Having a Ball
If height was a competition, the Empire State Building was doing quite well. Ella knew every cranny of every floor, with the fine detail of someone who has to clean those floors every day. She knew booking times and events too, since she was kept informed of when and where she could do it, and there was a costume ball happening on one of the observatory floors.
When her father was alive, he'd told her that she could have a party up there some day, birthday or otherwise. These days, Ella just thought it would be a nice dream, the sort you hold onto as you wake, but not anything that would ever come true.
But. There was to be a ball. During her work hours. In her place of work, so her stepmother couldn't keep her out. And she had always enjoyed dancing. If she could find something to wear, she could go for a few hours, slip away at midnight, and still (if she worked fast) get everything done before the office workers and the rest of the day shift arrived.
Her godmother Bobbi came up trumps with a dress - a blue and silver thing that Ella could slip on and off in under five minutes. She hid it in her workbag and practised looking miserable when her stepsisters bragged about going to the ball and dancing with everyone.
*
Nobody noticed when an uninvited guest slipped into the ball through a side door, next to the buffet holding plates of canapes and tiny bowls of jelly.
Some people noticed when one of the richest and most influential young men spent all his time dancing with a young woman in blue and silver.
Everyone noticed when the woman suddenly stopped mid-dance as the clock chimed and fled right through the ball and into the lifts.
But by the time the security time had raced down the stairs to intercept her, all they found was a single silver shoe abandoned in the middle of the lift, and a janitor in grubby overalls mopping the floor.
