The Buckled Case

The back garden of a terraced house in the Netherlands at noon in summer, flat light under an overcast sky, on a weathered garden table a flat portable cassette recorder twenty centimetres long in a dark grey leather case with pale stitching and two chrome buckles, on top small round holes showing an orange-brown grille, at the front a chrome-rimmed opening with a red push button, a pale beige slide knob and a small round meter, a fingertip on the red button, the other hand holding a grey microphone to the plain cloth front of a portable radio, a clear cassette with a blank white face beside it, geraniums soft behind.