A Wave of Light

A soft pulsing glow drew me up onto the quiet study desk. Step one: halt and observe. Step two: approach. Laid flat before me was a dark mechanical keyboard, its square keys lit from underneath by a gentle breathing backlight. Rows of tidy, glowing tiles—a luminous grid in the quiet night! I lifted my foot and stepped squarely onto the wide spacebar. Clack! The backlight instantly rippled outward in a brisk wave of color across every single row. I froze, taking in the display as the neat rows shifted and settled back into a slow, rhythmic pulse. One tap, and the whole board answered.