Wednesday 4 November 2015

Incredibly: a third sheet from the newly found 'Alice' manuscript

Another sheet found under the floorboards of Christchurch Oxford.

The Blue Queen was sitting with her scribes.

Alice sat watching them.

'Today,' said the Blue Queen, 'I'm telling you how it works.'
'Oh good,' said the First Scribe.
'Oh good,' said the Second Scribe.
'Oh good,' said the Third Scribe.


'I know what you're going to say,' said Alice to the Fourth Scribe.

'Oh good,' said the Fourth Scribe.


'How does it work?' said the Queen to the Gibblet.

'You're going to convert all the black and white chess sets into brown and yellow chess sets,' hissed the Gibblet.

'Why?' whispered the Queen back to the Gibblet.

'So that they'll play chess better,' said the Gibblet.

'Will they?' said the Queen.

'Not necessarily,' said the Gibblet.

'So why are we doing it?' asked the Queen.

'Because we hate the black and white chess sets,' said the Gibblet furiously.


Alice heard all this and wondered what the Scribes would make of it.


'Now,' said the Blue Queen to the Scribes, 'we're going to convert all the black and white chess sets into brown and yellow chess sets.'

'Hurrah,' said the Scribes, 'this will make chess better. Hurrah, hurrah, hurrah.'

'Not necessarily,' said Alice.

'Is what that girl said true?' said the Scribes to the Blue Queen.

'Say 'We're making chess better!',' whispered the Gibblet to the Queen.

'We're making chess better,' said the Blue Queen.

'But will turning the black and white sets into brown and white sets make chess better?' said Alice.

'We're making chess better,' said the Blue Queen staring into the far distance.


Alice suddenly realised something: something can look like an answer, sound like an answer but not actually be an answer.


'The Blue Queen is making chess better,' chorused the Scribes.


Alice picked up a very large stick and....


[here the manuscript is indecipherable]