Someone in the Lift by L P Hartley

[@jenmagnus-rm6nz]

I must be very prozaic the crash heard in the dining room was instantly interpreted by me as the father plummeting to his death down the lift shaft. The image of the bloody Father Christmas and the blood drenched toys is then somewhat anti climatic. But, I also think what L. P. Hartley does very well is to tell a tale from a child's perspective.

[@StoryVoracious]

I thought so too. Glad I'm not the only one.

[@ClassicGhost]

no, you’re right. It was me that missed it.

[@greatestytcommentator]

I really revelled in that!

[@spitfire_2]

I thought the same thing.

[@carlottavaldes221]

Yes I agree, as he also says the roof of the lift is torn, I guess where his dad fell through it. Very dark that the child has been having a premonition of his dead father throughout the story and no one listens to him. The kid is also weirdly to blame as he suggested that his dad dress up as Santa. I loved this story and the reading of it!

[@Michaeljack81sk]

Awesome reading but I don’t really see any ambiguity in the ending The lift was improperly repaired by workmen who were in a hurry to be finished on Christmas Eve. When the dad, dressed as father Christmas and loaded with presents opened the door he wasn't looking and stepped into the empty shaft, crashed through the roof (the 'tray being dropped' sound) and died in a pool of blood surrounded by presents The shadow in the lift was a precognition by the boy of his fathers impending death

[@spitfire_2]

Exactly!!!

[@leoniem6920]

Yes, nailed it. But unusually written from the boy's innocent perspective. Creepy!

[@missholly7534]

Yikes! How did I miss it? I just wanted the daddy to come and save the poor little boy and gain Hero Status. Not gonna happen.. 😢

[@medicalmisinformation]

Yes but was it a dream or wasn't it? I think I missed something...

[@Michaeljack81sk]

@@medicalmisinformation That bit confused me, it was a dream then it wasn't?

[@julierobinson3633]

Something very ironic about being too sickly to be allowed to go off to war and be shot or blown up... I read somewhere that the health of Europeans was greatly affected after the two world wars as so many healthy young men were killed - and therefore taken out of the gene pool - while those with heart problems, lung problems, epilepsy, very poor eyesight, flat feet and other leg and foot problems etc etc remained to become future fathers and potentially pass on any congenital conditions.

[@ClassicGhost]

I hadn’t thought of that, but it makes sense

[@mamamoomin]

That is a very interesting point and makes you think.

[@aprilbrown53]

And then the Spanish flu wiped out people with hearty immune systems right at the end of the war. Rough days in human history

[@spitfire_2]

Oh my gosh! I hadn’t thought of that either!

[@AndreaDingbatt]

Thank you Tony, you are a naturally great Storyteller, a natural born weaver of words, an artist and a gentleman!! Thank you for having such an excellent voice and we also enjoy your accents!! Andrea, Duncan and Jasper Mutt. XxX.

[@robertdoyle8135]

Another great story, thank you. I am stuck in bed recovering from back surgery and I enjoy your narration as do my cats Zelda and Diego. I moved to Cuenca Ecuador five years ago and it is a wonderful place to live. The idea of ghosts and the supernatural doesn't seem to interest Ecuadorians. The only local legend involves a stretch of highway near the village of San Bartolme; San Bartolme is famous for guitar makers and their handmade guitars. (get them while you can, there's only four shops left due to cheaper Chinese imports) Anyway, the legend involves a stretch of highway on the outskirts of San Bartolme which is haunted by witches. Supposedly the witches cause people's cars to stall and bring bad luck to travelers that use the road at night. Many of the older residents refuse to be on that stretch of road at night.

[@shelleymarquis2887]

Are you my long lost half sister Diane Spalding? She disappeared into Ecuador years ago and I've tried to find her at the last number I had for her to no avail. Your comment sounds like it was written by her. If it is you get in touch. I'm at the same street address. I don't put any info I can on the internet that I can avoid, though I know everything is everywhere. There may be family news you'd like to know. If you contact me by snail mail include your first husband's surname and the name of the first family dog you remember. Sorry about your back, been there twice, not going there again!😒

[@robertdoyle8135]

@shelleymarquis2887 no I am a male and I don't know anyone by that name. Good luck.

[@debbieanderson9270]

You are the best antianxiety relief I've found! Calms me within the first 3 minutes. Thank you Tony, I've had a stressful day😊

[@spitfire_2]

His voice just does that to you, doesn’t it? 😊 The content doesn’t seem to matter.

[@RachelWellborn-h6w]

Thank you friend🥳 for visiting n telling me another great story!!🥰

[@ClassicGhost]

Thanks for coming

[@walterfechter8080]

No "monster" under the bed here. This was a good one! Thanks, Tony Walker!

[@grizzstark]

This has been one of the best analyses you've done I loved every word might have to listen to it again ! Thank you 😊

[@tennkenobi]

As a Child And Adolescent Psychotherapist, Kleinian trained out of the Tavi about 25 years ago, how wonderful to hear my two great passions brought together here… psychoanalysis and the ghost story.

[@ClassicGhost]

wow.... Kleinian from the Tavi. I am genuinely impressed. I go to an analyst once a week. She's Jungian, but practised in the NHS in London for ages so we talk about Klein and Freud as well (and Erickson)

[@tennkenobi]

@ Analysis can be transformative, it was for me. Four times a week for a couple of years ( as part of the training) was heavy work. Really appreciated the deep look into the Lift story, particularly the child’s perspective/ experience. Fascinating what the blooded Santa represents….the death of Christmas? His unconscious desire to kill dad? But I feel there’s also something there about the lift which goes up and down inside a dark mysterious shaft which is dangerous ( needing gates ) and operated by adults.

[@scoutrifle6827]

Always excited when there's a new story from CGS and Tony!

[@ClassicGhost]

Thanks, mate. Much appreciated

[@WhiteRabbitAnne]

A story, and a story. I love your taste in ghost stories your analysis and the little glimpse into your life. Thanks as always.

[@MikoMoJo]

I enjoyed this shocking story and your talk afterwards even more. Thank you 💙.

[@ainemoroney9965]

What an ending! Different to what I am used to - but thrillng and shocking to leave it in your mind for so time to come 👌

[@lyndabrennan4560]

My bedtime shortly, looking forward to listening to this, I like the fact its a short story as I can hardly keep my eyes open now, so I should get to the end 😂 😴

[@jesssibbitt1349]

Tony, you've made your ads so soothing that i actually don't skip them because they're so relaxing when you say "adsss"

[@ClassicGhost]

I didn’t know i said that

[@peterbianchi6219]

Thanks!

[@ClassicGhost]

Thank you very much Peter

[@Josephinejefferies]

Enjoyed this. The gift of the story for me was it took me way back to my almost infant age living in London, when lifts and escalators frightened the bejesus out of me.

[@171scorpiochic]

Love your stories Tony, you are a great orator. I also really enjoy the creepy music and intro ❤ keep up the great work 😊

[@ClassicGhost]

Thanks for listening. Thanks for being nice

[@kerrieross3425]

I assumed the crash near the kitchen may have been the lift crashing down, that is why it came up to the boy, with his father in it (?)

[@theoriginalsuzycat]

Ohhhhhh....! I think that might be it!!!!

[@ClassicGhost]

You are right I think

[@itgetter9]

I loved your commentary on this one, Tony! Sorry I haven't been commenting as much lately, as I was working hard on the election for many months, only to suffer a blow. But ... still here, and still going. I appreciate you!

[@franceswray8340]

Yesterday upon the stair, I saw a man who wasn’t there, he wasn’t there again today, I really wish he’d go away…..

[@colejames9715]

The ending did lack a little something, however it was enough to get very excited about the story as a whole.

[@soundsilence2604]

Thank you for this one! I read it in Chill Tidings, but hearing it narrated is next level. 🖤 Disturbing ending, but I don't think too hard about it. A little boy experiences curiosity and anxiety about a lift: a machine he never before encountered and his parents forbade him to ride independently. Does the boy's visions and dream feed on his anxiety or portend tragedy? Hartley leaves it to the reader to decide...💀

[@martinholmes-ue9ko]

Very well read! Great stuff!

[@rhondamuir3595]

I don't care for ambiguous endings either, though at least it's easier that way to invent a happy ending if I need to. My mind made more of the workmen and why they seemed so uncomfortable and anxious to be done before Christmas. I saw the Santa figure as some kind of supernatural hotel demon. The poor kid's had it. Merry Christmas, Tony, and thanks for all the stories.

[@medicalmisinformation]

Long minutes before the "crash," I expected one of the workers or his father to be decapitated by the lift because his tone and focus was anticipating it, but I was confused by the dream sequence because it was almost too normal for a dream. It seems to me that it was unnecessary because the otherworldly was already intruding into waking life in the form of the shadowy figure. We are directed away from the idea that the boy is given to fanciful thinking by his conclusion that his father not only dresses as but is Father Christmas. Therefore the conclusion I draw is that the shadowy figure is the manifestation of a presentiment or an omen of his father's impending and untimely death, of which death the dream may be another, and yes Œdipal presentiment or a prophesy. Poor King Œdipus never had an œdipal complex at all, did he? Just made a terrible mistake. Would you consider narrating English prose versions Virgils and / or Ovid's versions of Orpheus and Eurydice? They are, after all, ghost stories. Good work, Tony!

[@rewatteefroimchuk8589]

Thank you.

[@margaretgilbert2901]

Great story. Thank you

[@ClassicGhost]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@denisepiekarski4159]

Another enjoyable story.

[@ClassicGhost]

Good!

[@glosteiger2517]

Starting the Christmas season right. Greetings to the dogs.

[@THEPAGEBURNER1979]

L.P. Sounds like he has some great stories will you do others

[@alyssestephens7726]

This story really got me 🫣 so eerie and haunting…

[@donaldkelly3983]

Another good story selection! A little short, though. And thanks for the explanation of where "bloody" as a curse word derives. For Americans, the serious meaning of English explictitives doesn't carry in our version of English. Say "bloody" over here and people think you have a bad cut

[@ClassicGhost]

The Canadians say it though I think

[@greatestytcommentator]

I enjoyed the style of the story.. odd ending. I enjoyed your chat at the end more.

[@VanessaDavis-ri6jy]

Thanks so much for sharing!!!❤❤❤

[@katherinedrexler2310]

Hi Tony, we liked the story and thought it was dark. Maybe the ending could have been better but overall we thought it was fine. As usual, we enjoyed all your commentary!

[@amymurdock5905]

Why couldn't Mama find him?? Not too clear as to when the dreaming stopped.

[@ocsananox]

The ending... I didn't like it either. A obviously dead, perhaps, Father Christmas in the elevator which looks like he jumped through the roof. We don't know if it's Daddy or not. That crash mentioned could have been the elevator roof caving in when Daddy or whoever fell down the elevator shaft, perhaps. And it's supposed to be a dream which Freud and Jung would eat up for analysis. He's killing daddy with a push of a forbidden button using a malfunctioning elevator to do it. Bringing up a dead Father Christmas is the end of childhood and of magic. Is it foreshadowing or some kind of precognizant realization that his father is going to die, maybe? Too many loose ends and, for a reader, dissatisfying.

[@thurayya8905]

Interesting story with strange imagery. This one strikes me more as workmanship for a check, rather than great literature. But, I may be too hard on Hartley as I expect the best when you read them.

[@nightowlcop]

It's awesome to never see adds anywhere on KZbin by becoming a premium member.😉

[@ClassicGhost]

Same here . i never see ads

[@Andrea-i4t9k]

That was vicious.

[@Arya-cf7vu]

Yeah the ending was abrupt and a bit unexplained. It was also very sad and a bit horrific. Your analysis and psychological interpretations are so interesting and on point! I learned a lot ❤ my thoughts on what happened might be wrong, but I think reality broke thru the boy's childish fantasy. Daddy dressed up as santa carrying presents was killed in a robbery that went wrong. That's why the lift doors were pried open. But i saw here another comment saying the lift collapsed- so the workmen who were in a hurry and getting anxious to finish before xmas day rushed the job in the end and that led to the dad's death. Pretty brutal and cold story.

[@peterbianchi6219]

Well of course the crash was the elevator (sorry, "lift"), and when the boy realizes "someone" failed to shut the gate, and found it open on his floor, it was clearly his dad that got in and before he could close the gate, the thing fell to the basement. (Would have made more noise than a dropped kitchen tray, wouldn't it?). So no surprise when it came up with daddy in red. Kinda ruins Christmas for the rest of the kid's life, huh? And was that lift "fixed" by the workers or did the dad take a chance? Nobody hung an "out of order" sign, eh? Workers so anxious to get home for Christmas they didn't even say goodnight to the boy they sometimes spoke with. That seemed a bit odd to me, stood out in the telling of the tale. Oh, but i just read another's comment. I forgot about the hole. So did the dad step into a empty shaft and was the sound just him, not the whole thing falling? I guess so. How could that be, with a double gate, one to the shaft and one to a lift that wasn't there? Shadow in the corner was a premonition, daddy's ghost "in advance". Are we digging a little too deep? Seems like the kid saw the future. Was he surprised at what came up in the lift? Maybe not. Did he "wish" it? Why? As for the dad, dressed as Santa, with toys for his little boy? Certainly a loving dad, if perhaps a bit aloof or distant. Did the ending work? An anti-climax after the crash. It's clear to the reader what's coming, mabe to the boy as well, if in a less than fully concious way. Why not to the mom and other diners? Is this a story about ghosts; Christmas; a mom, dad and a boy; about love-hate; a broken lift; a boy who sees the future; or just some shoddy workers who don't know how to fix an elevator? (... lift.) I'm not sure, but i liked it. "Scouse"? Never heard of it, but sounds to a US ear like a Beatle (Liverpool? Mersey?) wannabe accent. Reminded me of the 1960's cartoon. Yeah yeah yeah.

[@ClassicGhost]

Scouse is the Liverpool accent

[@peterbianchi6219]

Learn something new every day. ​@@ClassicGhost

[@Thomas-wn7cl]

I am going with electrocution as the ending due to the "jag of lightning". This killed both father and son. The workmen hurried through the job fixing the broken lift, and forgot to reconnect the ground wire, or a hot wire was left broken or unconnected. The father then got in the lift, maybe sweating from the santa suit, and got hit with 220. The boy went in to see what happened and got zapped too due to all the liquid on the floor. The blood could have come from the lungs as the vessels bursting during the electricution. Also that's why Father Christmas was slumped on the ground and not looking at the boy. The boy was having a premonition of both his and his father's death.

[@mikefischbein3230]

Another wonderful episode. Just one bit of feedback. I really prefer not having any commentary or preview before the story starts. I've been skipping ahead to avoid hearing what the story is about. Having the story start right away, like how you used to do it, is my preference. An introduction that doesn't include any hints about the story itself would be ok too. It's your channel, of course, so your preference counts more than mine. In any case, thank you for providing such enjoyable entertainment.

[@ClassicGhost]

i thought like you for a long time and a number of people said they didn’t like the author notes i did and wanted a trailer to see whether it would be worth their listen so im trying that out . i will look at retention to see whether that improves . Early signs are that at 30 seconds in, retention goes up from 60% to 70% . Bit the sample is small so far

[@mikefischbein3230]

@ClassicGhost If you include a time marker in the video description, to allow jumping right to the story, that could be an easy compromise. I'm a fan of the post story commentary, btw.

[@loumarlow7295]

I thought the dream sequence was the way to explain the boys precognitive power. That he saw the imminent death of his father in the shadow in the lift though he couldn't piece together the point himself as a youngster. ? I'm fascinated by your professional view as a pych doc ❤

[@ClassicGhost]

ah ok. That makes sense.

[@tigeranne4051]

I did NOT expect an old-timey Christmas ghost story to end with Santa Claus' brain being blown out! D: For the record, I've been making up and telling stories since I was three. Nothing published yet though, unless you count one story on NoSleep.

[@ClassicGhost]

I do count that

[@rubinajamal2322]

Please do the tomb of Sara neck

[@lunablue745]

Piffle! News of the doggies always usurp anything else. Also, the story made me sad...

[@aprilbrown53]

Sounded to me like the boy was sleepwalking and got electrocuted when he pushed the button, probably because the workmen had been in a rush and bungled the wiring.

[@spitfire_2]

Tony, do you have a craving for custard pie? You mentioned it more than once.

[@imh9524]

Didn't really do it for me. I felt as if I was waiting for something more to happen. Totally missed what others below caught about the broken lift, so just me being dense, I think. Very good analysis and background though.

[@ClassicGhost]

I missed it too

[@martinholmes-ue9ko]

Are you from The Wirral, Mr. Walker?

[@ClassicGhost]

I’ve been asked this before and i done it interesting . i’m from cumbria but lived many years in wales so if you split the difference you get the Wirral !

[@maryeckel9682]

I thought the ending was very abrupt and threw me out of the story.

[@0therun1t21]

That was messed up! Good story. I thought the tray was foreshadowing the real transgression of pushing the button.

[@SMichaelDeHart]

Mr Tony, you kind of over analyzed this one. I got your point, but a tad too much, imho. A rather bloody (not a swear, either) Christmas story I'd right!! Not a favorite, but well done!!

[@craigoliver8712]

L.P Hartley? isn't he the guy who wrote Fly fishing? I'll have to check the Yellow pages

[@ClassicGhost]

That’s him

[@iananderson3799]

JR.

[@ropeburnsrussell]

What an awful story, Tony! Not the writing, I liked the end much better than you did. But I dont like the idea of a little boy finding his fathers body. Not much Christmas cheer in this one.

[@SC-jh9qp]

Tony, please don't summarise the story before reading it. ❤️

[@taostaosolgateresa575]

Leave him be...he is the artist...and performs as he sees fit...

[@SC-jh9qp]

​@@taostaosolgateresa575Hey, I'm a massive fan of Tony's, not all criticism is destructive. Do you like those TV shows where the most exciting bits are compiled at the start and give away the plot? What about novels, do you like introductions that talk about the storyline before you've read the book? That's all I'm saying. Tony is one of my main go-to narrators, I love his work.

[@martinholmes-ue9ko]

Was that really a ghost story? There wasn't a ghost, was there?

[@ClassicGhost]

not as such

[@stardust949]

I don't like the ending. In a word, it sucks.

[@jostockton.]

Nope

[@martinholmes-ue9ko]

Not a very intelligent review.

[@oriana5623]

A 13 minute story? With no time to savor the end before you start talking about ads? Not my favorite experience. Love your work lots, though.

[@ClassicGhost]

just shows I miss with some

[@spitfire_2]

@@ClassicGhost, don’t sweat it. I see from the comments that most of us liked it, mostly because we enjoy listening to you narrate pretty much anything. 🙂

[@jostockton.]

You do realize he needs to make money from this channel you don't have to pay for? And you're free to skip ads?

[@calebashby2968]

Lol thanks for saving me the trouble of wasting my time with this one 👍

[@0herbert0]

Oh give over 🙄

[@katydarbywriter]

The intros are a waste of your time & effort, & quite unnecessary. If we’ve clicked, you’ve already sold us & now we want to listen to the story! 😊 (Big fan otherwise)

[@ClassicGhost]

I appreciate your time and opinion. I’m not sure i have already sold the 40% who leave within 30 seconds

[@bubba101010]

People are not great at predicting their future actions. So if the data show it’s working, leave it in!

[@ClassicGhost]

@@bubba101010 The data suggests it works

[@rhondamuir3595]

Thanks!

[@ClassicGhost]

Thank you very much