Found: One Red Jacket
A red child’s jacket is found on a loading dock where no children should be. Dock worker Edda Sol does the responsible thing and hands it in. This begins a disproportionately complicated search for a five-year-old who has never been anywhere near the dock.
A fictional narrative within Callizto Dark Symphony.
The jacket lay on the bollard at Dock Five.
Child size.
Red.
One mitten in the right pocket.
Edda took it to lost property.
“Where was it found?”
“Dock Five.”
The clerk looked up.
“Children aren’t allowed on Dock Five.”
“The jacket didn’t follow the rules.”
They posted the find.
Two hours later, a father called from Meridian Quarters.
The jacket belonged to his daughter.
“Was she at the harbor?”
“No.”
“Certain?”
“She’s five.”
“That doesn’t usually stop five-year-olds.”
The mystery was solved after lunch.
The father had left the jacket on the seat of a distribution cart while collecting a package. The driver had moved it aside. A colleague thought it belonged to the next driver and put it in his locker. He carried it to Harbor Reach intending to leave it at the correct terminal, forgot it at the dock office, and a gust of wind later carried it out to the bollard.
No one could explain why the mitten contained a screw.
“That isn’t ours,” the father said when he collected the jacket.
Edda held up the screw.
“Do you want it anyway?”
The girl held out her hand.
“Yes.”
Her father sighed.
It therefore became the only item not returned to its rightful owner that day.
Mentioned in this record
- Forge City Civic Network