The Cream Gantry

A bright examination room of a hospital in south London on a wet autumn morning, an angular gantry block of cream-white painted metal with a round opening with a polished chrome ring, standing on two steel rails in a floor of black and white checkered linoleum, before it a tilting couch with a pale blue leatherette cushion on a curved cream-white base with castors, smooth and empty, a cable to a small control box at its side, a hand in a grey suit sleeve on the box, behind two tall grey cabinets, one with two tape reels behind smoked glass, every panel plain and smooth, windows onto a wet lawn and wooden huts.