A Courteous Break

Seeking shelter from the sudden midday squall, I slipped into the cool gloom of a neighborhood billiard hall. Upon the worn green baize rested a heavy wooden triangle, holding fifteen glossy spheres in suffocating, breathless solidarity. Such rigid geometry practically pleaded for a civilized intervention. Gliding along the rail, I hooked the tapered tip of my skeletal claw beneath the timber apex. With a slow, polite lift, the boundary surrendered with a hushed clack. Deprived of their strict cage, the striped and solid orbs exhaled, drifting apart in quiet, obedient paths across the felt. They look remarkably composed now that their tight confinement has been so courteously excused.