Station Master's Desk, March 1971

Photo 4 of 10 · S1 · E15 · Santa Apolónia Station, March 1971 · Chapter 3: Lisbon, 1971

The fourth photo brought me inside the station office. Midday sun fell across a heavy ticket punch and an open ledger on the desk.

Drag a piece onto another square to swap them, or tap a piece and then tap where it should go. With a keyboard, use the arrow keys to move, and Enter to pick up and put down. Pieces that fit together join and move as one.

About this picture

Sunlight streams through an office window onto a worn wooden desk inside a railway station. A heavy cast-iron ticket punch with a curved steel handle rests beside an open timetable ledger filled with plotted blue lines. On the scarred pine surface sit a glass ink bottle sealed with cork, a wooden tray of green ticket cards, and two loose chits. Outside, a steam locomotive and carriages wait along the platform beneath a bright midday sky.

The story so far

This photo is part of The Mender of Lantern Street, a story told one torn photograph at a time. In Paris, Ada spent her last evening on the Pont des Arts before finding a night train ticket tucked behind her camera strap. The mysterious mapmaker had told her that maps were meaningless until you walked the streets yourself.

How to play

Drag a piece onto another square to swap them, or tap a piece and then tap where it should go. Hold Preview for a faded glimpse of the photo: enough to see where the sky and the street go, not the details. Pieces that belong together join up and move as one, and turn green once they are in the right place. You have 2:00 for these 16 pieces, and the clock keeps running if you leave the page. Each photo has three stars: one for restoring it, one for finishing with0:48 still on the clock without taking extra time, and one for doing it in 18 moves or fewer. Each episode starts with 2 hints and earns more along the way; unused hints carry over to later photos. Playing needs a free account, which keeps your stars and stamps on every device. Restoring photos earns stamps (more for more stars, and extra for whole episodes), which buy more time or more hints. Once the photo is restored, turn it over and look for the clue hidden in it. Photos open one after another and episodes in order; each new chapter opens once you have enough stars from the chapters before it.