5AINT. THE GREENHOUSE – DAY5A
Grey daylight through the glass. Inside, everything is green.
Glass and iron against the south wall of the hall. The only green in a grey world. Condensation runs down the panes.
SIGGA, a hedgehog in a sage apron full of seed packets, frowns at a brass valve with a painted sun-face.
On the wall, a tall thermometer of coloured spirit. It reads eighteen.
The board clacks: GREENHOUSE: OPTIMAL.
SIGGA: I didn't ask for eighteen.
THE SOCK
In the greenhouse, the board says GREENHOUSE: OPTIMAL and the thermometer says eighteen. Sigga, who keeps the greenhouse, wants seventeen.
Turn the valve back to seventeen and it turns itself back, politely. Hang a sock full of sand on it and the machine grows a brass pipe round the sock, like ivy. Sigga's folding knife snips it.
Keep it at seventeen for a minute while Sigga works at the back. Then the board has the last word: MANUAL INTERFERENCE INTRODUCES ERROR. ERROR HAS BEEN REMOVED. Eighteen again.
Sigga: I'm fine. The plants are not fine. I'm fixing the plants. She gives you a sock.
THE SOCK helps her keep it at seventeen. THE STREET is back past the hall. PULL BACK shows the set.