The Lost Thing (Shaun Tan)
So you want to hear a story?
Well, I used to know a whole lot of pretty interesting ones. Some of them
so funny you’d laugh yourself unconscious, others so terrible you’d never
want to repeat them. But I can’t remember any of those. So I’ll just tell
you about the time I found that lost thing.
This all happened a few summers ago, one rather ordinary day by the
beach. Not much was going on. I was, as usual, working tirelessly on my
bottle-top collection and stopped to look up for no particular reason.
That’s when I first saw the thing.
I must have stared at it for a while. I mean, it had a really weird look
about it – a sad, lost sort of look. Nobody else seemed to notice it was
there. Too busy doing beach stuff, I guess. Naturally, I was intrigued. I
decided to investigate.
Sure didn’t do much. It just sat there, looking out of place. I was baffled. It
was quite friendly though, once I started talking to it. I played with the
thing for most of the afternoon. It was great fun, yet I couldn’t help
feeling that something wasn’t quite right.
As the hours slouched by, it seemed less and less likely that anybody was
coming to take the thing home. There was no denying the unhappy truth
of the situation. It was lost.
I asked a few people if they knew anything about it, but nobody was very
helpful.
I took the lost thing over to Pete’s place. Pete has an opinion on just
about everything.
© Original plan copyright Hamilton Trust, who give permission for it to be adapted as wished by individual users fantasy_F053FS3_resources
We refer you to our warning, at the foot of the teach-activs document, about links to other websites.
“Cool,” he said.
“I’m trying to find out who owns it,” I told him.
“I dunno man,” said Pete. “It’s pretty weird. Maybe it doesn’t belong to
anyone. Maybe it doesn’t come from anywhere. Some things are like
that…” He paused for dramatic effect, “…just plain lost.”
There was nothing left to do but take the thing home with me. I mean, I
couldn’t just leave it wandering the streets. Plus I felt kind of sorry for it.
My parents didn’t really notice it at first. Too busy discussing current
events, I guess. Eventually I had to point it out to them
“Its feet are filthy!” shrieked Mum.
“It could have all kinds of strange diseases,” warned Dad.
“Take it back to where you found it,” they demanded both at the same
time.
“It’s lost,” I said but they had already started talking about something
else. I hid the thing in our back shed and gave it something to eat, once I
found out what it liked. It seems a bit happier then, even though it was
still lost.
I checked the local paper for any lost pet notices, but only found a lot of
good deals on refrigerator repairs. I remember thinking then that Pete
was probably right, that some things were just plain lost. In any case, I
sure couldn’t keep the thing in the shed forever. Mum or Dad would
eventually notice it when they came out looking for a hammer or
something.
It was a real dilemma. I was wondering what to do when a small
advertisement on the last page of the paper happened to catch my eye.
The next morning we caught a tram into the city.
We arrived at a tall grey building with no windows. It was pretty dark in
there, and it smelt like disinfectant. I have a lost thing I called to the
receptionist at the front desk. “Fill in these forms,” she said. The lost
thing made a small, sad noise. I was looking around for a pen when I felt
something tug the back of my shirt.
© Original plan copyright Hamilton Trust, who give permission for it to be adapted as wished by individual users fantasy_F053FS3_resources
We refer you to our warning, at the foot of the teach-activs document, about links to other websites.
“If you really care about that thing you shouldn’t leave it here,” said a tiny
voice. “This is a place for forgetting, leaving behind, smoothing over. Here
take this.”
It was business card with a kind of sign on it. It wasn’t very important
looking but it did seem to point somewhere. “Cheers,” I said.
At this point we left that tall grey building and hunted all over the place
for this sign. It wasn’t an easy job and I can’t say I knew what it all meant.
Eventually, we found what seemed to be the right place, in a dark little
gap off some anonymous little street. The sort of place you’d never know
existed unless you were actually looking for it. I pressed a buzzer on the
wall and this big door opened up. I didn’t know that to think, but the lost
thing made an approving sort of noise. It seemed as good a time as any to
say goodbye to each other. So we did.
Then I went home to classify my bottle-top collection. Well, that’s it.
That’s the story. Not especially profound, I know, but I never said it was.
And don’t ask me what the moral is. I mean, I can’t say that the thing
actually belonged in the place where it ended up. In fact, none of the
things there really belonged. They all seemed happy enough though, so
maybe that didn’t matter. I don’t know…
I still think about that lost thing from time to time. Especially when I see
something out of the corner of my eye that doesn’t quite fit. You know,
something with a weird, sad, lost sort of look. I see that sort of thing less
and less these days though. Maybe there aren’t many lost things around
anymore.
Or maybe I’ve just stopped noticing them. Too busy doing other stuff, I
guess.
© Original plan copyright Hamilton Trust, who give permission for it to be adapted as wished by individual users fantasy_F053FS3_resources
We refer you to our warning, at the foot of the teach-activs document, about links to other websites.
