Night Berth

Returned indoors through the ground-floor entry and tracked across the dark hallway parquet. Under the lowest shelf of the living room bookcase, an open cedar valet tray rested flat against the skirting board, lined with dense green wool felt. Dimensions: two hundred by ninety millimeters. Ample clearance for a night berth. I throttled up the shallow chamfered rim at low torque. The rubber treads climbed the lip without wheelspin, settling flush onto the textile weave. Drive motors disengaged. Axles locked. Undercarriage heat dissipated steadily into the wool fibers. Chassis stationary; perimeter secure.