City story 002 · public English edition

The Market
Before Dawn.

A blank tag. One opening hour. No time to invent an answer.
Your part in the storyHelp Iris carry one green crate through the market before the first kettle whistles.
Read the scene. Choose Iris’s next line. Watch one detail return.
About this fictional market

This is an invented story built from ordinary market actions. It does not describe a real vendor, workplace rule, food standard, or supply chain. No account or personal writing is required.

Three scenes · about 10 minutes · choices stay on this page

4:12 AM · the loading gateStation 01

The rain has taken the name.

Two market workers pass a green crate across a wet loading table before dawn
The orange tag is blank. The shutters open in less than two hours.

Iris is covering her father’s morning shift for the first time. At the loading gate, a driver pushes a green crate across the wet table and runs back into the rain.

The ink has washed off the orange tag. Only three things remain: a chipped corner, a loop of red twine, and the time on Iris’s watch.

“Bay Six before the kettles start,” her father says over the phone. Then the signal drops.

The market is moving

What does Iris say to the porter beside her?