The Carrying Case

An engineering office in Delft on a grey autumn morning, flat daylight from a canal window, on a pale oak desk a light beige box-shaped computer forty-five centimetres wide, its front sloped slightly forward, at the left a small dark screen glowing soft green with blurred rows, beside it a round knob, a red power switch and two pilot lamps, at the right a column of plain toggle switches above a tape cassette slot, below white typewriter keys and grey function keys, every key blank, every surface plain and unmarked, an engineer's hands in pale blue shirt cuffs on the keys, a grey carrying case half open on the floor.