The Amber Socket

A hospital research laboratory in Baltimore on a cold bright February morning, low winter sun across a black slate bench, on a pale green cotton drape a flat upright housing of matt grey metal ten centimetres tall, eight wide and two thick with rounded corners, its faces smooth and plain, on top a small block of clear amber plastic with two round sockets and a tiny steel screw, two thin leads in pale grey silicone coiled beside it, two gloved hands pushing the pin of one lead into a socket, behind a small grey oscilloscope with one jagged green trace and a coil of red and black wires.