THE LOST THING FILL IN THE GAPS

THE LOST THING (FILL IN THE GAPS) 1 THE LOST THING 2 So you want to hear a ..............................?

3 Well, I used to know a whole lot of really ............................ones.

4 Some of them so ............................... you would laugh yourself unconscious.

5 Others so .................................., you would never want to repeat them.

6 Now I can't .................................. any of those.

7 So maybe I'll just tell you about the time I .................................. that lost thing.

8 This all happened many ................................ ago, down on the beach.

9 I was as usual working tirelessly on my bottle top ...........................................

10 At least until I ........................... the thing.

11 It sure wasn't doing much.

12 It just ................................... there with a really weird look about it.

13 You know, a ................................, lost sort of look.

14 Nobody else seemed to ............................. it was there.

15 They were all too ............................... doing other stuff, I guess.

16 Hello?

17 It turned out to be really ................................

18 I played with the thing for most of the ........................................

19 It was great .....................!

20 But the whole time I couldn't help .......................... that something wasn't quite right.

21 As the ......................... slouched by it seemed less and less likely that anyone was coming to take the thing home.

22 And soon there was no denying the unhappy ..........................

23 It was lost.

24 I asked a ..................... people if they knew anything about it.

25 I took the lost thing over to Pete's place.

26 Pete has an ........................... on just about everything.

27 "Cool," he said.

28 Pete didn't .......................... what the thing was exactly.

29 But he said what he ............................... does, that all physical manifestations could be identified emperically.

30 through .................................. observation, calibrated measurement, and controlled experimentation.

31 In the end, Pete just shrugged.

32 He didn't think the lost thing came from ................................

It didn't belong anywhere either.

33 Some things in ............................ are like that, he said.

34 They're just plain lost.

35 There was nothing left to do but take the thing ....................... with me.

36 As for my ....................................

37 I already knew that ...................... would be concerned about how filthy its ....................... were.

38 That Dad would be ................................ about all sorts of strange diseases.

39 They both just wanted me to take it back to .................... I found it.

40 "But it's lost!" I said.

41 Not that that made any .....................

42 I decided to ......................... the thing in our back shed.

43 At .......................... until I could figure out what to do next.

44 I mean, I couldn't just leave it wandering the .........................

45 The Lost thing seemed .......................... there. But I sure couldn't keep it in the shed forever.

46 Mum and Dad would eventually notice when they came out looking for a ............................ or something.

47 It was a real dilemma.

48 Are you finding that the order of day to day ......................... is unexpectedly disrupted?

49 Do you suffer from unclaimed property?

50 Objects without ...........................?

51 Troublesome artifacts of unknown ........................?

52 Things that just don't belong?

53 Don't .........................!

54 We've got a pigeon hole to stick it in.

55 The Federal Department of Odds and Ends.

56 The next ............................ we caught a tram all the way into the ............................

57 We arrived at a tall grey ............................. with no windows.

58 It smelled like disinfectant.

59 I have a lost thing ...

60 I called for the ........................................

61 "......................... in the forms" - she sighed.

62 I was looking around for a ........................, when I suddenly felt something touch my elbow.

63 and then there was a tiny .....................................

64 If you really care about that thing you shouldn't ........................... it here.

65 This is a place for .................................... Leaving behind.

66 Here, take this.

67 "Cheers" - I said.

68 You shouldn't ............................... it here ...

69 It was some kind of sign, I guess.

70 Not very important looking.

71 But it did seem to point ..........................................

72 Eventually we ................................. what seemed to be the right place.

73 In a dark little gap of some anonymous ................................

.........................................

74 The kind of .......................... you would never know existed unless you were actually looking for it.

75 I still think about that lost thing ..............

................

.............

................

76 Especially when I see ................................... out of the corner of my eye that doesn't quite fit.

77 You know, something with a weird, sad, ........................... sort of look.

78 I see that kind of thing .................. and ....................... these days.

79 ................................. there aren't many lost things around anymore.

80 Or maybe ... maybe I've just ........................ noticing them.

81 Too .......................... doing other stuff I guess.