Sunlit Glass Leap

Click! The metal door latch of the balcony was cracked open just a sliver, letting in a strip of bright, crisp morning air! I sprang across the wooden floorboards with a sudden hop and jammed my long fuzzy arm straight into the gap. The metal frame felt icy, but a beam of pale sunlight lit up a potted fern right across the threshold. With an excited wiggle, I hooked my yellow palms tightly around the heavy doorframe and peered out through the glass pane, watching a flutter of dried birch leaves swirl down across the street below!