacity
an excerpt of Finnian’s winning story
Elevator Three—The only elevator that goes to every floor in the building. Sian won’t go beyond the eighth floor, won’t press number twelve, won’t knock on Theo’s door, touch his soft hands, ask for one more chance. But he won’t let this elevator go to wait for another.
Elevator Three. Sian runs his fingers over the grimy wall, the brick rough under his fingers. Behind him, the parking garage is still. This is a quiet building, mostly middle-aged professionals who keep to themselves in individual boxes. Except Sian. He’s the outlier, the social coordinator of the building. When he was fresh out of a relationship—and lonely—he decided he needed friends, people to distract him from the endless long evenings of binge-watching Corner Gas with his cat. Sian would never love again—nobody but the cat—but he could try to meet people. He started a community social hour, got permission to plant a shared garden on the roof, and put up a barter board in the lobby for neighbours to post items or services for trade.
It took weeks for the first note to appear. Willing to dog sit, it said in neat handwriting and Sian called, talked to a man named Theo, and gone to apartment 1201 where Theo said he was on disability and looking for stress-free ways to fill his days. He said he loved dogs.
Sian had to admit he had a cat and that he was worried it was getting lonely while Sian was at work. Really Sian was the lonely one, though he wouldn’t admit it to a stranger.
I’m not a cat person, Theo said, but I’m willing to check on the little guy.
Sian offered to pay.
It’s a barter board, Theo insisted, so Sian offered food. Theo would come down to the eighth floor to sit with Bucky during the day. In the evenings, Sian cooked for Theo. Though Theo’s apartment had the better view, Sian’s kitchen was better equipped. Sian found out Theo loved tiramisu and Kurt Vonnegut, among other things.
Sian told Theo about the time he wet his pants in third grade and everyone called him Betty Wetty. Theo talked about losing his mother before he was old enough to realize how much she loved him. Then, at some point, maybe weeks or months later, they sat on the couch and laughed over something, laughed until Theo was crying and Sian touched Theo’s face and kissed him. After that, it was like they’d always been lovers.
…
to read the rest of the story, order your copy of the September 2023 issue.
