Chapter 2 - The Phone

XL came home with the mystery cell phone in his pocket. How would he figure out who owned the phone? It was a nice, recent model smart-phone. He wished he had one like it.

His dad, Max, was at home lying on the sofa in the living room, reading a book by the light of the large picture window behind him. He was tall and slim--too tall to quite fit on the sofa, but he was comfortable regardless. There was a warm fire in the fire-place on the other side of the room, and his dad was relaxed.

"Say Dad", said XL, "I found this phone in the warm-up shed by the pond." He showed it to his dad. Is there some way to check on the phone who owns it? It is password protected."

XL's dad was an engineer and an inventor, so XL thought perhaps he would know.

"Sorry son," said his dad. "You will just have to wait for the owner to find it."

"How can he do that?" said XL.

"The simplest is for him to use a different phone, and to phone this one or send it a text. He could tell you who he is and his address, so you could mail it to him."

"What if he doesn't notice it is missing?" said XL.

"Maybe one of his friends will phone him. You don't need the code to answer the phone; it is only to protect the data. So you could ask the caller who they were calling."

"The problem is," said XL, "that the battery indicator shows a low charge."

XL's dad took a closer look at it. "The charger for my phone won't fit this one." he said.

Reader, what should XL do? Click to choose the next part of the story, by advising XL what to do:

Choice A	Check with the neighbors to see if anyone has a similar phone. Borrow their charger. Charge it and keep it until the owner is discovered.
Choice B	Reset the phone to erase it. Maybe XL can reload it with new software, and keep it as a toy for playing games.
Choice C	Throw the phone in the garbage. XL has wasted enough time on it already.

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