Chapter 12 · Board props

Props of boards and floors

Corkboards, tiles, drawers and spacers: state written onto the surfaces of the room.

A cork noticeboard on a wooden wall carries three tidy huddles of small pinned photographs. Short runs of red string zigzag between the faces inside each huddle, while wide bare cork separates the huddles and not a single thread crosses the gap between them. Every photo lies face up under warm lamplight.

Picture path

  1. A corkboard holds three separate huddles of pinned photos, red string linking faces only inside each huddle and never across. What does the board record?Count the islands of string; no thread crosses between groups and no photo is turned over.
  2. On a corkboard, one strung photo still shows its face while its neighbour on the same red string has been turned to its blank back. What does the turned photo mean?Everything hangs on one continuous string; the only difference is which photos have been turned over.
  3. A fan of photos lies loose on a desk, each binder clip holding two small prints together as a pair, and nothing is pinned or strung up yet. What form is the input in?Each clip joins exactly two photographs into one pairing, and nothing has been pinned or strung up yet.
  4. A chequered floor stops a hand's width short of every wall, held back by a plain continuous wooden skirting strip running the whole perimeter. What does the strip stand for?The strip is continuous furniture at the floor's edge; nothing in the frame is a palm-sized chip you could carry.
  5. Beside a chequered tile floor sits a loose pile of plain white tiles, unmarked and resting off the board. What are the spares for?The spare tiles are blank and rest off the board; no tower holds a marked square on top.
  6. A single small chequered chip, pierced by a hole in one corner, sits on its own away from any floor. What does the little chip claim?It is one small piece made to be kept or strung, not fresh material for laying.
  7. A tower of plates stands on a cork mat with a chequered board square riding its top plate, and more marked squares set beside it. What is the tower holding?A single marked board square rides the tower's top plate and only it is reachable next; the squares beside the base lie spent and discarded.
  8. A badger's trench runs three tiles across a chequered floor, and exactly three lettered drawers stand open beside it, one drawer per trenched tile. What does the matching depth track?Count the open drawers against the trenched tiles — one drawer per tile of the dig.
  9. Inside an open drawer, a small pale wooden box rests beside the smaller inner drawers, its lid firmly shut — a real box present in its place. What does it mark?The box itself is there; only its shut lid carries the message, not an absence.
  10. Letter tiles spell out a word on a rack, then a plain grey tile is deliberately set in place before the next word begins. What is the grey tile doing?A real tile occupies that spot on purpose; it separates words rather than leaving a hole.