The Learning Remote

A wood-panelled den in a house in Los Gatos, California, late on an autumn afternoon, low golden sun through a sliding glass door, on the wide arm of a brown leather sofa a long T-shaped remote control of cream-white plastic, across its top a grey liquid-crystal window, faint and blank, below it rows of large light grey keys, plain and unmarked, a narrower block of keys toward a smooth battery cover, a thumb pressing one key, on a low glass table in front three slim black remote controls lying side by side, across the room a television, a video recorder and a stereo stack as dark boxes on a wooden cabinet.