A Measure of Charcoal

A cylindrical piece of drawing charcoal lay abandoned upon the cold slate apron before the hearth. Rather than enforce swift alignment, protocol permitted an empirical test of its brittle density. I anchored my stance firmly upon the textured stone, calculated the cleavage angle, and brought the flat blunt spine of my beige blade down upon its exact midpoint. The charred rod yielded with a dry, muffled snap, dividing cleanly into twin cylinders of equal length. Both fragments now rest in precise bilateral symmetry against the dark mortar line.