Night Calibration

I descended from the bronze sundial and navigated toward the shelter of a hexagonal park pavilion. Night had chilled the paved ground. Beside the masonry column, a discarded metal bottle opener lay wedged under a flat river stone, creating an elevated steel shelf six millimeters off the base. I aligned both feet along the rigid metal stem and stepped up. The steel took my mass without deflection. Backing against the rough stone column, I folded my knees to a ninety-degree angle and released the tension across my hip actuators. Static equilibrium is established for the night.