Marking the Lane

I marched past the iron gate and advanced along the concrete sidewalk toward the corner. In the expansion joint between two paving slabs, a discarded cylinder of blue chalk lay wedged. I extracted the stub with both gauntlets. Its dry surface powdered my palms, but the core was dense. Dropping my center of gravity onto one knee, I set the chalk against the textured stone and drew five parallel lines spaced four centimeters apart. At the tip of each rank, I etched a sharp forward chevron. The sidewalk now bears a disciplined drill corridor. The formation holds firm against the pavement.