I am currently staying on the 14th floor of the Shangri La hotel in Kuala Lumpur. This evening I experienced a strange moment in the elevator.
As the doors opened for me on 14 there was one man in the lift. He was leaning against the wall and as I got in he stood up to shift aside and let me in. We settled a comfortable distance from each other: me on the back left, looking ahead at the doors and he at the front right, staring at the buttons.
The lift stopped at 12. Another single man got in. All three of us reshuffled slightly to evenly distribute the space. He too looked ahead; this time into the middle of the doors. No one said a word. No one looked at each other. Everyone stayed staring silently ahead as they moved.
Another man got in at 11. Without saying a word, everyone knew what he had to do. We all shuffled again and rebalanced the space. 11 also settled into position and looked ahead at the doors.
Another man got in at 10. More reshuffling, this time within a much more confined surface area. Our newest entrant looked at no one and settled into the buttons on the left hand side.
The lift stopped again - I kid you not - at 9. Another single man. This time the two men in his immediate path moved aside while the rest of us swayed uneasily from foot to foot in empathy but not quite sure where to go.
I felt like we should have been wearing light grey suits and bowler hats and holding green apples.
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