“Safe Place” by Gail Brown
The lamp flickered. As the light adjusted, it outlined stacks of paper on a tiny bedside table. Jalena touched the pile. She’d have to hunch over under the tiny bulb to have enough light to see what was on each page.
The door opened. Travis walked in. “Find it yet?”
She shook her head. “I know it’s here. Somewhere.”
“You had it a week ago.” He sat beside her.
“I know. I made sure I put it somewhere safe, so I wouldn’t lose it.”
He laughed. “And promptly forgot it.” He touched her knee with his.
“Yes. That way I wouldn’t move it, or lose it.” Jalena glanced at the first page in front of her. “This isn’t it. I don’t think any of these are.”
He took a handful and fanned them out on the bed. “No red and blue stripes on any of them. Wasn’t that the color combination?”
Jalena closed her eyes. She could almost see the page. And almost see where she put it for safekeeping. “I think so. They were on one side. Maybe the top or bottom.”
“If it’s in a safe place, it’s here. We’ll find it.” Travis took a few more sheets.
“I have to.” Without the paper, she wouldn’t qualify for the job she had interviewed for. The job of a lifetime. She had spent over a decade preparing for it. With Travis at her side. Now, she might lose it all if her safe place remained too safe.
“I’ll look in the kitchen.” Travis stood up.
Jalena smiled. “Yeah. You’ll look for food. I’d never store important papers in there.”
“It’d be the last place a thief would look.” He winked at her.
She waved her arm at him. “Oh, go on then.”
He smiled and bowed out of the room. Before long, dishes clattered in the kitchen.
She placed the last paper on the sorted pile. It wasn’t here. She lifted the stack and set the pages back in the shoebox to be pushed under the bed.
Travis returned with a flashlight. “I’ll look in the corners.”
“Any luck in the kitchen?” Jalena pushed the covers back. Under the mattress was a possibility. Though unlikely.
“Nope. Found a few ants interested in that fruitcake we received for the holidays.”
“Yikes. They can have it!”
He shone the light under the sagging mattress. “It’s just congealed sugar and fruit.”
She lifted the mattress for him to look under it. “Too difficult to eat. No flavor, or too many.”
“Too many. No luck. It has to be somewhere.”
“Not in the kitchen. Not in the bedroom. Where else can it be?” Travis tucked in his side of the bed.
“We don’t have any other hiding places.” Jalena leaned against the window frame. They didn’t even have any more rooms. Except the bathroom. That wouldn’t be a safe place to store valuable papers.
“How well did you check the closet?”
“Completely.”
“Fine. I’ll check the bathroom.” He walked out and closed the door.
Jalena sat on the freshly made bed. Where else was there? A bedroom, a kitchen, and a bathroom was all the space they had.
She had hidden it when she came home after the interview. It had been sunny. The door had grabbed her jacket out of her hand. Her jacket.
She hurried to the front door, which led into the kitchen. Her jacket hung on the same hook it always did. Jalena pulled it off and sat down at the table. She had felt a rip that day.
The rip had been inside, under her right arm. Sure enough, there was the rip. The missing identification paper had slipped through the hole, and was inside her jacket. She had been wearing it everywhere she had gone for three days. “I found it!” She waved it in the air.
Travis joined her. He held her close.
Soon, she would have an income. They could move to a place where they could have three rooms. A sitting room would be wonderful, with a reasonably comfortable chair to rest in each evening. Enough light to read a book before bedtime.
A life almost worth living.
previously published in Concurrent Earths (2021). Originally published in Mirror Worlds (2019 as April D. Brown)
Copyright © 2026 Gail Brown
All Rights Reserved
#hope #jacket #job #love #paper
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