Well, I have to say that nobody knocked my socks off with stories of getting lost, so I'm not giving out any grand prizes, but there were some very nice entries. This one, from Liam Brown, wins a book. For some reason, it struck me as having the same kind of atmospherics as Ondaatje's In the Skin of a Lion. But don't let it go to your head Liam. It's just a book. Thanks for playing. We'll be in touch soon for the particulars.
"During the summer of 2002, I decided that I'd squeeze one final summer of honest work out of myself. Naturally, I decided that a steel mill would be the best locale for such pursuits.
Located in Hamilton, ON, Dofasco - now apart of the Arcelor Mittal parent company, and the last of Canada's steel mills to be bought out from an international company - was where my father worked. It was easy enough to get a job there for a summer cutting samples off of the ends of galvanized steel coils (the kind that you see driving along the 400 series highways that look as though if they were to ever fall off would crush the most resilient of SUVs) in order to test the integrity of the batch. The job went along fairly uneventfully through until July, but on Canada Day I wanted to see the celebrations so I decided that I would climb to one of the giant towers that the steel is pulled through in order to cool it off after emerging from the molten zinc. I was on my break, and thought that the view would yield a beautiful vista of fireworks if I could get onto the roof.
Foolishly, I didn't mention to anyone where I was going and made my way to the elevator that leads to the roof and follows the same upward path as the steel (as a result it is a very uncomfortably warm ride). I had been in the elevator once before to go up on the roof and the worker that had taken me told me of a time when it stopped mid floor and he was stranded there for three hours in the 42 degree heat while Dofasco's millwrights worked on the car to get it operating again. It had worked smoothly that time, so I returned and used it again. I walked into the car, pressed the button for the roof and to my surprise watched as I was encased in complete darkness as soon as the doors closed. My feet got heavy as it lurched upwards and I began to feel really panicked and claustrophobic thinking that the lack of light was a sign of worse things to come. Soon though, the doors opened to the top level where you could exit onto the roof. Breathing a huge sigh of relief I clamoured up the catwalks and out into the cool night air. The view was worth it, and fireworks had already begun to be fired into the sky. I sat there for the duration of my break, forgetting about the elevator until I realized I had to go down again.
I pressed the button to call the lift, but when it came and the doors opened the light was still off inside. At the top of the roof there was no external light outside the car, so I could not see the buttons enough to press the ground floor. I was terrified that despite any correct directions it would not make it all the way down and I would be trapped in an unventilated box whose temperature would rise with my anxiety. I decided I'd try climbing down the interweaving catwalks instead of the less enticing former option, despite this being a no-admittance area.
I made it down one level before being absolutely lost, in temperatures which as it turned out where much worse than what I had experienced in the elevator.
Instead of turning back, I continued, following the path that the steel takes as it ends up at my work station, where my boss was covering me for break. It got hotter and I got more confused, as the steel would disappear for a time before reappearing somewhere in the distance that did not have a direct route for me to walk along with it. I was sweating buckets, and had taken my construction hat off to stop me from banging it on the low hanging pipes above me. I made it down another level before coming to a black man hole with a ladder disappearing into it - there was hot air coming from the hole like passing your hand over the spout of a kettle. This was enough. I decided to turn back and take my chances with the elevator.
On the way back I went over a different catwalk that takes you away from the steel's hot course. I was starting to get overwhelmed by the temperature and decided a different direction might yield better results. This time, I was right except that the path led me directly down into the middle of the steel line, in front of both my boss and fellow summer students. Manic and drenched in sweat I explained why I had just emerged bedraggled from a no-admittance zone of the steel mill. Unflinching, my boss led me back to the elevator and showed me the light switch that I had missed on the inside of the panel wall; I had never heard of an elevator with a manual light."
Located in Hamilton, ON, Dofasco - now apart of the Arcelor Mittal parent company, and the last of Canada's steel mills to be bought out from an international company - was where my father worked. It was easy enough to get a job there for a summer cutting samples off of the ends of galvanized steel coils (the kind that you see driving along the 400 series highways that look as though if they were to ever fall off would crush the most resilient of SUVs) in order to test the integrity of the batch. The job went along fairly uneventfully through until July, but on Canada Day I wanted to see the celebrations so I decided that I would climb to one of the giant towers that the steel is pulled through in order to cool it off after emerging from the molten zinc. I was on my break, and thought that the view would yield a beautiful vista of fireworks if I could get onto the roof.
Foolishly, I didn't mention to anyone where I was going and made my way to the elevator that leads to the roof and follows the same upward path as the steel (as a result it is a very uncomfortably warm ride). I had been in the elevator once before to go up on the roof and the worker that had taken me told me of a time when it stopped mid floor and he was stranded there for three hours in the 42 degree heat while Dofasco's millwrights worked on the car to get it operating again. It had worked smoothly that time, so I returned and used it again. I walked into the car, pressed the button for the roof and to my surprise watched as I was encased in complete darkness as soon as the doors closed. My feet got heavy as it lurched upwards and I began to feel really panicked and claustrophobic thinking that the lack of light was a sign of worse things to come. Soon though, the doors opened to the top level where you could exit onto the roof. Breathing a huge sigh of relief I clamoured up the catwalks and out into the cool night air. The view was worth it, and fireworks had already begun to be fired into the sky. I sat there for the duration of my break, forgetting about the elevator until I realized I had to go down again.
I pressed the button to call the lift, but when it came and the doors opened the light was still off inside. At the top of the roof there was no external light outside the car, so I could not see the buttons enough to press the ground floor. I was terrified that despite any correct directions it would not make it all the way down and I would be trapped in an unventilated box whose temperature would rise with my anxiety. I decided I'd try climbing down the interweaving catwalks instead of the less enticing former option, despite this being a no-admittance area.
I made it down one level before being absolutely lost, in temperatures which as it turned out where much worse than what I had experienced in the elevator.
Instead of turning back, I continued, following the path that the steel takes as it ends up at my work station, where my boss was covering me for break. It got hotter and I got more confused, as the steel would disappear for a time before reappearing somewhere in the distance that did not have a direct route for me to walk along with it. I was sweating buckets, and had taken my construction hat off to stop me from banging it on the low hanging pipes above me. I made it down another level before coming to a black man hole with a ladder disappearing into it - there was hot air coming from the hole like passing your hand over the spout of a kettle. This was enough. I decided to turn back and take my chances with the elevator.
On the way back I went over a different catwalk that takes you away from the steel's hot course. I was starting to get overwhelmed by the temperature and decided a different direction might yield better results. This time, I was right except that the path led me directly down into the middle of the steel line, in front of both my boss and fellow summer students. Manic and drenched in sweat I explained why I had just emerged bedraggled from a no-admittance zone of the steel mill. Unflinching, my boss led me back to the elevator and showed me the light switch that I had missed on the inside of the panel wall; I had never heard of an elevator with a manual light."
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