Fourteen floors on foot

Text 1: Carlton Tower, by Simone Achterberg

An original short story extract.

The lift in Carlton Tower had a new sign taped to its doors: OUT OF ORDER, again, in red marker. I found Mrs Beckford on the sixth-floor landing, sitting on her shopping trolley with her hat in her lap. Her chest was rising and falling fast, and she was fanning her face with a bus timetable. ‘Eight more,’ she said, before I could ask. ‘Eight more floors, and my knees have gone on strike.’ I took the trolley. She held the rail with both hands and climbed one step at a time, stopping at every landing to lean against the wall and close her eyes. Her breath came out in little whistles. By the tenth floor she had stopped talking altogether. When we finally reached her door, she sat down on the mat and laughed weakly. ‘Tell the council,’ she said, ‘I’ve done my exercise for the year.’

Give three words or phrases that show Mrs Beckford is exhausted by climbing the stairs.