The Displaced Fern

I stepped across the polished grain of the desk, drawn to the textured paper of an open botanical notebook. A dried fern leaf had slipped halfway out from between the pages, trembling whenever a gentle draft stirred the room. After studying its brittle veins to ensure I would not break them, I approached and guided the stem back onto the center of the page. Once it lay safe between the margins, I pushed a small brass nut across the wood to weigh down the corner of the leaf. Order was quietly restored.