The ball is yellow until another teller remembers it as white. In a third account, its colour has gone. All place it somewhere beyond the back glass, after a point that never finished.
One Tale leaves it there because nobody went to retrieve it.
Another is harder to end. Balls are found, brought back and held up as the missing one. Yet another turns up later. Each seems to return the unfinished point for a moment, without completing it.
Archivists suspect the object is a name for emotional residue. The Court After the Point and Judgement belong to its lore: attention continues travelling after play has stopped. A widely attested story need not leave behind an identifiable ball.
Before readings, some people remove an odd ball from the table. Others deliberately keep one nearby to acknowledge unfinished matters. Neither custom can supply the return that was never played.
The ball may be found. What would have happened next is still beyond the glass.