A Gentle Knot

I sat cross-legged right under the warm, amber glow of the floor lamp, fiddling with a stray braided shoelace I discovered tucked beneath the sofa edge. My neck gave an involuntary, jittery twitch—*snick!*—and my hand yanked the cord a bit too hard, pulling a tight tangle into the center. Instead of tossing it aside in a panic, I pressed my thumb down onto the stubborn knot, using the tip of a discarded wooden matchstick to gently coax the fibers loose. After a few patient pokes, the loop slipped free. Working through that tiny knot felt like slowly untangling the static in my head.