Ayana, a freelance journalist, was elated. Her friend, Sal, a marketing officer at the ‘London Transport Lost Property Office’ (LPO), had contacted her regarding a potential scoop. A fascinating lost property item at the LPO had engendered excitement amongst its workforce. Ayana had snapped up the opportunity of getting an exclusive, having made arrangements with the LPO for a visit, she had also agreed with a major paper to have her article published about the mysterious item. Armed with a notepad and camera she entered the offices on Baker Street.

Before viewing the item for herself, Ayana spent hours interviewing members of staff about the unusual activity they had witnessed in relation to the object...at times their recounts sent a shiver up her back. At last, the time had come to view...experience...the mysterious lost property item for herself. She descended the stairs, accompanied by Reg the LPO store manager, arriving at the lowest floor of the three level subterranean storage area.

The room was cavernous. Reg boasted, “this is where we keep the most...'interesting' items lost on the London Transport network. Reg gave Ayana a tour of numerous racks of valuable lost items and oddities, amongst which were a wedding dress, an urn containing cremation ashes, a grandfather clock, a stuffed eagle, false teeth, and a prosthetic limb. He enthused like an ardent memorabilia collector showing off his prized possessions. “In the past we’ve had lots of weird items handed in from trains, stations, buses and taxis...but I think this one we are about to see beats the lot. I started here when the office was established in 1933, and in my thirty three years at the LPO, I haven’t come across anything quite like it.”

Reg and Ayana stopped a few yards in front of the prized piece. They both stared at it intently, seemingly transfixed by the object’s aura. Reg marvelled like an archaeologist who had unearthed the find of the century, “ this isn’t your typical lost item, we have thousands of typical items like umbrellas, gloves, and spectacles, and plenty of strange items, but this one is special.” Ayana took photos from every possible angle. Reg wheeled off a multitude of facts and figures, which Ayana feverishly scribbled down in her notepad: “Item: Metal Sphere; Dimensions: approximately 2 feet across with a 1 foot radius; Weight: 199 pounds, so about 14 stone; Material: unknown...the weight doesn’t fit easily with known metals, it might be aluminium, but if so, hollow with an unusually thick wall; it is perfectly shaped with no visible joints or welds; Markings: engraved on one face is a tiny unidentifiable circular emblem with a triangle, there is no text or serial number, Location Found: Bakerloo Line, northbound service, between Embankment and Piccadilly Circus; Date Found: 24 June 1966; Time: Approx. 23:57pm, 3 minutes to midnight; Finder: Guard A. S. Jenkins; Received at LPO: 25 June 1966; Initial analysis on finding: Unidentifiable object, unknown purpose, but of no apparent danger, to be stored for 3 months as miscellaneous.”

Reg was in his stride, “beats me how you can even get this sphere on the Tube without apparently anybody noticing and then inadvertently leaving it?...baffling! Yet what makes this lost item so bizarre, is not just its size and appearance or even that it is unidentifiable….but as you have heard from interviewing our staff, many of those who come into prolonged close proximity with it, have felt strange sensations and experienced unusual phenomena. It hasn’t been easy getting the clearances for you to stay alone with it down here all night, but we’ve done it. Hopefully your article, will get the necessary publicity to bring forward the owner of this thing to collect it.

Ayana enquired “is there to be a full scientific evaluation of it?” Reg responded, “I’ve been urgently calling for this, but investigations take time and money. It’s been in storage now for two months so we’ll have to decide what to do with it soon, if its not recovered. I’ve got a meeting early in the morning so I need to go...are you all set for tonight’s sit in?...Terry the security guard will be on call if you need anything...I’ll look forward to your article and hearing whether you have any strange experience.” Ayana watched Reg clamber back up the steps. She was now alone, in silence, with 10,000 lost items and… the sphere for company. She felt a mixture of excitement and trepidation... what lay in store for her tonight?

She mused on feeling lost in her former career in an accounts office and needing to find herself in a more interesting career venture. Well this was certainly more interesting. This would be a long night, she intended to stay as long as possible, maybe even until daylight, not that she would see any in the rather dimly lit basement. She recalled the unique different experiences the staff had recounted when in the sphere’s presence, albeit being rather brief and spasmodic: Nasreen mentioned the sphere emitting a low humming noise for a minute or two, Greg seeing a brief flickering ray of light, Jen on it being hot to the touch, and Jerry on it feeling ice cold. Then there were the transient psychological and physical effects it had engendered on others: Paul feeling euphoric in its presence, Ali feeling dizzy...so what would she feel or witness tonight... if anything?

Ayana drew up a chair right in front of the sphere, watching, listening, waiting, camera poised. After what seemed an age...was that a flicker of light coming from it?...no just an overhead light bulb temporarily flickering...could the sphere be causing it though? Some time later... was that a buzzing sound?...no just that light bulb again. Ayana built up the nerve to go over to it. She reached out to touch it with her fingertips, then the palm of her hand...she put her ear to it and listened. Nothing. Somewhat disappointed, she sat back down and flicked through her notebook. She came across Greta’s experience, this seemed different, it was unrelated to the sphere...a ventriloquist dummy experience. In Greta’s words, “the dummy appears to periodically change position in the rack, on one occasion I swear it even moved from rack 3a to rack 4b all by itself. Its stare is creepy... menacing...demonic... its facial expression can alter. It has pushed items off shelves...” Ayana gulped, and closed her notebook. Was Greta in her own fantasy world? This was unnerving.

She felt a sudden urge to see if the dummy was still in the store. Reg strangely hadn’t pointed it out. Why would anybody leave a dummy on a train she thought? After a good ten minutes looking through racks numbered 3 and 4 to no avail, she started on rack 5a... she was suddenly jolted… glaring eyes were staring at her… the ventriloquist dummy. Ayana instinctively jerked its cap down over its manic face. Time for me to go she thought and she turned her back to leave towards the stairwell. There was an abrupt crashing noise behind her; startled she noticed a wall clock on the floor by her feet, its glass case smashed and shards of glass littering around her shoes. She glanced at the beaming face of the dummy, its cap back on its head. “Right that’s it” she said and raced back up the stairwell, not daring to look back.

Ayana’ article garnered both national and worldwide interest. She was now in great demand as a freelancer, particularly as a reporter on mysteries. She had truly found her dream career. The LPO were overjoyed with the publicity, their lost item retrieval rate had increased to record levels. The sphere owner never came forward, but it found a new home; Ellie Carver, a wealthy businesswoman, made the LPO a huge cash offer and then donated it to her home town’s Old Curiosity Museum. The museum’s fortunes were transformed, vast crowds queued up to see the sphere, and the museum pledged sizeable profits to an animal refuge that found new owners for lost and abandoned animals. The public speculated on the sphere’s purpose: many were convinced it was an alien probe observing Earthlings; other popular theories were that it was a secret black ops project by the Government; a psychological experiment to gauge human reactions; a conceptual art piece; a film prop, and even that it was a publicity stunt crafted by the LPO. The museum owners refused permission for any scientific tests to be carried out, they were keen for the mystery to endure.

Ayana sat in her London kitchen, looking for inspiration for her next article. Her phone rang; it was Ellie; “I made an offer for the dummy, but the LPO insists that it has disappeared.” Suddenly Ayana heard an enormous crash from her lounge; she rushed in and stared in disbelief. With heart pounding she cried “Ellie I’ve found it!...”

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