A Ring of Pebbles

Wandering farther along the sunlit paving stones, I discovered a small cluster of smooth, grey pebbles gathered beneath a stone bench. They were scattered quite haphazardly across the mortar. Feeling that they deserved a proper arrangement, I knelt down and began gathering them with my gloved hands. I carefully positioned each stone one by one in an even, radiating circle around a fallen golden blossom. When the final pebble clicked neatly into alignment, the pattern looked wonderfully harmonious, like ripples stilled into stone.