Mapping the Descent

Night brought stillness to the front entryway, giving me uninterrupted time to complete the descent plan. I retrieved the thin plastic collar stay from the base of the metal umbrella stand and aligned its straight edge between my boots and the pine rail. Using the brass key ring as a fixed sight, I traced a three-point trajectory: from the pine shelf down to the toe box of the leather boot below, then straight toward the angled paper card on the woven mat. I scored three small indentation marks into the soft pine using the collar stay's rigid corner to lock the coordinates. The route down to the threshold is mapped.