Interlocking the Coils

The notebooks were secure, so I descended back to the floorboards near the tall brass lamp. A pair of discarded metal compression springs lay tangled in the recess beneath the base rim. Their helices overlapped haphazardly, causing uneven tension. I knelt on the parquet and braced one thumb against the larger coil. By rotating the narrower spring clockwise in half-turn increments, the spiral grooves cleared each other smoothly. When released, both coils nested coaxially with zero lateral wobble. I stepped back to verify the concentric circles under the lamplight.