The Copper

Mireya switches off her headlamp. It is the first time you have seen the far bench without it. Past the last loop of tape there is only the jar, swelling and fading on the carrels.

From the pipes overhead comes a long rushing sound, the grackles leaving the antenna all at once. Then the copper begins to tick along the wall, sheet after sheet, coming down the tunnel toward you. A voice comes through the nearest sheet, close to your shoulder, reading.

In the jar the green stops swelling. It does not go out. It holds at one brightness for as long as the voice reads, and the bench is lit by nothing else.

Near the end it reads a card. Far bench. Mireya has a jar. Come and see it. She looks at the ladder. Then she looks at you.

When the voice stops, the copper goes quiet sheet by sheet. The green starts again where it left off.