Dreaming Again - The Lost Property Room by Trudi Canavan

Dreaming Again is an anthology gathering 35 of the best and brightest Australian fiction writers together in one anthology.  It is the follow-up to the award winning anthology:  Dreaming Down-Under.

This anthology does not disappoint and it is Trudi Canavan's The Lost Property Room that really sticks in the mind. Trinity Hunder, our main character, accidentally forgets her umbrella on the train and upon contacting The Lost Property Room is told to come on down to check to see if her umbrella was handed in.  The thing is, the country is currently sweltering beneath a heatwave and drought.  Here and there it will rain a bit, just stirring up the dust, but nothing serious.  So she feels a bit silly going in to collect an umbrella.

Once at the LPR she is ushered through and instructed to take nothing from the room, except what she came for.  Trinity checks through all the umbrellas - there are a lot of them - but there is no sign of her umbrella.  She liked this one as it had quite a bit of sentimental value, hence her quest to find it.  Sadly, she has no luck finding it.  And then, on a whim, she nabs an umbrella and leaves with it, all too aware of the warning the man gave her...

Matters get a bit out of hand and mobile freak storms start following Trinity around, wherever she goes.  It becomes a complete nightmare and convinced that it is the umbrella's fault, she heads back to the LPR and speaks to the caretaker.  She hands back the umbrella after he assures her that she's not going mad, that the freak storms were in fact following her around.  Obviously there is a bit of a spin, and it is a great subtle one and the story ends perfectly.

Authors in the anthology include people like: Garth Nix, Margo Lanagan, Sara Douglass, John Birmingham, Kim Wilkins, Celia Dart-Thornton, Rowena Cory Daniels, Trent Jamieson and a host of other names both well known and some lesser knowns.  The anthology is edited by Jack Dann and published by Harper Voyager Australia.