The revolving door

Original fiction extract.

The hotel porter had warned the conference guests about the ordinary side entrance. They had not heard him. By the time he reached the front step, three people with cases had entered the revolving door together. A fourth waited outside, still reading the message on his phone.

The glass compartments became little countries with uncertain borders. A suitcase wheel crossed into the next territory, and its owner turned sideways as if an apology could make him thinner. The door advanced one reluctant mouthful at a time. Through the moving glass, faces appeared solemnly separated from their own elbows. Nobody wanted to be the person who stopped pushing, yet every small effort seemed to disagree with somebody else’s. The porter stood beyond them, his raised palm a calm full stop which the turning sentence could not quite reach.

At last the first guest stepped into the lobby and pulled her case after her. The others followed in a short, embarrassed procession. The man with the phone looked up and asked whether it was his turn. The porter opened the side entrance. Behind him, the revolving door continued half a turn on its own, suddenly graceful now that it had nothing to carry.

Choose three powerful words or phrases from the extract above. Analyse how the writer uses language to convey the awkwardness of the passengers entering through the revolving door.

Write about 200 to 250 words.