This is a short story for learners of English.

It’s Monday morning. Saori has no classes today, so she decides to clean her apartment. It takes a long time and it is almost 11:30am when she is finished. Next to the door are bags of bottles and jars and a pile of old magazines.

I take those to the recycling station, she thinks.

Saori ties some string around the magazines.

She puts on her jacket, and puts her keys and smartphone in her pocket.

She picks up the bags and the bundle of magazines and leaves her apartment.

The recycling station is at the local community centre.

It is a cold windy day, and Saori hurries along the road to keep warm.

Even thought the weather is not good, there is a group of older people outside the community centre. They are practising Tai Chi.

Saori puts the magazines in the paper recycling crate, and walks along to the bins of different coloured glass. There is a cage for clear glass, a cage for green glass and a cage for brown glass.

She is careful to put the glass bottles into the correct cage, but she makes a mistake.

Oh no! I have put a wine bottle into the clear glass cage. I must take it out.

Saori is not very tall, and it is difficult to reach the wine bottle. She leans over the edge of the cage. I’ve got it! Now I’ll just put it in the green bottle cage and I can go home, she thinks.

Saori doesn’t notice, but her smartphone has fallen out of her pocket. It is in the cage full of clear glass.

When Saori gets back to her apartment she thinks, I’ll call Michiko. She doesn’t have classes today. Maybe we can meet for coffee.

She puts her hand in her pocket. Where is my phone! It’s not here. I have lost it! Where did I lose it?

Saori remembers leaning over the recycle cage. Did it fall out of my pocket?

She runs out of her apartment. She runs to the recycling station. Oh no! The bins are empty! Someone has come and taken all the bottles and glass away!

Saori wants to cry. My phone! It has all my contacts! No one can call me. No one can text me! And it was so pretty!

“Excuse me.”

Saori is surprised. There is an old woman standing next to her. “Are you looking for something?”

“Yes,” says Saori. “I have lost my smartphone. I think I dropped it in the recycling cage. And now they are empty! My phone has gone!”

The old woman smiles. “Today is your lucky day,” she says.  “When I finished my Tai Chi class, I walked past the recycling station. I saw something pink in the cage for clear glass. I thought ‘that’s not good. I must take it out’. It was too difficult for me. So I called our Tai Chi instructor. He is taller and fitter than me. He rescued your smartphone.”

The old woman puts her hand in the pocket of her track suit. She takes out Saori’s smartphone and gives it to her.

“Oh, thank you!” says Saori. “I am so lucky.”

“You’re welcome,” says the old woman. “But maybe you made your own luck. Your phone is pink. That’s why I saw it. Maybe if it was silver or black I could not see it. I think pink is a good colour for a smartphone. Maybe I will get a new one.”

By I Talk You Talk Press – Easy English Reading