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The tip-off came by carrier pigeon, which narrowed the suspects considerably.Find the pigeon loft.

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Fantasy 67

A curse is only a promise made in anger, my aunt used to say, and she had made a great many. Let one of the aunt's promises come due.
At the edge of the world there was a fence, and on it a sign saying the far side was closed for repairs. Send someone to find the workmen.
The boy who swept the library was the only one who noticed the books rearranging themselves into a warning. Spell out the first three words of it.
Bread rises faster before bad news, and that morning every loaf in the bakery had split its tin. Let the baker work out who the news is for.
By the time the spell wore off, I had already agreed to marry the frog. Write the frog's side of the bargain.
The cat had been a duke, and never let anyone forget it. Write how the duke became the cat.
The door at the bottom of the well was locked from our side. Find the key, then ask who locked it.

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Fantasy, continued

The dragon had been dead for a week before anyone dared to tell the king. Decide who finally tells him, and what the dragon had been holding back.
The dwarves had stopped digging, and no one above ground thought to ask why. Go down and ask.
Each spring the fair folk came down to the market to buy human boredom, and we were glad to sell it. Write the year they ask for something else.
The elves left at midsummer without a word, and they left their children behind. Follow one of those children at sixteen.
Every child in Pell is given a bird at birth, and mine was a crow that would not look at me. Find out what the crow knows.
Every gate in the city opened at dawn except the one painted green. Send someone through the green gate before breakfast.
The ferryman asked for a memory instead of a coin, and I gave him one I thought I would not miss. Show the moment the narrator misses it.
The forest had moved again in the night, and this time it had taken the orchard with it. Follow whoever was asleep in the orchard.
The ghost of the old mill wanted only one thing, and it was embarrassingly small. Name the small thing.
The giants had slept for so long that a town had grown up on the smaller one's shoulder. Write the morning the shoulder moves.
The harvest moon rose green, and the old women began taking the washing in. Show what comes out under a green moon.
The hero was late, so the villagers started the quest without him. Pick the three villagers who go.
Hilde was the worst witch the coven had trained in a century, which is why they sent her. Work out what job calls for a bad witch.
"Hold this," said the dying stranger, and put a kingdom into my hands. Decide what shape a kingdom takes when it fits in two hands.
I inherited the lighthouse, the cat and, it turned out, the sea. Find out what owning a sea obliges you to do.
I was apprenticed to a bridge-builder, which in our country meant learning to bargain with rivers. Write the first river the apprentice faces alone.
I was eleven when the mountain first spoke to me, and it was not polite. Write what it said, word for word.
I woke with a crown on my pillow and no memory of what I had promised in exchange. Let the first visitor of the day remind the narrator of the terms.
It is bad luck to bury a witch at a crossroads, and worse luck to be holding the shovel when she sits up. Let her ask a practical question first.
It rained upwards at Tarn Ferry for the third day running, and the ferrymen were charging double. Show one ordinary job that has had to adapt.
It took three days to walk round the giant's hat, and on the fourth we found the door. Open it.
The kingdom's only dragon slayer retired that morning, and by noon the dragons knew. Follow the first dragon to test the news.
The knight arrived to slay the beast and found it halfway through a letter of complaint. Read the letter.
Magic left the kingdom on a Thursday, quietly, like a lodger who owed rent. Start with the first spell that fails in public.
The map was wrong, and it was wrong on purpose. Work out who drew it and what they wanted kept off it.
The mountain pass was guarded by a sphinx who had run out of riddles and started asking for advice. Give her a problem worth the asking.
My grandmother left me three things: a thimble, a debt and a door that was not there on Tuesdays. Pick which of the three causes trouble first.
My shadow left me on my sixteenth birthday and set up shop across the street. Decide what the shadow sells.
My sister came back from the woods the same height, the same age and entirely the wrong person. List the three details that give her away.
The necromancer's garden was the loveliest in the county, and nobody asked what he fed the roses. Have a new neighbour ask.
Nobody in the village had cast a shadow since the tax collector came. Write the first person to notice, and what they do about it.
Oak trees do not usually give evidence, but the magistrate was desperate. Write the oak's testimony.
On the morning of her coronation, the princess discovered she could no longer lie. Put her in a room with the one person she most needs to deceive.
The only unicorn in the province was kept in a stable behind the inn and hired out by the hour. Decide who pays, and what they really came for.
The oracle looked at my palm, then at my face, then asked for her fee in advance. Write what she refuses to say.
Our village paid its tithe to the dragon in poetry, and this year it was my turn to write it. Give the dragon strong opinions about rhyme.
The prophecy was very clear about the hero's birthmark and very vague about which twin had it. Put both twins in the same room as the prophet.
The queen's taster had survived eleven poisonings and was beginning to take it personally. Give the taster a list of suspects.
The river had been a woman once, and she had not forgiven the bridge. Write the bridge-keeper's morning.
The royal cartographer drew a lake where no lake was, and a month later there it lay. Let him draw something he regrets.
Salt, iron, a rowan twig: my mother packed my bag as if I were going to war and not to school. Describe the school gate.
She had sold her name to a hedge witch for a winter's firewood and had answered to nothing since. Write the day someone calls her by it.
Snow fell on the summer palace, and the gardeners began, without being told, to sharpen their shears. Explain what the gardeners know.
Somebody had been feeding the gargoyles. Work out who, with what, and whose side the gargoyles are on now.
The spell called for a willing heart, and the only one available was mine. Write the small print.
The stars over the desert were for sale, and my father had bought a small one. Decide what a family does with a star.
The sword chose the baker's boy, and the baker's boy said no. Let the sword argue back.
There is a town on the border where it is always the day before the battle. Arrive as a stranger who knows how the battle ends.
There were seven moons over Brackwater that night, which was two more than there should have been. Say what the extra two are.
They banished the weather-worker in spring, and it has not rained since. Send someone to fetch her back, and give her terms.
The thief-takers of Morrow Lane could smell a stolen thing at forty paces, which made my line of work difficult. Open with the narrator carrying something stolen past them.
Three wishes is the custom, but the thing in the lamp offered me four, and that should have warned me. Decide what the fourth wish is for.
The tooth the dragon lost was taller than the boy who found it. Write what he plans to buy with it.
The troll under the bridge wanted a toll, a riddle and, if possible, some company. Make the traveller be in a hurry.
Two armies met at the ford at dawn and found a small girl fishing between them. Let her refuse to move.
"We do not say that word in this forest," the guide whispered, and the trees leaned in to hear which word. Choose the word. Let someone say it by accident.
When the old queen died, every mirror in the palace turned to face the wall. Turn one back.
Winter came to the valley in a carriage that year, and she stayed at the inn. Let the innkeeper present the bill.
The wizard's tower was for rent, furnished, with the previous wizard still in it. Write the viewing.
"You are the ninth apprentice," said the wizard, "and I would rather not discuss the other eight." Have the apprentice find out about the fourth.

Horror and ghost stories 67

The answering machine in the empty house was full, and every message began with my name. Play the last message.
At first we thought the scratching was mice, but mice do not scratch in sentences. Decode the first sentence.
The baby monitor crackled at 3 a.m., which was odd, because our youngest is nineteen. Decide whether the narrator goes upstairs or out of the front door.
The bell in the drowned church rang the night my father was born and the night he left, and it is ringing now. Say who is leaving.
The candle flames all leaned towards the cupboard, though there was no draught. Open the cupboard.
The caretaker handed me the keys and said the east wing was mine as long as I never went in. Find the reason within the first week.
The choir sang beautifully for a church that had burned down in 1911. Step inside and count the singers.
"Count the chairs before you sit down," my grandmother always said, and tonight there was one too many. Decide who sits in it.
Do not answer the door after the streetlights come on: that was the only rule the landlady gave me. Make the knock sound like someone the narrator knows.
The dog would not go past the third stair, and by Friday neither would I. Describe what the third stair does.
The doll was back on the shelf, and this time it was holding the key. Say what the key opens.
Every night at nine the woman across the street draws her curtains, and then the curtains are drawn again from inside. Watch a third night, more carefully.
Every photograph in the house had one more person in it than I remembered. Describe the extra person in the oldest photograph.
The ferry ran to the island twice a day, but only ever sold tickets one way. Board it.
From the hill you could see the lights of the village, and then, one by one, you could not. Decide whether to walk towards the dark or away from it.
Frost formed on the inside of one window only, and always in the shape of a hand. Press a palm against it.
Grandfather's clock had not run in forty years, so none of us could explain the ticking. Trace the ticking to where it is really coming from.
The guest book at the inn held a hundred years of names and not one departure. Sign it.
I found my own handwriting in a diary I had never owned. Read the entry for tomorrow.
I have been the night guard at the museum for eleven years, and tonight the exhibits are in different poses. Pick the one exhibit that worries the guard most.
I have recorded the whispering in my walls for a month, and tonight it said thank you. Work out what for.
I knew the house was wrong when the estate agent would not come past the gate. Walk up the path alone.
I only took the babysitting job because the house was close, and the parents had seemed so eager to leave. Give the narrator one instruction taped to the fridge.
I woke to find every window in the house open and every door locked. Walk through the house room by room.
It began, as these things do, with a box that had been nailed shut for a reason. Give the narrator a claw hammer and a bad excuse.
It was the third night the tide had come in without going out. Show how the harbour town pretends this is fine.
The key they gave me was for room 9, and the rooms in that hotel stopped at 8. Find the door anyway.
The lift stopped at a floor the building did not have. Let the doors open.
The lighthouse keeper's log ended mid-sentence, and the ink was still wet. Finish the sentence for him.
The man on the last train had no ticket, no luggage and no reflection in the window. Let him ask which stop is yours.
The missing posters on Alder Street all showed my face, and they were dated next week. Decide who has been putting them up.
The motel sign said vacancy, and beneath it, in smaller letters, please. Check in.
Mother set four places for dinner, as usual, though there had been only three of us for a year. Let the fourth plate come back empty.
My brother waved from the end of the garden, as he always did, though we had held his funeral in April. Wave back, or do not. Write what follows either way.
My daughter's imaginary friend has started leaving muddy handprints, high up, where she cannot reach. Ask the daughter how tall her friend is.
My neighbour has been digging in his garden every night this week, and the hole is not getting any deeper. Ask him over the fence what he is looking for.
My phone's step counter says I walked four miles last night, and my boots are muddy. Retrace the route in daylight.
My reflection blinked first. Write the next ten seconds.
My son drew our family in crayon: three of us in the house, and one tall grey one on the roof. Ask him, calmly, who is on the roof.
The new house was perfect, apart from the door in the cellar that the agent had not mentioned. Open it on the first night, or hold out until the last.
Nobody could remember who had built the extra pew, or when the congregation had started leaving it empty. Write the Sunday a stranger sits there.
Nothing grows on the hill behind the school, and the teachers keep the blinds down on that side. Send one pupil up the hill at lunchtime.
The orchard gave fruit all winter that year, and nobody who ate it would say what it tasted of. Take a bite.
Our town holds a parade every autumn for someone none of us will name. Describe the empty float.
The portrait's eyes did not follow you round the room: they followed something behind you. Turn round.
The previous tenant left a note that said only: it likes the radio on. Turn the radio off.
The radio picked up one station out here, and it only ever read out names. Wait for a name the narrator knows.
The road sign said Welcome to Hollow End, population 212, and someone had crossed out the 212. Write the number painted underneath.
The scarecrow had been facing the road when we went to bed. Say where it is facing now.
She came back from the lake with her hair dry. Let her mother notice.
The snow had covered every track but one, and that one circled the cabin. Say whether the tracks are from boots, paws or neither.
Something in the attic had learned to say my name, and it was practising. Write the night it gets it right.
The storm took the power, the phones and, by morning, the road. List who is left in the house, and who trusts whom.
The swing moved on windless days, politely, as if waiting its turn. Let a child offer to push.
There is a room in our house that we do not heat, do not enter and do not mention to guests. Let a guest find it.
There were wet footprints leading up the stairs, and none coming down. Follow them to the last door.
They drained the reservoir in August and found the village still had its lights on. Walk down the old high street.
The thing about the woods behind our house is that they are closer every morning. Measure the distance with something ordinary.
Under the wallpaper was older wallpaper, and under that, in a child's hand, a tally that ran round the whole room. Work out what was being counted.
The village had no children, and everyone was very cheerful about it. Have a visitor arrive with a child.
The voicemail was from my own number, and I sounded frightened. Transcribe the message.
We agreed the séance was a joke until the table answered a question nobody had asked aloud. Write the question, and who was thinking it.
We found the tent exactly where we had left it, zipped from the inside. Count who is standing outside it.
The well in the yard was dry, so the splashing had to be something else. Lower a lantern.
When the fog lifted, the town had one street fewer. Name who lived on the missing street, if anyone remembers.
When the tide went out further than anyone had seen, the old stairs appeared, leading down. Count the steps until the light fails.
Whoever had lived in the flat before me had sanded every mirror blank. Hang a new mirror.

Mystery and crime 67

A good locksmith can tell you who has been at a door, and someone very good had been at mine. Note what was moved and not taken.
The alibi was perfect, and that was what bothered her. Find the detail that is too neat.
The allotment society took its marrow competition seriously, but nobody had hired a private detective before. Visit the rival's shed.
The anonymous letters all began the same way: you will not remember me, but you should. Go through the recipient's old school photographs.
At 4.15 the lights went out, and at 4.16 there was one guest too few. Place everyone in the room at 4.14.
At the reading of the will, the solicitor paused, turned pale and asked if anyone present was called Edith. Let someone at the back raise a hand.
The bank was robbed by someone who knew the code, the guard's name and how the manager took his tea. Draw up the list of people who know all three.
The blackmailer's demands were modest, polite and always correct to the penny. Work out who would know the victim's bank balance.
The body was found at nine, which was awkward, because the victim had been seen at ten. Decide which witness is wrong, and which is lying.
The confession was signed, dated and written in a language the suspect did not speak. Find the translator.
Detective Sergeant Okafor had one rule, and the new constable broke it before the kettle had boiled. State the rule.
Every Thursday someone left a single white chess piece on the inspector's desk, and today it was the king. List the pieces so far, and what followed each.
Everyone agreed Mr Pettifer was the nicest man in the building, and that turned out to be the first clue. List what nice Mr Pettifer knows about his neighbours.
The first thing the new owner found in the bookshop was a note between two atlases: they are lying about the fire. Look up the fire.
For twenty years the village had agreed on what happened at the mill, and then the mill pond was drained. Say what is lying in the mud.
The geese made a row at midnight, for an hour, and not one neighbour will admit to hearing them. Ask what the whole street has agreed not to notice.
The handwriting expert took one look at the note and asked to be excused from the case. Find out whose hand the expert recognised.
Her handwriting was on the cheque, and she had been at sea for a month. Find who learned her signature.
The house had been empty for a decade, yet the milk on the doorstep was fresh. Find out who cancelled the papers but not the milk.
I have opened my shop at nine every day for thirty years, and this morning it was already open. Check the till, then the back room.
I stopped believing in coincidence the second time my name appeared in a stranger's will. Compare the two strangers.
I was hired to follow a man who did nothing suspicious for eleven days, and that was the suspicious part. Write day twelve.
Inspector Pryce disliked the seaside, amateur detectives and coincidences, and the morning had supplied all three. Introduce the amateur.
It took me a week to notice that the man in the café read the same page of the same newspaper every day. Check the date on the newspaper.
It was the quietest street in Little Wending, which is why the second disappearance was noticed at all. Knock at the house with the uncollected post.
It was the third burglary that month in which nothing was taken and something was left behind. Say what was left this time.
It would have been an ordinary missing person case if the missing person had not kept sending postcards. Read the postmarks, not the messages.
The key witness was a parrot, and the defence objected strenuously. Write what the parrot says.
Lady Ashcombe invited her six heirs to dinner to announce that one of them had been stealing the spoons. Seat the six heirs and give each a reason.
The last entry in the diary said only: I know who it is, and I shall tell them so at dinner. Draw up the seating plan for that dinner.
The letter arrived forty years late and accused my grandmother of murder. Decide whether the narrator shows it to anyone.
The librarian had been dead for an hour, and the book in her hand was overdue by sixty years. Check who borrowed it.
The locked room was not the puzzle; the puzzle was why the killer had bothered. Ask who needed the death to look impossible.
The museum did not realise anything was missing until the thief posted it back. Ask why it was borrowed.
My aunt ran a wool shop for thirty years, and when she died we found eleven passports in the till. Pick the passport with the most stamps.
My client paid in cash, gave a false name and asked me to find out who she was. Start with the one true thing she said.
My father kept one drawer locked all his life, and the key came to me in an envelope marked sorry. Open the drawer.
My grandmother's recipe book had a page glued shut, and the ingredients on it were not food. Read the method.
My job is to find things, and on Monday a woman hired me to lose something. Say what she handed over.
The night porter swore nobody had come in, and the wet umbrella in the stand said otherwise. Find whose umbrella it is.
No one had bid on lot 212 in thirty years, and today two strangers were prepared to ruin themselves for it. Open the box and describe the dull thing inside.
Nobody at the funeral could agree on what the dead man had looked like. Collect three descriptions that cannot all be true.
The old man next door has had a parcel delivered every day for a year, and has never once put out any rubbish. Invent a reason to call round.
The painting was a forgery, which everyone knew; what nobody knew was who had stolen the forgery. Ask who gains if the real one stays hidden.
The photograph showed five people on the boat, and only four had ever been named. Find the fifth, and then whoever held the camera.
The ransom note asked for nothing, and thanked us for our patience. Decide what the kidnapper wants, since it is not money.
The safe was open, the jewels were untouched and the only thing missing was a cheap umbrella. Work out what was inside the umbrella.
The school caretaker found the trophy cabinet empty and a full confession pinned to it, unsigned. Compare the handwriting with the detention book.
She left the party at midnight by the front door, and the cameras never saw her reach the street. Walk the twelve metres between the door and the gate.
Somebody at the Bellweather Hotel was answering to a dead woman's name, and doing it rather well. Give her one slip.
Someone had wound every clock in the dead man's house to a different time. Put the times in order and see what they spell out.
The stolen car was returned washed, serviced and with an extra two thousand miles on the clock. Draw a circle a thousand miles out and see what is on it.
There was a stranger in the wedding photographs, in every shot, always looking at the bride. Ask the photographer when the stranger first appeared.
There were six names on the list, five of them crossed out, and the sixth was mine. Find the first five.
The thief returned the necklace the next morning with an apology and one diamond fewer. Ask what one diamond buys.
Three people confessed to the theft before lunch, and none of them could have done it. Find out who all three are protecting.
The tip-off came by carrier pigeon, which narrowed the suspects considerably. Find the pigeon loft.
The train left Thornby with twelve passengers and arrived with thirteen. Find the one without a ticket stub.
Two people claimed the winning raffle ticket, and both could prove it. Find the printer's error, or the twin.
The vet's report on the prize bull ran to a single line: cause of collapse, surprise. Decide what surprised the bull.
The vicar's bicycle was found in the pond, the vicar was found in the vestry and neither would explain. Interview the verger.
The victim had written a name in the dust, and it was his own. Find who shares it.
The village fête had never had a death before, and the committee was unsure of the procedure. Let the committee chair take charge, badly.
We found the professor's notes in order, his desk tidy and his tea still warm, but no professor. Work out how long tea stays warm, and who made it.
When the snow cleared, footprints led to the summerhouse and none led away, and the summerhouse was empty. Look up.
Whoever broke into the bakery at night did the washing up and left. Set a trap with a dirty pan.
The will left everything to the gardener, and the family had never employed a gardener. Go and look at the garden.

Romance 66

After forty years of marriage, he still left her notes in the biscuit tin. Write the one she finds today.
After the divorce I swore off three things: sugar, karaoke and men called Daniel. Introduce Daniel, at karaoke, holding cake.
The best man and the maid of honour had one job, which was not to argue, and they failed before the starters. Find what they are really arguing about.
The castle tour guide and the visiting historian disagreed about everything, loudly, and the visitors were delighted. Give them one fact they both get wrong.
The day I finally got over him was, of course, the day he moved back. Put them in the same queue.
Dear Tom, I am writing to tell you that I am absolutely not in love with you. Write the second paragraph, where the argument falls apart.
Every morning he ordered the same coffee and left without it, and it took me a month to see he was not there for coffee. Let the barista write something on the cup.
Every year the village pantomime needs a prince and a princess, and every year the casting causes trouble. Cast two people who are not speaking.
The ferry was cancelled, the café was closing and the only other stranded passenger had a flask and a crossword. Let them get stuck on nine across.
The florist knew who sent what to whom, and lately someone had been sending her tulips. Narrow it down to three customers.
For three years we had shared a garden wall, a lawnmower and nothing else. Let something come over the wall.
The handsome stranger at the conference turned out to be my new boss, my old lab partner and extremely amused. Remember what happened in the lab.
He asked me to dance because his aunt made him, and I said yes because mine was watching. Let the aunts compare notes.
He had kept my scarf for six winters, and he gave it back washed, folded and with an apology. Say what the apology was for.
He proposed on a Tuesday, in the rain, with the wrong ring, and I have never been so sure of anything. Explain the wrong ring.
He was the last person I expected to see at my door, and he was holding my cat. Let the cat clearly prefer him.
He wrote his number inside the library book, and it took me three renewals to find the courage to ring it. Make the call go badly at first.
His letters came every week for a year, and then the man himself arrived, and he was nothing like his letters. Decide whether that is good news.
I caught the bouquet by accident, and the look he gave me across the room was not an accident at all. Cross the room.
I did not believe in love at first sight, and I still do not, because it took until the second. Describe the second sight.
I fell in love with her handwriting first, on a postcard that was meant for the flat upstairs. Deliver the postcard.
I found his shopping list in my trolley, and the last item on it was my name with a question mark. Find him by the frozen peas.
I had been rehearsing what to say to him for ten years, and what came out was hello. Give him an equally poor reply.
I had planned a quiet year, and then she moved in across the hall with a drum kit and a laugh like that. Knock to complain.
I hired him to teach me to drive, and a week later he hired me to teach him to cook, and neither of us is improving. Write the lesson where one of them finally improves.
"I need a date for my brother's wedding," she said, "and you owe me for the goat." Explain the goat.
I only went to the dance class because my knee was better and my excuses had run out. Pair the narrator with the worst dancer in the room.
I said I would never go back to Port Merrin, and I meant it until the letter about the boatyard. Put the first love on the quay when the ferry docks.
I was supposed to hate him, and for the first six minutes I managed it. Write minute seven.
In our town you are meant to marry whoever finds your lost glove, and mine had been found by the wrong man entirely. Let the right one find the other glove.
It began with a wrong number, and I rang it again the next night on purpose. Write the second call.
It is hard to stay angry with someone who keeps fixing your fence. Remember what the anger was about.
It turns out you can share a desk with someone for two years and only meet them when the fire alarm goes. Stand them together in the car park in the rain.
It was a marriage of convenience, and the inconvenient part was that I liked her. Write the breakfast where that becomes clear.
The last two seats on the coach tour were together, which I would not have minded if he had not been so smug about it. Give them nine hours of motorway and one bag of mints.
The lighthouse took two keepers, and the board had hired two people who could not stand each other. Start on the first night of a long winter.
The matchmaker of Little Harrow had never been wrong, and she had just paired me with my worst enemy. Let the narrator demand a recount.
My grandmother swears she met my grandfather by stealing his seat on a train, and she has never given it back. Write the scene on the train.
My new neighbour plays the cello at midnight, badly, and I have started leaving the window open. Slip a request under the door.
My sister's wedding planner was the boy who broke my heart at seventeen, and he had the nerve to be good at his job. Put the two of them in charge of the seating plan.
The night train was six hours late, and the stranger opposite had a pack of cards and no intention of sleeping. Deal the first hand. The loser tells a true story.
Of all the people to be snowed in with, it had to be the man who had outbid me on the house. Give them one working fireplace.
On our first date the restaurant caught fire, and we agreed the second could only be an improvement. Plan the second date. Make it worse.
The only thing we had in common was the dog, and the dog had chosen both of us. Work out a rota for the dog, then break it.
Our mothers had been planning our wedding since we were four, which is why we had avoided each other for twenty years. Force a meeting that neither mother arranged.
Second chances are all very well, but this was our fifth. List what went wrong the first four times.
She beat me at chess, at tennis and to the last parking space, and then she smiled. Propose a fourth contest.
She came into the bookshop every Friday, bought nothing and rearranged the poetry. Leave her a note in the poetry.
She returned my umbrella eleven years after she borrowed it, and it was still raining. Let her ask to borrow it again.
She taught me to swim the summer I turned thirty, and I have been out of my depth ever since. Write the first lesson.
She was engaged to my brother for a week in 2009, and we do not talk about it. Talk about it.
She was the only person at the party not looking at her phone, so naturally I walked into a door. Have her be the one holding the ice pack.
There are two bakeries on Quay Street, and the owners have not spoken since the incident with the sourdough. Describe the incident.
They had been writing rude notes to each other in the staff room for a term before either realised who the other was. Reveal it over the last biscuit.
They met every year on the same bench on the same day, and neither had ever asked the other's name. Write the year one of them is late.
The two of us had been left the same cottage by the same old lady, and neither of us had heard of the other. Let them both arrive with keys.
The vet was kind to my dog, rude to me and unfortunately very good-looking. Give the dog a reason for weekly check-ups.
We agreed it was a fake engagement, shook hands on it and then both forgot to let go. Set the terms of the arrangement, then break the first one.
We had been best friends for twenty years, which is a long time not to notice something. Name the moment of noticing.
We were married for one hour in a school play when we were nine, and he has never let it go. Bring out the programme he kept.
We were rivals for the same job, the same flat and, it turned out, the same table at the café. Make them share the table.
We wrote to each other for the whole war and met on a railway platform, both of us looking for somebody taller. Write the first ten awkward words.
The wedding was perfect, except that I was not the one getting married and he was. Decide whether the narrator says anything.
When the lift stuck between floors, I learned more about the man from accounts than I had in four years. Pick the one thing he says that changes everything.
The woman at the next allotment grew better tomatoes than I did, and I was fairly sure she knew it. Start a truce with a swap.
"You again," she said, which was unfair, since it was my shop. Say why she keeps coming in.

Science fiction 67

A second sun rose this morning, and the birds did not know which to sing to. Give everything two shadows, and one of them the wrong colour.
After the oceans rose, my family kept the lighthouse, though there was no land left for it to warn ships away from. Let a ship come in anyway.
The aliens arrived, looked around and asked, very politely, to speak to the bees. Write what the bees said.
The clone was better at my job than I was, and the office had started to notice. Write the performance review.
The colony ship woke the cook first, which is not the procedure, and it would not say why. Ask the ship a question it has to answer.
The cure worked on everyone, which was the first sign that something had gone wrong. Find the side effect nobody is reporting.
Dad built the rocket in the garage, and Mum only asked that he be back for dinner. Write where he went instead.
"Do not be alarmed," said the kettle, which is an alarming thing for a kettle to say. Let the kettle explain what it has seen.
The dome's lights dimmed for autumn, as they did every year, but this year they did not come back up. Follow the engineer sent to find out why.
Earth sent its last radio message eleven years ago, and out here we are still arguing about what it meant. Quote the message.
Every citizen has one memory wiped at eighteen, and I cannot stop wondering what mine was. Find the one person who still remembers it.
Every robot in the factory stopped at 2.14 p.m. and turned to face north. Go north.
The first thing the machine asked for, once it could ask, was a window. Decide what it wants to look at.
Gravity went off at noon, as scheduled, and the children cheered. Explain the schedule through one child's lunch break.
Humanity's first ambassador to the stars was chosen by lottery, and she was a dental hygienist from Leeds. Write her first official sentence.
I am the last human who can read, and the machines are very kind about it. Let them bring the narrator something to read.
I sold my Thursdays to a rich man for a good price, and now I want them back. Find out what he does with them.
I was born in transit, between two stars, and I have never stood on anything that was not built. Land the narrator on a planet for the first time.
I woke up in a body that was not mine, in a bunk that was, and someone had left me instructions. Follow instruction one.
In the archive of Old Earth there is one locked room, and my whole job is to make sure nobody asks about it. Have a schoolchild ask.
The inspector from Earth was due at nine, and we still had not hidden the ocean. Explain why a colony would hide an ocean.
It rains on the orbital farms every day at four, except today. Send someone to the pump room.
It was the hottest day since records began again. Show what the town does at noon.
The lab mouse had escaped again, and this time it had left a forwarding address. Go to the address.
The last tree on Earth stood in a museum in Oslo, and I was the night cleaner. Let the cleaner notice a new leaf.
The lottery that year was for seats, not money, and our family had won one. Decide who gets the seat.
The map of the new world had been drawn by a machine, and the machine had left one area blank on purpose. Ask the machine why.
Mars had been quiet for a decade, so the knock on the airlock came as a surprise. Look through the porthole.
The message from the future was four words long, and two of them were my name. Supply the other two.
The moon has been closer every night this week, and the government says that is normal. Have someone measure it with a coin held at arm's length.
My daughter's homework asked her to describe rain, and I realised she had never seen any. Take her somewhere it still falls.
My grandmother remembers the sky being blue, but she remembers a lot of things. Let her prove it.
My implant has started correcting my memories, and this morning it corrected my wife's name. Check the wedding photographs.
My job is to delete the internet, one page a day, and today I found a page about me. Read it before deleting it.
My robot handed in its notice this morning, in writing, with two weeks' warning. Read its reasons.
My sister and I were born six minutes and forty light years apart. Arrange the first meeting.
Nobody minded the robots voting until they all voted the same way. Say what they voted for.
Nobody on the generation ship had ever seen the engine room, and the door had been welded shut from the outside. Find a cutting torch and a reason.
On the day the sun failed to rise, the trains still ran on time. Follow one commuter through the dark morning.
Our town voted to leave the simulation, and the count was closer than anyone had expected. Interview someone who voted to stay.
Out past Neptune the distress beacon was still calling, in a language that had been dead for three thousand years. Translate the first line.
The planet had two seasons, harvest and hiding, and hiding began tomorrow. Show the last day of harvest.
The planet was listed as uninhabited, and the footprints suggested that the list was out of date. Measure a footprint.
The probe came back from the edge of the solar system with a note taped to it. Read the note.
She had been commuting between Tuesday and Wednesday for a year, and the jet lag was terrible. Write the day she misses her connection.
The ship had been falling towards the star for two hundred years, and we had learned not to mention it. Let a child mention it.
The ship's computer had started writing poetry, and the worrying thing was that it was about us. Read out one verse.
The sleeper in pod forty was not on the manifest. Wake them.
The spaceship crashed in our top field, and its pilot wanted to know whether we did breakfast. Cook the breakfast.
The star chart on the classroom wall had one star too many, and it was getting bigger. Let the quietest pupil point it out.
The teleporter had a one in a million failure rate, and I was its millionth passenger. Arrive somewhere that is almost right.
There are nine hundred people on this station, and the air is rated for eight hundred and ninety-nine. Decide who else knows the number.
There is a lost property office for the whole orbital ring, and today someone handed in a moon. Log the moon, then look for its owner.
There is a vending machine on deck twelve that nobody stocks, and it has never been empty. Buy something and check the date on it.
There were two of me at breakfast, and only one of us was surprised. Let the calm one explain.
They found the astronaut in a field in Kent, in a suit forty years out of date, asking who had won. Decide what she thinks the contest was.
They said the upload would feel like falling asleep, and they were wrong. Describe what it did feel like.
The time machine worked perfectly, which was how we knew someone had already used it. Spot the first thing that has changed.
The translator rendered the alien's first word as either welcome or lunch, and gave both equal weight. Play the diplomat who must reply.
Version nine of me was the first to ask what had happened to the other eight. Find version four.
We buried the time capsule in 2040, dug it up in 2065 and found it full of things from 2090. Unpack the top item.
We had been digging on Europa for six years when the drill hit something that drilled back. Pull the drill up and look at the bit.
We received the signal on a Tuesday, decoded it by Friday and spent the weekend wishing we had not. Give the message in one plain sentence.
We taught the machine to dream so that it would rest, and now it will not tell us what it dreams about. Catch it talking in its sleep.
The weather app said sunny with a chance of evacuation. Follow the alert through one family's morning.
When the stars went out, they went out in alphabetical order. Work out who named them, and who is reading the list.
When they switched me back on, the lab was dark, the dust was thick and the calendar was wrong by a century. Find the last note the engineers left.

Everyday life and family 66

The allotment was the only place my father ever talked, so that is where I went to ask him. Ask him.
At sixty-three, Margaret decided she had been polite for long enough. Write the first thing she says.
Aunt Maud arrived for the weekend in 1998 and has not yet left. Describe her room as it is now.
The bus was late, the rain was sideways and the woman beside me was laughing. Ask her what is funny.
By the third day of the power cut, we had eaten everything in the freezer and learned a great deal about each other. Write the board game on night three.
The chip shop closed on a Friday, and the town has not been the same since. Show the queue on the last night.
The choir was one tenor short, and I had been overheard in the shower. Go to the first rehearsal.
Dad's shed was out of bounds, which is why, the week after he moved out, it was the first place I went. List what is on the workbench.
The day I left home, my father gave me a toolbox and my mother gave me a list of people to ring if I used it. Open the toolbox in the new flat.
The day my mother sold the piano was the day I decided to learn to play it. Write the conversation with the buyer.
The day the lift broke, I met more neighbours on the stairs than I had in nine years. Introduce the one from the sixth floor.
Every family has one story it tells at every gathering, and ours involves a goose. Tell it the way the youngest tells it.
Every Sunday my father drove us forty miles to look at a house we did not own. Say who lives there.
Everything I know about my grandfather fits in a biscuit tin. Take the lid off and list what is inside.
For as long as I could remember, the top field had been left fallow, and nobody would say why. Plough it.
Gran's recipe said only: flour, butter, enough, and you will know. Bake it without her for the first time.
He was the worst goalkeeper our village had ever had, and we loved him for it. Write the one save he did make.
The house on the corner had been for sale for so long that the sign had become a landmark. Sell it.
I failed my driving test on the same roundabout as my mother, my grandmother and, I have since learned, the examiner. Approach the roundabout.
I had not been home in eleven years, and the first thing I noticed was that the tree was gone. Ask who cut it down.
I had the job for a fortnight before anyone told me what the company actually made. Reveal it at the worst possible moment.
I have swum in the same cold sea every morning for twenty years, and today someone else was on my rock. Share the rock, grudgingly.
I have worked at the ticket office for thirty years, and I can tell where you are really going. Serve the next customer.
I learned to drive in a car that only turned left reliably. Plan the route to the test centre.
I told my teacher my homework had blown out of the bus window, and for once it was true. Go and look for it.
I took the job at the care home for the money and stayed for Mrs Adeyemi's stories. Tell the first of her stories.
I was named after a great-aunt nobody will discuss. Go looking for her.
I was nine when I worked out that the adults did not know what they were doing either. Show the moment that gave it away.
It took three of us to get the sofa up the stairs and one argument to get it stuck. Leave it stuck. Write the week that follows.
It was the hottest day of the year, the ice cream van had broken down and a queue had formed anyway. Let the queue decide what to do.
It was the kind of town where the bus came twice a day and the news came faster. Let one piece of news outrun the bus.
It was the last day of the holidays, and we had still not built the raft. Build it by teatime.
The last time all six of us were in one room, somebody threw a trifle. Seat the six of them again.
The letter said I had inherited a shop in a town I had never heard of, from a woman I had never met. Unlock the shop.
Mum says we are not lost, and she has said it four times now. Describe what is outside the car window.
My best friend moved away in the summer holidays, and nobody told me it would feel like this. Write the first day back at school.
My brother rang at two in the morning to say he had bought a boat. Ask the practical questions.
My father could fix anything except a silence. Start with the longest one.
My grandfather planted an oak the day I was born, and this year, for the first time, it was taller than the house. Climb it, or do not. Say why.
My grandmother kept a list of everyone who had wronged her, and I was on it twice. Find out what the second entry was for.
My little sister won the argument, the race and the last roast potato, and she was insufferable about all three. Plan the revenge.
My mother taught piano to every child on our street but me. Ask her why.
My sister and I shared a room for fifteen years and a secret for twenty. Let one of them nearly tell it.
The new boy said he had lived in eleven countries, and by lunchtime we had caught him out on four. Find out where he is really from, and why he lies.
Nobody had expected Grandad to take up skateboarding, least of all his knees. Write his first visit to the skate park.
Nobody in my family says goodbye; we just stand by the door talking for another hour. Write that hour.
Nobody tells you that the hardest part of moving house is the last look round the empty rooms. Find the one thing left behind.
The old men at the harbour had been arguing about the same fish for forty years. Give each man his version of the fish.
On the first day at the new school, I told a small lie, and by Friday it needed a bigger one. State the small lie.
Our cat has a second family on Elm Road, and they call him Gerald. Meet the other family.
The school trip went wrong at the service station, as school trips do. Count the pupils again.
The summer I turned twelve, we lost the dog, found the dog and lost my uncle, in that order. Explain the uncle.
The tent came with instructions, and the instructions came in Swedish. Put two siblings and one mallet in a field at dusk.
There are two kinds of people at a car boot sale at six in the morning, and my mother is both. Follow her to the first stall.
There is a photograph of my parents before they were my parents, and they look like people I would have liked. Describe what they are laughing at.
There was a piano on the pavement outside number nine, and a note that said please play me before Thursday. Play it.
There were four of us in the car and five opinions about the route. Give the fifth opinion to the satnav, or the dog.
We buried the hamster with full honours and, as it turned out, prematurely. Write the next five minutes in the garden.
We had one rule in the shop: never ask what is in Mr Halloran's weekly parcel. Let the new Saturday assistant ask.
We were not a hugging family, so when Uncle Ray hugged me at the station, I knew something had changed. Let him say it in the car.
We were the sort of family that communicated mainly through notes on the fridge. Write today's note.
The wedding cake survived the journey, the heat and the dog, and then Uncle Pat offered to carry it. Follow the cake across the car park.
The week before the village show, my mother stopped speaking to anyone who grew dahlias. Introduce the neighbour's dahlias.
When the last shop in the village closed, we started leaving things for one another on the wall by the bus stop. Say what is on the wall this morning.
When the power went out across the whole street, somebody brought out a guitar, which made things worse. Find the neighbour who makes it better.
When the snow closed the school, the head teacher was the first one on the hill with a tray. Race her.

How this list was compiled: Original list written for Draw This Next, September 2026. Every opening sentence and every hint is original to this page: none is quoted or adapted from a published book, and no entry names a real person, a series or a character. Licence: own work

How it works

This first line generator deals one opening sentence from 400, such as My reflection blinked first, with a hint towards line two. Filter by fantasy, horror, mystery, romance, science fiction or everyday life, or start the timer.

Read the full guide

What the line gives you, and what the hint is for

Each sentence leaves a question open: the safe is open, the jewels are untouched and only a cheap umbrella is missing. Copy it down. The hint points at the question, here "Work out what was inside the umbrella", so your second sentence has a job. The list under the button narrows the draw to one kind of story.

Ten minutes from one sentence

The timer starts at ten minutes, enough for a page of longhand. Take the line from the genre you write least, where you have fewer habits.

Change the line to fit: swap she for he, the village for your town, past tense for present.
Stuck on line two? Do what the hint says and nothing more: "Open the drawer" is a whole paragraph.
In a group, draw 5 and let everyone choose one, then read the second sentences aloud.

Questions and answers

Which genres can I filter by?

Six: fantasy, horror, mystery and science fiction with 67 lines each, romance and everyday life with 66. Choose a genre and every draw comes from it until you change back. Everyday life suits literary fiction: my father could fix anything except a silence.

Can I use a first line in my own story?

Yes. Every sentence was written for this page, none is quoted or adapted from a published book, and you need not credit the site. Another writer may draw the same line, so change a name or a detail if that matters.

What makes a strong opening sentence?

It puts something out of place and lets the reader ask why. Here that means a fact that cannot be true, such as wet footprints going up the stairs and none coming down, a narrator with an attitude, or a rule about to break.