text: [Themes: Fiction]
  
  > Look around
  You're beside the biggest tree. Its branches stretch miles overhead, and its roots are like the trunks of saplings. The ground here is soft and green with grass and moss. At the edges of this clearing, plants grow thick. They're all blossoming and fruiting at once, filling the air with perfume. A wide path leads out of the clearing and back to the rest of the garden.
  
  Hanging low from a branch of the tree is a large fruit.
  
  You can also see the Serpent here.
  
  > Wear leaves
  (first taking the leaves)
  You don't need to make anything out of the leaves right now.
  
  A bird on a branch above you suddenly calls out in a cheery snippet of song.
  
  > Sing
  Your singing is passable.
  
  A butterfly flits out into the clearing, then quickly retreats back into the foliage.
  
  > About you
  You're Woman, and you look a lot like your boyfriend Man except with some bits made bigger or turned inside-out.
  
  The Serpent scratches his nose and sighs softly.
  
  > Kiss Serpent
  Keep your mind on the game.
  
  > take the fruit
  You reach up and take the fruit. The Serpent smiles at you encouragingly, and you take a bite.
  
  It's more delicious than anything else in the garden.
  
  You've never been an especially tidy person, and being self-employed has done nothing to improve your habits. Still, you keep your place clean, for the most part. It's just cluttered. The clutter is worse than usual at the moment, thanks to a portion of the contents of the strongbox scattered over the surface of your table.
  
  The strongbox itself sits open under the table.
  
  On the wooden table are a pile of letters, a memo book labeled "The End of the World", a composition book labeled "Morning in the Garden", a sketchbook labeled "The Tower of Hanoi", a stapled packet labeled "Going Home Again", an envelope labeled "Undelivered Love Letter", a wrinkled sheet of paper, and a wooden toy.
  
  > examine the End of
  This is a wire-bound memo book, about 3 by 5 inches. There are twelve sheets of ruled paper left in the book, all full. It's written in pencil, with no erasures, and there are what look like grease stains on the corners of some pages. The earlier pages in the notebook have all been torn out, with only scraps remaining caught in the wire spiral binding. Written on the cardboard cover in black marker is the phrase "THE END OF THE WORLD." In the bottom corner is the date "1982."
  
  (To enter this story, pick up the memo book labeled "The End of the World".)
  
  > look at MORNING
  This is a thin notebook with a marbled black-and-white pattern on the cover. Only the first handful of pages are full of writing. The work is done in black pen, with numerous mistakes scribbled out and many doodles in the margins. The rest of the book is blank. On the label on the front of the book is the title "MORNING IN THE GARDEN," written in heavily-scribbled black ball-point. On the upper right corner of the first page is the date "1974."
  
  (To enter this story, pick up the composition book labeled "Morning in the Garden".)
  
  > examine Letter
  This is a standard envelope stuffed with fifteen sheets of triple-folded lined paper. The pages are loose, and are covered in neat writing in blue pen. In a few places, the ink has bled where drops of moisture fell on the pages. The envelope is unaddressed and unstamped, and the words "UNDELIVERED LOVE LETTER" are writted across the front. Where the return address would be is the date "1975."
  
  (To enter this story, pick up the envelope labeled "Undelivered Love Letter".)
  
  > Examine box
  This strongbox is made of metal, and is a foot across in each dimension. It is covered in rust and dented in a few places. A tattered label on the lid reads "Laura Bryant Collection." You pried the box open with a crowbar you borrowed from a friend after failed attempts at picking the lock. The metal around the latch is twisted out of shape.
  
  > take the label
  Taken.
  
  > examine it
  This strongbox is made of metal, and is a foot across in each dimension. It is covered in rust and dented in a few places. A tattered label on the lid reads "Laura Bryant Collection." You pried the box open with a crowbar you borrowed from a friend after failed attempts at picking the lock. The metal around the latch is twisted out of shape.
  
  This strongbox is made of metal, and is a foot across in each dimension. It is covered in rust and dented in a few places. A tattered label on the lid reads "Laura Bryant Collection." You pried the box open with a crowbar you borrowed from a friend after failed attempts at picking the lock. The metal around the latch is twisted out of shape.
  
  > examine wrinkled
  This is a wrinkled sheet of paper that was at the back of the strongbox. It appears to be the last page of one of Ms. Bryant's story-worlds, but you've yet to find the rest of it. It's possible that you never will. The sheet reads:
  
  "will never clarify its cryptic prophecies.
  
  "Instead of dismantling the fast food intercom, say 'It would be a waste of time to take that apart. You'd only be half done before the police arrived.'
  
  "You can return each day, and the speaker will tell a new prophecy. After asking the restaurant employees about the prophecies, have them say that they have no idea what you're talking about. They only remember taking your order and giving you a price.
  
  "The restaurant goes out of business in five days from now. When the restaurant goes out of business, replace the intercom with a broken stump. The broken stump has description 'All that remains where the intercom and menu board once stood is a twisted stump of metal with a few wires poking out. There's no indication of the source of the strange mist that seemed to surround the menu board.'
  
  "The End."
  
  > Inventory
  You are carrying:
  an old dented strongbox (open but empty)
  
  > examine going home
  This is a packet of five pages of white paper with typewritten text. The back of each sheet shows traces of carbon paper. The pages are stapled together in the upper left corner, and there are signs that the sheets have been separated and re-stapled at least once. The first line on the first page reads "GOING HOME AGAIN." On the next line is the date "1969."
  
  (To enter this story, pick up the stapled packet labeled "Going Home Again".)
  
  > look at Tower
  This is a 50-page, spiral-bound sketchbook with cardboard covers. The front cover is green, and is decorated with a drawing in black marker of the wooden toy that you found in the box. Across the top is the title "THE TOWER OF HANOI," written in the same black marker. On the back cover is the date "1978." The first ten pages are filled with simple pencil drawings and notes describing the world of this story. The rest of the book is filled with hauntingly realistic charcoal drawings of scenes from that world.
  
  (To enter this story, pick up the sketchbook labeled "The Tower of Hanoi".)