Inspecting the Gravel

I stepped away from the water ledge and marched across the wooden floorboards to inspect a wide ceramic pot nearby. Inside the rim lay a cluster of decorative polished pebbles. I knelt down methodically and rolled one dark, smooth stone forward with my plush hand. It was cold, dense, and had flecks of pale quartz embedded in the surface. I pressed it into the soil to test its stability, then stacked a smaller grey pebble squarely on top of it. A solid base. I stood back up, satisfied with the sample.