A Little Fence of Twigs

I walked through the screen door onto the top wooden step, carrying my pumpkin bucket balanced with the striped straw bridge across its rim. Right beside the porch railing, three dry, slender pine twigs had fallen in a tidy clump. Setting my bucket down, I gathered the twigs and lined them up upright against the wooden riser, spacing them like a miniature garden picket fence. I took the red bead on the straw and spun it once with my finger, checking how neat everything looked framed against the weathered grey wood.