The Steel Desk

The test floor of a computer factory in Philadelphia on a spring morning, daylight from tall windows, a broad desk two metres wide of brushed grey steel, three drawers on each side with chrome bar handles, on top a sloping silver-framed panel with a black field of small toggle switches and tiny lamps in rows, round coloured buttons at its upper left, a round meter with a blank white face, a keyboard in a recess under a raised metal hood, the whole panel plain and unmarked, only a woman's hand in a cardigan sleeve reaching in from the left edge to one switch, tall grey tape cabinets soft behind.