He was sure it had been there this morning, when he dressed.
It was an old British coin, a George the sixth penny, dated 1945. His birth date. His grandfather gave it to him when he was twelve, telling him that it was magic, and it had been with him ever since. That’s why he considered it to be lucky, more than actually magic. The old man had been a strange sort, spending a lifetime researching the mystic arts. He knew such a notion was silly, really, but he always had it in his pocket. He thought it should always be with him. Obviously, otherwise, what’s the point?
He sat down at the kitchen table looking at his notes. One was a diagram of the house and its rooms. The other, a detailed description of the events, along with his movements, over the past two days. He had spent a lot of time clawing all these details back. Not that he felt going back that far was actually necessary, since he felt sure he had it yesterday. In fact, it would have been placed on the bedside table when he went to bed last night. Wouldn’t he have noticed, had it not been there this morning? Convinced of this, he got up and started going through the house again.
After yet another thorough search he returned to the table, exhausted. He sat for a while contemplating the situation. He considered that it might be lost, and at the same time not lost. Not lost because it had to be somewhere. Since it still exists, it is not lost, it’s absent. His grandfather had warned him that it may move away from our physical world, but it would always come back. That’s what he said, away from our physical world, and it would always come back.
Perhaps, as the old man had told him, all those years ago, this was just something that he needn’t concern himself with.
Did this thing simply need to be somewhere else for a while, was it merely absent?
After asking himself this question out loud, the penny not only appeared in front of him, but seemed to move slightly.
He looked on in a state of fascination as the coin slowly raised itself to stand upright on its edge. Then it began to spin, gently at first, then building up speed. After watching it for a couple of mesmerising minutes, he was brought out of his reverie by the rattle of the coin coming to a flat halt on the table.
“Ah!” He nodded. “Confirmation. There’s the answer… merely absent.”