The Lost Umbrella

A few days ago I lost one of my favourite vintage umbrellas, leaving it behind me at a tram stop in the city. I didn’t realise until I had travelled all the way to my destination and disembarked. As is my habit, I looked behind me to check I had all my belongings and suddenly thought, WHERE IS MY UMBRELLA?

It was a favourite shade of Kelly green with a lemon yellow pearlised plastic handle and cord wristlet (by chance patriotically Australian colours), and I had bought it a year or two before at a vintage bazaar. It was a great smallish size that fit into my work tote bag too, which I had always appreciated.

I had been carrying the umbrella all day, using it first in the morning as a sunscreen, and then, when the weather turned suddenly in the afternoon (as is typical in Melbourne), to keep the rain off. I had put the wet umbrella down so I could put on a jumper as it had turned chilly, and sat down to await my tram.

Then a homeless person standing a few feet away from me suddenly started declaiming political poetry at the top of his voice, startling me, until I realised he had mental health issues and was ranting about sinister conspiracy theories. When my tram arrived a few minutes later, I jumped up with alacrity, eager to escape the crazed rage, and thus forgot my umbrella.

So there I found myself, brolly-less, and upset with myself for being so careless. I couldn’t bear to go home without attempting to recover the umbrella, so I returned to the city on a tram that fortuitously arrived a minute or two later, and I prayed all the way that the umbrella would be miraculously untouched and waiting for me.

More than once I’ve seen lost things taken or kicked about my strangers …

AND IT WAS! Joyfully I snatched it up. Some kind soul had fastened it for me and placed it on a seat in plain view. No one else had taken it! More than once I’ve seen lost things taken or kicked about my strangers, so it was heartening indeed to see my umbrella spared. I didn’t even mind that it had ended up taking me two hours to get home instead of one, I was so happy.

Photos: July 2016