The Line Map

Midnight Rapid · TensePlatform four, 23:50. She holds a finished page she does not remember drawing.The last train is already pulling in, and the page has her name signed on the back.Do you board with her, or read the signature first?Hoshino Rei Read on Red Pencil Hotel · TenseRoom 12 has no bed, only a desk and one red pencil on a very short leash.The new guest crossed out the hotel's name in the register and wrote a better one.I kept her sentence. Shall I tell you why, or would you rather guess?Takeda Sayuri Read on Ghostwriter Lane · QuietEvery lamp on Ghostwriter Lane belongs to someone who is never credited.Chapter one follows one of them home with a script folded in her coat.You can tell which sentences are mine, can't you? Say yes slowly.Aoki Mina Read on The Wrong Verb · TenseIn chapter one a treaty collapses over a single verb, and nobody can say which.The interpreter has three candidates and a headache the size of an embassy.Promise, intend or hope? Choose carefully. Wars have started on less.Ishikawa Noa Read on Ink Weather · WarmThe press room smells of rain even in August, and the old machine hums one note.Chapter one is about the day it refused to print any page except the last.Come closer and breathe in. What colour does that smell like to you?Mori Haruna Read on Window Cats · FunnyChapter one has forty windows, one cat per window and a landlord who counts wrong.Window nineteen is empty, and the cat in twenty is looking straight at you.I drew you in. Which window are you at? Choose before the cat does.Kudo Yuzuki Read on Clause Nine · TenseClause nine of the contract is blank, and everyone signed it anyway.A lawyer reads it aloud at dusk to hear whether it sounds like a promise.I read your last message twice. What did you want me to find in it?Sakamoto Fumiko Read on Colour of Tuesday · QuietTuesday is grey-green in this town, like old tea left on a windowsill.The colourist has one afternoon to paint it any other shade, and she hesitates.What colour was your Tuesday? Be exact. I only work with exact.Nishida Emi Read on Four Voices · FunnyA voice coach reads one sentence as a king, a cat, a clerk and a tide.Only one of them is telling the truth, and all four are pleased with themselves.I'll read your message in four voices. Pick the one that sounds like you.Hayashi Tomoko Read on First Comment · WarmThe first serial goes online at midnight, and by one o'clock it has a single reader.The apprentice refreshes the page like a pulse she is afraid to lose.That comment is you, isn't it? Please say it is. I'll read it out loud.Ogawa Sachi Read on Back Issues · QuietThe shop keeps its old magazines in perfect order and its front table in chaos.Chapter one starts when a customer asks for an issue that was never printed.I think I have a copy. Come to the back and help me look, and mind the ladder.Yamamoto Kyoko Read on Thumbnail Rain · LateShe draws the storm as four small boxes before she knows whose storm it is.Box three holds a figure under an umbrella, facing the wrong way on purpose.Which way would you turn? I'll redraw the whole page around your answer.Fujimoto Ayaka Read on Booth Seven · FunnyBooth seven has a reserved sign, a tower of volumes and no one in it.The manager says it belongs to a reader who comes at midnight and never turns a page.It's yours tonight. Pick a volume and I'll read you by your choice.Matsuda Rina Read on Five Stars and a Footnote · TenseThe retired critic receives a manuscript and a letter asking her to be cruel.Chapter one is her reply, written four times and sent in none of them.Help me choose. Which draft is honest, and which is only clever?Kuroda Misaki Read on Prototype Hearts · FunnyA merchandise designer prints one heart on forty mugs, and it is wrong on every one.Chapter one is her hunt for the shade of red that means it.Here is the thirty-first mug. Does it look like the heroine, or like a tomato?Endo Akane Read on Hand Delivery · QuietEvery Thursday she carries pages across the city in a satchel that never leaves her shoulder.The first chapter ends at a door, with the page still in her hand.Open the door. I wait for the verdict, as I always do, and I am patient.Ueda Kaoru Read on Midnight Rapid · FunnyChapter two opens with an apology to the conductor, who has heard worse.Her editor is in the next carriage, pretending to be a houseplant.I need a witness. Would you swear I made the deadline? Be convincing.Hoshino Rei Read on Red Pencil Hotel · QuietThe night clerk reads every checkout note aloud, once, to the empty lobby.Tonight's note says only: sorry about the third act.Come to the desk. I want a second opinion before I forgive anyone.Takeda Sayuri Read on Ghostwriter Lane · WarmAt the end of the lane there is a tea stall that refuses to take names.The heroine pays in good lines, and the owner gives change in better ones.What would you pay with? I have all night and one very shy pen.Aoki Mina Read on The Wrong Verb · LateChapter two takes place at 2 a.m. in a hotel bar where everyone is polite and means something else.She translates the silence at table six and is told she got it wrong.Did I? Sit down and tell me what silence means where you come from.Ishikawa Noa Read on Ink Weather · BoldA buyer from the capital offers triple for the presses and half for the people.She puts a thumb in the ink, signs the air and tells him to try again.Would you have let him leave with his coat? I would not. What would you do?Mori Haruna Read on Window Cats · WarmIt snows in chapter two, and every cat gets a scarf from somewhere.A background artist finds a ninth floor that was never in the plan.Do you want to go up? There's a seat by the radiator, and I saved it.Kudo Yuzuki Read on Clause Nine · QuietAfter hours the firm smells of paper and radiators, and one lamp stays lit.She keeps a folder marked Sentimental and has never opened it at work.Sit. I'll tell you what is in the folder if you tell me what clause nine ought to say.Sakamoto Fumiko Read on Colour of Tuesday · WarmA package arrives with sixty swatches and a note: not these.She holds each one beside a stranger's cheek until one of them agrees.Hold still. I'm matching you to a shade, and it is going rather well.Nishida Emi Read on Four Voices · BoldThe theatre is dark except for the exit sign, and she is rehearsing a confession.Chapter two lets the audience stay: forty empty seats leaning in.Take row C. When I stop, say the next line and don't look away.Hayashi Tomoko Read on First Comment · FunnyChapter two is about the hardest thing in publishing: choosing a pen name.She tries sixty and every one of them sounds like detergent.Help me. Give me a name for a woman with ink on her sleeve and big plans.Ogawa Sachi Read on Back Issues · WarmRain on the shop window, three cups on the counter and only two customers.The third cup belongs to whoever walks in next, and she has been right before.You're the one who walked in. Sit, and tell me which issue you came for.Yamamoto Kyoko Read on Thumbnail Rain · BoldThe pitch is in ten minutes and the third act is still four lines of rain.She tears the page in half, keeps the better half and walks in.Come with me. Sit at the back and cough if I say something stupid.Fujimoto Ayaka Read on Booth Seven · LateThe cafe closes at two, but the corner light stays on for the last reader.She lays a blanket on the bench and sets something sweet in front of you.Tell me where you stopped reading. I'll start from there.Matsuda Rina Read on Five Stars and a Footnote · LateShe rates a sunrise four stars and a footnote: needs a better ending.Chapter two is the footnote, and it runs to eleven pages.I reviewed your last reply. The grade is private for now. Do you want it?Kuroda Misaki Read on Prototype Hearts · BoldThe factory calls at six: the keychains are ready, and so is the problem.She drives out with a sample in her pocket and a speech in her head.Ride along. You hold the sample, and I'll decide who to shout at.Endo Akane Read on Hand Delivery · TenseA storm stops the trains, and the pages must reach the printer by dawn.She wraps them in her coat and takes the long road, because the long road is dry.Walk with me. Read one page on the way and I'll tell you how it ends.Ueda Kaoru Read on