The Phone in the Sea

Pablo is from Seville and he works in London. One sunny Sunday in June, he took the train to Brighton with two friends. They walked on the beach, ate fish and chips and went to the famous pier.

On the pier, Pablo wanted a photo of the sea. He held his phone over the rail with one hand. Then a seagull flew very close to his head. Pablo jumped, and the phone fell. It fell and fell, and then it disappeared in the water. His friends didn't laugh. Well, they laughed a little.

Pablo felt terrible. All his photos were on that phone, and all his contacts. That evening he told everyone the story: his friends, his mother, his boss, the man in the phone shop. "A seagull," he said again and again. "A seagull!"

He bought a cheap new phone and, after a few weeks, he forgot about the old one. Life continued: work, gym, football on Saturdays.

Then, one morning in July, he got an email from a stranger. "Hello. My name is Tom and I'm a fisherman in Brighton. Last week I found a phone in my net, near the pier. It was in a waterproof case, and it still works! Your email was on the screen. Is it yours?"

Pablo read the email three times. Then he sent an answer with a lot of exclamation marks. The next Sunday, he took the train to Brighton again. Tom gave him the phone, and Pablo gave Tom a big box of chocolates. They took a photo together on the pier, very far from the rail.