Author: Sude Saygın (12 years old)
Translator: Meldanur Bilir (17 years old)
Illustrator: Şevval Nesrin Barman
We often lose our belongings. We get upset, our morale drops, and if the item is valuable to us, we might even cry. If we can’t find it, we become curious and wonder where we left it. We think about it constantly and search for it. Usually, after we stop thinking about it and searching for it, it suddenly reappears, as if it vanished into thin air and then came back. Have you ever wondered why this happens? Perhaps it’s just a coincidence, isn’t it?
Berin, as usual, woke up at eight for school. She washed her face, combed her yellow hair, and looked at her blue eyes in the mirror. She put on her uniform and prepared her bag. She glanced at the time and realized she was running late. She quickly filled her favorite pink water bottle with water and hurried onto the school bus. She attended her classes and took breaks. It was the last lesson of the day.
Berin was thirsty during the last lesson. She drank from her water bottle and placed it on the edge of her desk. The bell rang, and Berin quickly packed her bag and went outside. However, she forgot something: her pink water bottle. The pink water bottle was left alone in the classroom. It began to cry, feeling abandoned, but it stopped when it heard footsteps in the corridor. It was the school janitor.
The janitor swept the floors, opened the windows, and noticed the pink water bottle on the desk. He picked it up and placed it in the school’s lost and found cabinet. The pink water bottle felt helpless.
The janitor closed and locked the cabinet. The pink water bottle looked around with curiosity. Next to it were a green lunch box, a red pencil case with a frown, and five pieces of blue eraser covered in dust. The pink water bottle hesitantly introduced itself.
“Hello, I’m Pink Water Bottle.”
“I’m Blue Eraser, and these are my parts,” said the Blue Eraser, continuing, “I am the oldest here. I mean, me and my divided parts. This Green lunch box has been pessimistic since it arrived. This Red Pencil Case is a bit angry. Actually, it’s quite angry at its owner for forgetting it. And, by the way, downstairs, there are uniforms that are no longer used by their owners. They are depressed because they were left here by their owners.”
After Blue’s explanation, Green looked at Pink Water Bottle with teary eyes.
“We’ll definitely rot here. Woe to us,” Green lamented.
Pink Water Bottle had not thought of this possibility. It expected Berin to come and retrieve it quickly. What if she never comes, or if she buys a new water bottle instead? Pink Water Bottle couldn’t bear these thoughts. It came up with the idea of escaping.
“But if we escape, we won’t rot here. We absolutely must escape!”
Everyone was stunned. Red suddenly spoke up.
“What nonsense! Do you think you can escape? You haven’t met the kids who take the lost items home after detention. We barely managed to get here!”
Red yelled angrily. Pink Water Bottle had not encountered these kids before. It tried to comfort itself by relying on the cabinet’s lock. But suddenly, there were loud footsteps on the stairs.
“They’re coming… Hide!”
Red shouted and hid behind. Everyone retreated into the darkness behind the cabinet. The children came and opened the cabinet with a hairpin. They looked around blankly. Despite Pink Water Bottle’s heart racing with fear, it was filled with hope and courage. It lay down sideways and started rolling towards the children, even doing somersaults to scare them more. Seeing a moving water bottle, the frightened children quickly left.
The items were very surprised by this. Pink Water Bottle began to give encouraging words. Although the others hadn’t considered escaping before, they realized this was their last chance and started to climb down from the cabinet one by one. However, Blue decided to stay. It said that its owner would no longer want it because it was broken into parts and would guide the lost items who came here. Blue then told them about the school as much as it knew.
As the sorrowful breeze blew and the janitor’s voice echoed in the corridor, they said their goodbyes and left. They descended the stairs one by one. They reached the front of the school gate. Red and Green, having spent a long time with their owners, knew their owners’ addresses from their conversations. However, Pink Water Bottle had been taken recently and did not know the address. It didn’t want to upset its friends by revealing this. They said their farewells and went their separate ways. Pink Water Bottle rolled aimlessly through empty streets, feeling hopeless. It realized it was too tired to roll any further.
There was a nearby park. It rolled to a bank behind the park, away from the children, and sat down. It wished it had never left the cabinet and began to cry. It felt helpless. Then it heard a familiar laugh and a familiar voice. It must have been Berin. Berin had come to the park with her friends a few hours after school. Pink Water Bottle took this opportunity and sneaked into Berin’s shoulder bag, barely fitting inside. Berin didn’t notice as she talked with her friend. When they got home, Pink Water Bottle immediately came out of the bag. As it tried to climb onto Berin’s desk, it saw the door handle move. In a panic, it fell to the floor.
Berin saw her water bottle on the floor while taking a book from her desk. She was confused, having searched everywhere at home. She was sure she had brought it from school. She told her mother about it with curiosity. Her mother said, “You must have forgotten it at home; it being on the floor is just a coincidence.” But Berin was sure she had taken it to school. Even drank from it. The next morning, she told her friends at school what had happened. One friend mentioned finding her long-lost pencil case, while another said she found her empty lunchbox in an unrelated place. The girls thought it was just a coincidence. But was it really just a coincidence?