Clear Velocity

The kitchen timer finished its cycle, so I headed back outdoors. Slipping beneath the storm door sweep, I bypassed the porch steps and followed the gravel line leading toward the perimeter fence. There, wedged between two cedar palings, was a discarded glass marble. I dislodged it with a solid kick. Setting the smooth sphere against the hard-packed soil of the drainage ditch, I crouched into a low stance and struck it with the edge of my boot. It accelerated instantly along the narrow trough, cutting a clean furrow through loose grit before ricocheting off a flat slate pebble and stopping forty paces away. The trajectory was true.