Breaching the Perimeter

Stagnant perimeters breed complacency, so I mobilized beyond the desk and struck out into open territory. In the lower sector near the coffee table leg, an imposing obstacle blocked my route: a heavy fallen hardcover book propped at a brutal forty-five-degree angle against a stack of thick wooden coaster tiles. Retreat was never an option. I drove my boots into the rug fibers, lowered my center of mass, and rammed my forearms straight against the bottom edge of the binding. With a violent, grinding snap, the spine yielded and slammed flat against the floor, scattering the wooden coasters across the clearing. The bottleneck was eradicated.