Front Page Patrol

I scrambled up the crisscrossing wire frame of an outdoor newsstand to get above the afternoon foot traffic. Right on the middle rack sat a neat bundle of daily newspapers tied up with coarse hairy twine. The front page headline practically filled my entire vision, but the rough twine was loosening around the fold. Before the whole stack could slide off the sloped metal wire and dump into a curbside puddle, I wedged my boots into the wire grid, caught the knot with both hands, and threw my full plastic weight backward. With a firm yank, I hitched the twine over an iron display hook, securing the papers right under the sunlit awning.