Early this morning I opened our front door to take Pixie for her early morning walk. It was dawning, grey and hazy, no rain, though the street was moist. It must have rained during the night. I was still a bit sleepy, but awake enough to notice something against our shed’s wall that was not there before. And that did not belong to either my husband or me. Parked against the wall was a lady’s bicycle. The first thing I automatically did was check if it was locked –a sensible thing to do over here in Holland: Ask a Dutch person if he or she ever had a bicycle stolen and you will get a ‘yes, of course’ –and a lengthy story!
 But this one was securely locked and had a second unused lock securely fastened under the saddle: the inevitable cable lock to attach it to a lamppost or the pole of a traffic sign. Sometimes you see the sad sight of a dismantled frame and a large, expensive lock still attached to a lamppost, with the rest of the cycle missing… I also checked if it had a flat tyre – no, both tires looked nice and healthy, pumped full of air, ready to roll….

I resumed my morning walk, going with the flow, so to speak… me, tagging our little doggy along and three cats flowing behind us. When I returned home I saw the bike again. Inside, I woke Wynsen up and we marvelled together about this mystery…Many possibilities crossed our minds, whose bike could it be? It was a lady’s bike, so we assumed the owner was female. Why had she left it against our shed? Where had she come from, what time during the night had she placed it there, where was she now? Would she retrieve it? Had she parked it here for safekeeping? What were her motives?  Did the bicycle reveal something of its owner at all? No, it was anonymous and remained so.

We had to visit my mother in law around midday – we left worried what we would do with it if it would still be there when we returned… We would check with the neighbours, call the police, bring it over to the ‘lost and found', place an ad….

Our problem was solved upon our return: The bicycle was gone.

The mystery remains….

What do you think?