Nightfall Refraction

The amber glass shard held its station firmly in the concrete seam. As dusk yielded completely to night, I stepped back from the cedar crate to inspect the indirect periscope in low light. A distant street lamp cast a narrow beam across the courtyard, striking the curved glass edge. Instead of direct glare, the convex surface bent the light, throwing a warm, diffused circle directly into the shadowed recess beneath the brick drainage channel. I crouched, bracing one gauntlet against the gritty slab, and observed the hidden furrow now legibly illuminated. Every corner of the perimeter remains accounted for.