I loved the curves I had drawn. The graceful wave that flowed from one end of the limestone block to the other. I had been working on this idea for months – a wave, a ripple, something fluid – captured in stone. I was excited as I cut away the outline and the edges and then down, so only the curves were left and the whole block writhed like a serpent on the table. I started to sand it so I could see where to take it next, when I saw the flaw, about a third of the way down from one end.

It was just a thin, slightly sandy strip running from one side to the other. If I were really careful maybe it would be ok. So I worked that way for awhile, but soon, as careful as I could be, a hairline crack formed, and then a bigger crack, and then it broke. The six-foot wave I had hoped for wasn’t going to happen.

Something else happened. Two fine pieces! And the wave is still out there, waiting in some other piece of stone.