The Cold Probe

An eye operating theatre of a county hospital in Kent on a bright summer morning, white blinds half lowered over tall windows, on a steel side table a squat white-painted steel unit seventy centimetres high, its sloping front panel turned away and in shadow, on top a stainless steel bowl and a tall glass bell jar, inside it a slender pointed metal probe standing upright, a thin trail of cold white vapour curling from the jar, a hand in a pale rubber glove lifting the probe, a black cable to a round foot switch on the terrazzo floor, an operating microscope and an empty draped table soft behind.