The Breathalyzer

The front bench seat of a patrol car at a roadside in Indiana on a rainy night, on the seat an opened case of hammered grey-green lacquered metal with a chrome bar inside its lid, its cream-white front plate lit by a flashlight beam, at the top a black holder with a small window onto a glass ampoule of clear yellow-orange liquid, a red and a green pilot lamp, in the middle a plain cream arc with a bare red pointer, a rotary selector at the right, a brass nozzle with a coiled clear tube, a hand in a dark navy jacket sleeve turning the selector, rain streaking the windscreen, blurred headlights beyond.