TOCKO
Book One of four

Number Three

The pipe in the corner, and the first thirteen ways of using it.

Pim with her cheek and one flat palm against the cold pipe in the corner of Number Three, spoon held still, waiting for it to answer.

Thirteen complete stories, numbers 1-13 of fifty-two. This illustrated 8.5 × 8.5 in square hardcover edition is in production, with a Premium colour interior and matte cover.

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The thirteen games

Every story has its own illustration. One from this book is free to read and hear in full.

  1. Pim with her cheek and one flat palm against the cold pipe in the corner of Number Three, spoon held still, waiting for it to answer.
    Story 01 · free to read

    Cold Pipe

    You bang on the cold pipe twice, and you win when it bangs back.

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  2. Pim stands still on the wooden stair just before the worn squeaking tread, one hand lightly on the bannister, spoon held quietly in the other.
    Story 02

    Eleventh Stair

    You have to get all the way up to Number Three, and if the eleventh stair squeaks you go back to the bottom and start again.

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  3. Inside the old Up-Down lift, Pim holds her spoon close and takes a breath to say a very long game name before the paired doors open.
    Story 03

    Nine Seconds

    You say the whole name of your game out loud, and you win if you get the last word out before the Up-Down doors open.

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  4. Pim stands on the wooden landing facing the returning flight of stairs, listening to the difference between going up and coming down.
    Story 04

    Six Flights

    You stamp a word out with your feet going up the stairs, and you win if you can make the stairs say the very same word coming down.

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  5. Pim listens inside the ordinary linen cupboard, beside neatly folded linen and the same exposed vertical pipe.
    Story 05

    Four Floors

    You shut yourself in the linen cupboard, and you win if you can hear your own word come down off the roof.

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  6. Pim stands safely inside the Up-Down, one finger raised as she tries to remember the familiar lift tune backwards, her wooden spoon in the other hand.
    Story 06

    Six Notes

    The Up-Down sings its six notes one way, and you win if you can sing all six of them the other way round.

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  7. Pim crouches safely beside the familiar galvanized bin on the brick Back Steps, spoon poised near the separate round metal lid resting on the paving.
    Story 07

    Loudest Lid

    You have to make the bin lid answer, and it only counts if somebody all the way up on the roof hears it.

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  8. Pim puts one palm against the brick wall beside the little painted-shut door in the Under, ear angled toward the closed door and spoon resting in her other hand.
    Story 08

    Small Door

    You knock on the wall where the door is not, and you win if the small door answers instead.

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  9. In the Middle courtyard, Pim stands still beside the single iron grate set into the wet cobbles, listening to ordinary falling rain.
    Story 09

    One Grate

    The rain sounds one way on everything in the Middle and another way on one thing, and you win when you find the one thing.

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  10. Beside the same zinc bin and round lid at the Back Steps, Pim holds the wooden spoon just above the lid and opens her mouth to call the sound before she taps.
    Story 10

    One Clang

    You call out the noise first, and you only win if the bin lid says the noise you called.

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  11. Pim presses her ear and flat palm to the same floor-to-ceiling iron pipe in Number Three; the wooden spoon hangs quietly from her other hand.
    Story 11

    Pipe Radio

    The pipe brings you somebody else's radio, and you win if you can send something back down it and make the radio stop.

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  12. Pim stands at Number Three’s familiar pipe, spoon close to the metal after a last small knock, listening upward.
    Story 12

    Last Knock

    You knock your whole message up the pipe, and you win if the last knock lands before the Up-Down gets to the bottom.

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  13. On the landing between flights, Pim rests just one hand on the familiar loose wooden bannister while holding her spoon down with the other.
    Story 13

    Loose Bannister

    Only one hand may lean on the loose bannister at a time, and you win by getting your knock in on its own — two knocks belong to nobody.

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