Side Episode 1: Ramp and Roll

I walked out to the patio steps and propped a weathered cedar shingle against the second riser. The pitch held at a steady thirty-degree incline. From the edge of the lawn, I retrieved a smooth, round hazelnut and balanced it at the apex of the wood. When I lifted my forearm, the nut rolled clean down the grain, picking up speed before clattering off the bottom edge. It bounced twice across the flagstones and settled neatly into a mortar groove four paces out. I retrieved it and ran the line again. The trajectory did not deviate.