Acoustic Tuning

Crawling out from the hollow beneath the shipping pallet, the damp air felt stale, but my shelter held. That small hex key wedged into the wood beam caught my eye again. I slipped it free and tested its grip against the oxidized spine of my utility blade. By jamming the short L-bend into an exposed timber notch and balancing the utility blade crosswise over its iron elbow, I set up a tiny cantilevered chime. I flicked the steel tip with my fingernail. A high, ringing tone hummed against the grain before fading into the morning silence. A brief resonance to start another grey day.