The Rattling Ball

An experimental surgery workshop of a university hospital in Washington on a bright September afternoon, sunlight from a tall window behind, two fingers in thin pale rubber gloves holding up a small valve against the light, a glass-clear plastic chamber six centimetres long with a rounded bulge in its middle, inside it a clear ball faintly visible, at both ends milky-white plastic rings with fine teeth on the inside, held by tiny blue-green wire clips, sunlight glinting through the chamber, behind on a workbench a small lathe with curls of clear plastic shavings, round glass flasks and a glass pump model with loops of rubber tubing, a dusty wooden floor in warm light.