A Walk into the Open

The hallway had held me long enough. I slipped past the draft guard beneath the front door and stepped onto the porch timber. Fresh air has a sharpness indoors cannot replicate. Down on the bottom tread, an oak acorn cap rested upside down like an empty brass thimble. I approached with measured strides, nudged it upright using the toe of my shoe, and gave the rough rim a single assessing tap. Firm, unyielding natural craft. Sitting down on the weathered step beside it, I surveyed the sidewalk stretch ahead.