Love Is Sweeter, fiction by HC Hsu

Gabe Song watched the lift as it raised itself, lowered itself, then raised itself again. There was no one standing on the platform.

The machine, about three feet directly in front of her, was moving by itself, slowly, steadily, in a simple, repetitive motion, up, and down, each time accompanied by the sound of an electric motor as it moved.

It was as if Song had been hypnotized by this repetitive movement and rhythmic whirling—there was something comforting, and familiar, to the mechanics, like the inhale-exhale of the lungs, or the lull of a beating heart. She put her pen down.

It reminded her also of something else.

Sometime the air conditioning had stopped, and the library became hollowly silent, except for the soft motor of the lift, 21