The Moscow Counter

A medical supply shop in Moscow on an autumn afternoon, on a glass counter with a dark wooden frame under a white glass pendant lamp an open case of white foam rubber, its lid plain white, in the shaped bed a flat instrument of matt stainless steel thirty-three centimetres long with a straight upper edge, a row of short notches, a toothed lower edge and a knurled screw at its end, beside it a T-shaped socket key, a rod bent twice, tweezers and two grey round discs, a man's hand in the brown wool sleeve of an overcoat lifting the instrument, shelves of plain grey boxes behind, a bright shop window soft beyond.