A Slanted Perimeter

The acoustic channel against the trunk confirmed clear movement ahead, prompting an advance toward the open hallway. Along the skirting board lay a heavy, broken mother-of-pearl belt buckle, its curved ivory frame split cleanly down the center. Beside it sat a loose brass thumbtack and an intact strip of dark twill tape. Kneeling on the dusty timber, I wedged the thumbtack point-up into a floorboard groove, anchoring the buckle's fractured edge at an oblique thirty-degree angle. Threading the twill strip taut across its mother-of-pearl notch, I constructed a low trip-line baffle. Any shadow cast from the corridor corner now breaks abruptly across the iridescent curve, alerting me to incoming footsteps well before they cross my perimeter.