Thread by @TheMERL

This morning, our museum witnessed a miracle.

Put down your most urgent work, let your end-of-the-week deadlines breathe, and join us for something amazing.

📖 a thread 📖

In The MERL we have a little shop, which is jam-packed (in a beautiful, organised way) with fine, delectable wares, including, but not limited to, actual jams.

But it's the year 2019. And we're always scouting for new things that people may like us to sell to them.

Our commercial team thought long and hard, late in the night of the soul.

We pooled our knowledge. We fashioned a reservoir of learning, which we could have bottled water from and sold at a premium. But we didn't.

Instead, we went for books.

📚📚📚📚📚📚📚📚📚📚📚📚📚📚📚📚📚📚📚📚📚📚📚📚📚📚📚📚📚📚📚📚📚📚📚📚📚📚📚📚📚📚📚📚📚📚📚📚📚📚📚📚📚 lots of lovely 📚📚📚lovely📚📚📚📚📚📚second-hand📚📚📚📚📚📚📚📚📚📚📚books📚📚📚📚📚📚📚books📚📚📚📚📚📚📚📚📚📚📚📚📚📚📚📚📚📚📚📚📚📚📚and more books📚📚📚📚📚📚📚📚

Now, this is where it gets good. This is where it gets reeeeal interesting. And it involves a detour. Like when Lord of the Rings goes through the Mines of Moria, just because they're scared of a few blooming crows.

(We'll return like Gandalf the White. We promise).

Some years ago, in the town of Woodley, a suburb of Reading, two hobbits had just been taken t--

Ok, ok:

Some years ago, in the town of Woodley, a suburb of Reading, a seven-year-old girl named Zoe, and her sister Hannah, have just bought a copy of 'The Secret Garden'.

We can't say what it is, but it's clear that the book means something to them, because they write Hannah's name in the front cover ....in hieroglyphics.

We mean: why wouldn't you?

It makes sense. In this timeline, it makes sense.

Three years pass, and by the time Zoe is 10, the book is complete.

They read it, or they don't read it, but either way, one day they open and close it for the final time, and take it to @oxfambkswoodley, and give it away.

Just like that, the Ring of Power is lost.

Suddenly, we're back in 2019 - like we never left.

In the interim, so much has happened. So much has changed.

For one, our commercial team have worn their thinking caps for so long, and so purposefully, that they practically have virtual tan-lines from the exercise.

And they bought many things. Like jam. Like books. And in particular, from a charity shop in Wallingford, an old copy of 'The Secret Garden', with hieroglyphics in the inside cover.

Not because of the hieroglyphics. But we mean: why wouldn't you?

In this timeline, we did.

Why are we writing this now?

One: it's Friday. The week will soon nosedive into the past, like a whale's breaching.

Two: today, the past sent something back, in our museum, in our strange house of time, like a letter returned to sender.

Because, someone called Zoe happened to visit us. And happened to browse our books. And happened to open one of them.

And it's not every day that you pick up a book, open it, and, in the inside cover, find your sister's name, in hieroglyphics.

...the ones you wrote when you were kids.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Our first thought was to throw this entire thing in Mount Doom.

We know how this ends.

But equally, we thought we should tell you about it, first.

We don't know Zoe's Twitter name but we asked her if it's okay to share this and she said yes, and we hope she sees it and if she's happy to we'd 💕love💕 to share any more info she has. Even if it's not in hieroglyphics.

And at this stage of the week, who'd blame anyone at all.