The Drawer

Copperhill · Funny A loose page of numbers in a code, a floury thumbprint in the corner.The code was invented by a retired baker called Morag.The page is for one loaf only: the rye he sells at his hatch at 4:20. Callum FraserCall him Ferry Steps · Tender A steel watch with a scratch by the crown.It loses exactly one minute a week, on purpose.Its maker repaired every station clock on the Owl Line. Teodor VasileCall him Glassworks · Strange A cassette: forty minutes of an empty platform.Halfway through, one voice says one sentence.He has played it two hundred times and still cannot make it out. Hyun-woo BaekCall him Saltmarket · Puzzling A left glove, dark green leather.Its owner does not want it back.He wants the right one gone too, and will not say why. Andre BeaumontCall him Brightwater · Romantic A staff badge from the hospital above Brightwater.Its owner has been signing in by hand for three nights.He lives two floors below whoever finds it. Nikhil JoshiCall him Old Mint · Funny A large black umbrella with a bamboo handle.It was left in a cab on a night with no rain.This is the second time it has been lost on the line. Bernard OkelloCall him Lantern Gate · Strange An old iron key on a broken string.It came with a ring of keys, eleven years ago.It opens the room nobody remembers, wherever that is. Mikael StrandCall him Copperhill · Tender A short blue silk ribbon, tied in a perfect bow.It was found once before, on the bench at Copperhill.The finder kept it a week. Nobody knows who tied it. Rustam YusupovCall him Lantern Gate · Romantic A brass lighter with a date engraved on the side.Its owner gave up smoking five years ago.It lights the candles on a bar under the arches every closing time. Enzo MarchettiCall him Ferry Steps · Wistful A hand-cut brass key on a tag with an old name scratched in.The man who lost it can copy any key but this one.The flat it opens has had other tenants for years. Gareth LlewellynCall him Brightwater · Puzzling A sealed letter addressed to nobody.It was found in the pocket of a second-hand coat.The postmark is tomorrow's date. It was tomorrow last month too. Samir KhalilCall him Saltmarket · Romantic A small brass bicycle bell, very old.It rings twice, every night, at the same corner.Only one person has ever looked up when it rang. Joaquin PenaCall him Old Mint · Wistful The last page of a night dispatch log.Its final line reads: all crews clear, all quiet.Its owner thinks someone read it out on a pirate radio show. Walter AbernathyCall him Saltmarket · Funny A small cream card, hand-set in twelve-point type.Only one copy was ever printed.The name on it belongs to whoever finds it. Florian NowakCall him Glassworks · Romantic A new violin string, still coiled in its paper.Folded inside it, two concert tickets for Friday.The nerve to hand over the second ticket was lost at the same time. Lazlo KerekCall him Brightwater · Tender A heavy steel wrench with a worn red handle.It spent forty years in a family workshop in Utrecht.Every bike fixed without it has been very slightly wrong. Dennis AchterbergCall him