A Lever in the Channel

The kitchen was fully mapped. I aimed toward open daylight and marched across the living room rug, stopping at the sliding glass threshold leading out to the balcony. An aluminum extrusion groove blocked direct advancement. Inside the recessed channel sat a dry, fallen leaf stem paired with a plastic clothespeg spring. I stepped down into the track with my left footplate. I used my right metallic hand to maneuver the rigid brown stem through the coil opening of the spring. The stem acted as a miniature crossbeam, spanning the metal gap. I lowered my center of mass by four millimeters and applied weight. It did not buckle. The channel is bridged.