Have you ever lost your keys, misplaced the remote control, or found that you have more odd socks than pairs of socks? Do you sometimes feel like your belongings disappear in front of you? Your attention was distracted for a fraction of a second, and just like that, you can only find your right shoe or your favourite pen has disappeared. Even after a frantic search, your treasured item appears to have vanished into thin air, only to reappear later as if it had been there all along? Unless you share your home with a playful ghost or a cheeky sprite, chances are your possessions have fallen through the portal and have found their way to the Isle of Neverwas.

If you believe the stories told by some of the oldest island residents, whole buildings used to be transported by the portal. Bricks and mortar, doors and windows, along with its entire contents, not a missing lightbulb, plate, or cobweb. One of the wildest stories speculates that the village of Snooze just appeared on the island one day. Carefully transported by the portal that connects the island to your world.

Your misplaced items have accumulated across the Isle of Neverwas for many years. Not even the oldest magical folk can remember a time when the portal didn’t deposit random artefacts, waiting to be discovered and put to good use by the islanders. Over the years, as our communities have grown, the islanders no longer needed the items left by the Portal. We have alternative solutions for the lost objects we find on the island.

The first Lost and Found Exchange was opened in the Village of Nap. The Exchanges work a bit like a post office. Lost items found by the islanders are taken to the Exchange. The fairies use their magic, identifying where the objects have come from and where they need to be returned to. Items they can’t track back to their original owners are tagged and placed into storage. It is surprising how many objects fall through the Portal each day.

Odd socks and forks are no longer returned to their original owners. Nobody knows why so many mismatched socks make their way through the Portal. It is rare for a pair of socks to appear on the island. It is the same with forks. Lots of forks turn up in random places; for every 100 forks, you might find a spoon. Socks are collected by the Lost and Found Exchange and donated to the Sewing Guild. They turn the socks into many different creations, such as costumes for the Drama Society or curtains for Castle Nod. 

If you find a lost item on the island, you take it to the nearest Lost and Found Exchange. An employee at the Exchange will record the following information in a cloth-bound ledger:

1. Where on the island the item was found.

2. The date it was found.

3. The date the item was brought to the Exchange.

4. Where the item was returned to.

The entry in the ledger also includes a brief description of the item. 

Nobody knows how the fairies know where to return the items. Their magic is ancient, and fairies are excellent at keeping secrets about how their magic works. The fairies working at the Lost and Found Exchanges don’t need to rely on knowing where the Portal is to be able to travel between the island and the mainland. Fairy magic is incredibly useful; they can use their magic to open portals.

There is now a Lost and Found Exchange open in every town and village across the Isle of Neverwas. The LFE in Nap remains the largest. The smallest Exchange is a box located inside the windmill at Wink, and Lighthouse Bay has the most unusual LFE, it’s an old ice cream van.

The ice cream van was driven through the Portal by Mr. Douglas. He fell in love with the island and continued to sell ice cream, travelling around the coast, going from place to place in his van. When Mr. Douglas retired, he donated his old ice cream van to the Lost and Found Exchange. He loved selling ice cream, but he is enjoying his retirement even more. Mr. Douglas is focusing on growing award-winning tomatoes. He has a great salsa recipe, and last year his spicey tomato chutney took second place at the summer fayre in Slumber – on – Sea.

Sometimes a lost item might go unnoticed for quite some time, like if an extra fork turns up in your cutlery drawer or an extra fluffy towel makes it into your cupboard. Or like the time a car appeared late one night, parked opposite the village green in Nod. It was perfectly parked; it could have belonged to anyone living on the island. How does the Portal know how to do that? Is it just a coincidence that it was parked perfectly?

The Portal is one of the island’s greatest unsolved mysteries; even the fairies with their ancient magic can’t explain why certain objects fall through the Portal and others don’t. There are no records of anyone ever being injured as a result of an object, person, or building being transported to the Isle of Neverwas. The completed records from different branches of the Lost and Found Exchanges are stored at the Science Institute. Members of the Institute are using this valuable data to unravel the mysteries of the Portal.

What is the Lost and Found Exchange?

Simply, it is a place where items found on the Isle of Neverwas can be taken so they can be returned to you by the fairies. If you ever can’t find something, ask the fairies to help you find it.