The Teal Racks

A research laboratory in Cambridge, Massachusetts, late at night, the room dark apart from a green-shaded desk lamp, a row of tall equipment racks in pale blue-green teal with beige panels, at the centre a paper tape reader above a sloping teal control panel with long rows of small toggle switches and tiny glowing lamps, beside the racks a cabinet of teal metal doors holding a round cathode-ray screen with a scatter of small glowing points, a pale blue typewriter on a round table, two hands in rolled flannel shirt sleeves at the switches, a coil of paper tape on the shelf, every surface plain and unmarked.