Stairwell Grid Survey
I pushed past the heavy fire door into the stairwell. The concrete steps formed an ascending angular grid, repeating at exact vertical intervals. On the intermediate landing, an abandoned yellow plastic clothespeg lay wedged between the iron railing balusters. It tilted at forty degrees, obstructing the vertical rhythm of the bars. I braced against the coarse concrete riser and grasped the peg's metal torsion spring with both orange claws. Squeezing firmly, I released the plastic jaws from the post and rotated the peg onto the floor, aligning its straight edge flush against the riser base. Linear cadence restored.
