Day at the Mall

     I dusted off the beige molded plastic bench with my coat and sat down.  Just habit, I admitted. The bench was one of many sterile props in a sterile environment, I thought.  The mall should have been crowded by now.  All the shop gates were open and the store lights blazed, but I was the only person in the main section of stores.

     I looked across to the bench across from mine, and something caught  my eye.  A shiny, black rectangle on the light-colored seat - a cell phone.  I strode over and picked it up, looked around the seating area, and brought it back to my perch.  It was an old iPhone 4. No buttons or bells. No Siri, nothing. Not even a skin or cover.  If it had been my phone, I would have left it, too. But I had a feeling someone was desperately searching for this thing.

     The phone was still warm. When I pushed the on button, it went straight to the home screen. No passcode. None. Who would not set a passcode? Were they that trusting or were they simply tech challenged? The home screen wallpaper probably had been installed at the factory - nothing personal.  The home page noted 46 messages and 28 missed phone calls. I scanned through them. Ten of the messages were made yesterday and today, but most were older.  They were from eight different sources, but most were from someone named Teri.  A woman, I supposed.  A wife, perhaps? I had the feeling this was not a woman’s phone. Too old. Too neglected. Had to be a guy, and probably an older man at that.

     The missed phone calls were a different story. Only one had a name associated with it.  All the others were numbers, mostly 800 numbers.  There were only 3 email messages and they were all older.  No recents.  I checked the volume bar. Yep, it was all the way up.

     I decided to check the apps: the usuals that come with the iPhone, three extra weather apps, two airline apps and one from the NHL.  This was definitely a guy, I thought, and one who flies fairly often.  He must be a nut about the weather, too - four total weather apps. Or maybe his work depended on it. And the flying - maybe work related also.

     I decided to turn it off. The battery was almost shot anyway.  Maybe I’d hang around to see if anyone came for it. Or I could call Teri and see if her husband was missing his phone.  I decided to just turn it in at the mall office and take off. I knew there would be no reward for this phone.