The Lost and Found

The first time Cass saw a Keeper, it was sitting in the lost-and-found box at school, on top of a single unclaimed mitten, and no one else could see it at all. Cass checked the lost-and-found box most mornings. He couldn't have said why, exactly. He just didn't like the thought of a thing sitting in a box with nobody coming for it. Other kids got to school and went straight to their friends, or their phones, or the vending machine that ate your money one time in three. Cass lifted the lid of the battered cardboard box by the office and had a look at what the week had lost. A single glove. A water bottle with a faded…