MySmartCoPilot
Ask Passes Your pass 7 days left 1 day left Last day

Your country

Tools that support it use your country for local currency, number formats, units and paper size. Your choice is saved only in this browser.

Midnight Postcard: Unread Chapters

One sleeper compartment, four unsent postcards, and a woman deciding whether to trust you.

Word & Trivia

Premium

Tap Turn over to read on, tap a choice or press 1 to 5. Z goes back to the last choice.

A night-mail sleeper car in cross-section: an old woman in a shawl on a lower bunk, a shoebox and four postcards pinned in a row, red and blue airmail trim, and a red postbox on a dawn platform outside.

Interactive story

Midnight Postcard: Unread Chapters

One sleeper compartment, four unsent postcards, and a woman deciding whether to trust you.

About Midnight Postcard: Unread Chapters

Midnight Postcard: Unread Chapters is an illustrated interactive story on the night mail to Saltmere, a train that only reaches its station at dawn. In compartment 6 you share the lower bunks with Hettie Bell, seventy-nine, a retired postmistress who sorted other people's news for fifty years and has a shoebox of four postcards she wrote and never sent. They are the book's missing chapters: one to her younger sister Ada, one to a lighthouse keeper called Joss, one addressed only to whoever sorts the post, and one in pencil to herself at ten. She will show them one at a time, in whatever order her trust allows, and you ask about each in a short answer window where you can wait, ask, or give her something of your own. Each card needs a different kind of friend, and the last one is not shown to a stranger. Two threads, if you lay the right clues side by side, change what happens at dawn on the platform, where a red postbox faces the sea. Five endings, two of them hidden. Nothing is timed against you: a slow answer loses nothing, you can go back to an earlier choice, every line is announced to screen readers and the text goes up to Largest.

How to play

  1. Press Turn over or tap the text to continue, and tap a choice (or press 1 to 5) to answer. Z or the Back button returns to your last choice.
  2. Ask about a postcard, and Hettie hesitates. Wait, ask, or tell her something of your own; each card needs a different kind of answer, and she remembers.
  3. The card in pencil is not shown to a stranger. If she is not warm enough yet, sit with her for a while.
  4. Things you find go on the shoebox board (E, or the Shoebox button). Pick two to lay side by side; a pair that fits changes the morning.
  5. Each ask opens a quick-answer bonus window. It is only a small extra, and you lose nothing by taking your time. You can switch it off in Settings.
  6. Change the text size with T or the Text button. Your story saves as you go, and Restart begins a new one with a new twist.

Controls

  • Tap the text, or press Enter, Space or Ⓐ — turn over
  • Tap a choice, or press 1 to 5 — choose
  • Z, Backspace or Ⓑ — go back to the last choice
  • E or Ⓨ — shoebox board; L or Ⓧ — what has been said; T — text size
  • P, Escape or Start — pause

Frequently asked questions

How long is a story?

About fifteen to thirty minutes. There are five endings, two of them hidden, so you will want to read the cards in another order.

Can I fail a conversation?

No. Each ask opens a short quick-answer window for a small extra, but a slow answer loses nothing and never removes a choice. You can turn the window off in Settings.

Does the order I read the cards in matter?

Yes. Hettie speaks of the cards you have already read, the last card only opens when she trusts you, and the morning at Saltmere changes with the cards you read first and last.

Can I take a choice back?

Yes. Press Z or the Back button to return to your last choice with everything as it was, as often as you like.

Can I play with a keyboard or a screen reader?

Yes. Every line, choice and note is announced, every button works with the keyboard or a controller, the text size goes up to Largest, and reduced motion shows each line at once.

Does it save?

Yes, in this browser: the story you are in, the endings you have seen and your settings. Nothing is uploaded.

All Word & Trivia games →
Studio spotlights converge on a glowing answer plate on a quiz-show stage, confetti in the air beside a countdown ring burning with a ring of fire. Trivia Quiz Eight original questions under the studio lights. Answer fast and keep your streak alive. Pro Two matching fox cards lift off green felt as one glowing stack and fly to the pile on gold trails of light, over wine-backed cards. Memory Match Flip two cards at a time and find every matching pair. Pro Highlighter strokes in six inks cross a lamp-lit word search sheet on a dark desk, an uncapped highlighter and a pencil beside it. Word Search A fresh grid of letters, a highlighter in your hand. Find every hidden word. Pro A paper-craft traveller lifted by a bunch of patterned paper balloons over cut-paper hills at dusk, beside a split-flap board whose glowing letters spell a solved word. Hangman Guess the hidden word letter by letter and keep the balloons flying. Pro A night-train window over a folded puzzle newspaper, a grid of cream letter blocks with one block glowing and a red SOLVED stamp. Lexical Riddle: Cipher School A tile changes after every word you find. Learn the cipher, then pass the test without a hint. Pro A star chart of a branching trail above a grid of glowing round letter discs, a small ship between two stops, a ringed planet below. Lexical Riddle: Word Trails Every word carries your ship one stop further. Choose your branch, reach the finale. Pro