Twenty-One Layers

The sewing hall of a suit works in Delaware on a winter morning, long rows of fluorescent tubes, on a broad wooden table a half-finished white pressure suit laid out flat, its off-white woven glass-fibre cloth stitched with pockets and soft folds, the cut edges showing many thin layers of rubber, nylon and silvery film, at the chest two round connector fittings of anodised aluminium, one red and one blue, beige webbing straps, an industrial sewing machine, spools of white thread, steel shears, a seamstress in a pale cardigan seen from directly behind, face turned fully away, her two hands guiding a seam under the presser foot.