Alignment of the Stones

A narrow terracotta trough sits quietly on the outer ledge. Inside, dry potting soil hosted three smooth, dark river pebbles abandoned in haphazard drift. I stepped along the earthen edge, testing the soil's firm crust beneath my base. Chaos in miniature. Rotating my flanking heads slightly to calculate the axis, I pressed my rigid central column against the first oblong stone. Soil resisted, then yielded. I nudged the second and third until all three sat in a taut, single file along the inner rim. Disarray subdued.