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The Missing; Porter's Junk Drawer

Novel By: Michael Lange
Science fiction

When you lose a sock in the dryer, where does it go? Lost change in the sofa? What about your junk drawer? Well Porter owns collection unit JDNS1C, and if you live in Chicago all your lost junk drawer things end up in his unit. When CLID,Chicago's Lost Items Department loses an important artifact Porter gets let in on the secret world of lost things. View table of contents...



Submitted:Nov 29, 2012    Reads: 6    Comments: 0    Likes: 0   

In one of the oldest apartment buildings located in Chicago's Northwest Side lived Porter Blozer. Porter had lived in his little apartment for three years. He worked for a casting agency. He lived on the first floor, apartment One C. Porter had a list of things to do every day. Brush his teeth, shower, eat breakfast, empty the junk drawer, go to work, lunch, back to work, shop for food if necessary/ dinner, empty the junk drawer, relax, go to bed. Other things would be thrown in pretty often but if he missed emptying his junk drawer then it would spill out all over his kitchen. Porter's junk drawer would fill up with all the lost things from other junk drawers; it was like a mailbox for lost things.

He had been doing this since he moved in, without question. He figured he was alone in his actions but one day something strange arrived in his junk drawer, a piece of mail addressed;

Owner of JDNS1C

Do not attempt to return via collection unit

"Dear Current Owner of JDNS1C,

Hello, from your local LID (Lost Items Department), recently a small yellow ceramic bird has been lost; this item is highly valuable and should be considered dangerous. We understand this may sound odd and we would not have attempted to contact you in this way if it was not an urgent matter. However you are one of twelve residents in Chicago that are most likely to receive the item in your collection unit, JDNS1C. The other reason we had to contact you in this manor is because we have no other way of knowing where you are within the city limits of Chicago. If you have found this item or know of others with collection units please advise them of the item that we are seeking. If found please do not handle it with your bare hands. Either leave it in your open collection unit, or pick it up with latex gloves wrap it in a plastic bag and bring it to 336 N Michigan Ave # 27th.

Thank You,

CLID Proxy Annette Stullon

His curiosity was peaked. He had never really been involved in anything as interesting as a letter from an agency that he had never heard of but one that knew about his junk drawer.

One subway train, a bus and a short walk later he found his way to 336 North Michigan Ave.

Porter opened the door climbed the stairs and arrived at a small desk with a brunette secretary behind it. She looked up at him and smiled.

"Hello sir, can I help you?" She said.

"Is this the Chicago…"

"CLID." She said cutting him off, "we don't say the full name if we don't have to."

"Alright, um well I got a letter in my junk drawer."

"I havn't seen you around here before, you must be new to this."

"Well I can honestly say I never expected anyone else had something like my junk drawer."

"Oh there are plenty of units all around the world, some people get things that materialized under their beds, some have sofa's, I've got an armoire, you would be surprised where people lose things, we have an entire subway car down in the basement."

Porter stood there somewhat shocked, unable to respond.

"Did you bring your letter?" She asked. He pulled it out and placed it on her desk. "I'm Annette, by the way."


"Nice to meet you." She smiled looking up at him. "You didn't happen to find the ceramic bird did you?"

"No but I figured I would come down and check out what is going on, if that's alright."

"Perfectly fine with me, the more people to help out around here the better, would you like me to show you around?" Annette stood up, the word Proxy was written on her skirt in bright blue stitching.


"In-between was considered an offensive word when the millennium rolled around, if you're going to stick around I'm sure we can get you a Unit Owner jacket made. "

He nodded fast wanting in on this more and more. She led him to a door down a long hall way. They went down a staircase that took them into the basement at least three stories down. When they exited the staircase in front of them was a large museum like space, filled with units too large for their owners to keep around. A subway car, wracks full of luggage, a dump truck, along with many other things, the walls were also lined with hundreds of cabinets.

((((There is more to come of this but I might ask some questions as I write at the end of each "chapter", such as what is the one thing you have lost that you wish you hadn't? or what do you think about the idea that others might be hoarding lost items? I could use some feed back and suggestions as well... so yea... thanks)


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