The locked greenhouse

Source: an original fiction extract.

“By the time Noor found the greenhouse, the rest of the school group had disappeared behind the museum. She had stopped to retie her shoe and then followed a path between two hedges, certain it was the one the others had taken. The greenhouse stood at the end, tall and narrow, with a chain across its doors. Inside, a small tree carried fruit the colour of old copper. Noor took out her phone to photograph it. There was no signal.

The glass was clouded with a greenish film, so the plants appeared to float in deep water. Ferns pressed their many fingers against the panes. From a cracked roof panel, one branch had escaped into the open air, crooked and bare beside the heavy growth within. Everything behind the glass seemed crowded towards the light, silently competing for a space that had already been taken.

Noor walked around the side. A narrow door stood open beneath a climbing vine. She called out and heard only the drip of water. On a bench lay a pair of gloves, a newspaper and half a sandwich in a plastic box. The sandwich was still uncovered. Noor stepped back towards the door. Behind the tree, something moved. A man rose slowly from the floor, holding a fallen pot against his chest. Soil marked the front of his shirt.

He asked whether she was with the museum group. She nodded too quickly and explained about the path. He set the pot down and pointed towards the far hedge. 'They'll be at the fountain.' Noor looked at the chain across the main doors. The man noticed. He said the hinges had failed in the winter and nobody had repaired them yet. While he spoke, he gathered loose soil into the pot with his hands. Noor put away her phone and held the plant steady.

At the fountain, the teacher was counting heads. Noor began to apologise, then glanced back at the greenhouse roof above the hedge. From here it looked like another locked display. She could not see the side door, the sandwich or the man kneeling beside his plant. When the teacher asked what had delayed her, Noor said she had taken the wrong path. Then she added that someone should repair the greenhouse doors.”

Refer only to the second paragraph. Analyse how the writer uses language to present the pressure and confinement inside the greenhouse. Support your ideas with quotations from that paragraph. You could consider words and phrases, language features and techniques, and sentence forms.