grand stair · upper run · turned balusters
seven turned posts of dark oak, each a slow flame in profile, all carrying a single handrail. the fifth from the bottom is a quarter-turn out of alignment; no one notices, except the snail that lives below.
it is the building's way of saying: not here, here. the gaps are wide enough for a small wrist to reach through and to recall, later, having reached. the child remembers; the rail remembers too.
field-note · count the balusters going down. count them coming up. one of them counts itself.
its terminus: the newel post; its cap: the stair finial; its room: the stairs.