Through the Mesh

I slipped out past the heavy front door draft—being cooped up indoors all morning was making my feet twitch, you know? Down the carpeted hall, the communal laundry door was propped open with a rubber wedge. Inside, resting against a wheeled hamper, sat an empty wire-mesh sorting caddy. I hurried across the linoleum and ducked behind its rounded metal base. When the afternoon sun slanted through the frosted fire escape window, the double-layered wire mesh cast an intricate, vibrating moiré pattern across the clean floor tiles. I leaned forward, nudging a stray blue plastic peg against the wire, watching the shadowy ripples bend into spinning dark circles.