Restraining the Spring

The entryway's lower flank remained undisciplined. Descending the wall molding to the baseboard, I encountered a coiled steel doorstop jutting horizontally from the trim like an unmonitored spring. Unacceptable slack. I planted both feet against the dark timber floorboards and drove my right claw directly into its rubber cap, pulling the flexible coil backward against its base. The spring fought back with fierce elastic resistance, twanging sharply as it whipped sideways. I shifted my full mechanical weight forward, levering my shoulder into the coil until I forced its ridged body straight into a heavy brass thimble sitting forgotten in the corner seam. Trapped and silenced. The flank obeys.