The Lit Grid

The regional grid control room near Leeds in the small hours of a May night, ceiling lights dimmed low, the whole far wall a curved floor-to-ceiling board of small beige-grey square tiles bending round the corner, across it a dense web of thick blue and red lines with open squares at the junctions, dashed red rings, tiny green and red lamps glowing, every tile plain beyond its lines and lamps, in front a U-shaped desk of pale pine with beige monitors whose screens are a soft blue glow and a telephone with a coiled cord, one operator in a pale blue shirt seen from directly behind, face turned fully away.