The Greenhouse

Thirty-two

I’m quite happy with the room. The walls are lily blue and there’s a bed, table, chair, sink, and wardrobe with four wooden hangers. It doesn’t take me long to hang up two sweaters and two pairs of trousers. I put my T-shirts, underpants, and socks on the shelf, and have now fully unpacked with the feeling that I’m here to stay. Once I’ve placed the plants on the windowsill, I go out into the corridor and knock on the door of number seven. I have to admit I’m surprised by what I see when Father Thomas opens the door. The walls are literally covered in shelves crammed with videotapes right up to the ceiling. There’s an old TV set in the middle of the floor with two chairs in front of it and also a desk on which there are two neat towers of tapes, a thick book which I imagine to be the Bible, and several other volumes and a pen stand.

He notices me staring at the tapes.

— Yes, you’ve guessed it, I’m a bit of a film buff, although I never go to the cinema. My acquaintances from around the world know of this weakness of mine and have sent me some precious films over the years; I have about three thousand now. There are movies from all over the world in here, in many languages, everything really except Hollywood movies. I’m bored by war heroes and all that artificial gimmickry, says Father Thomas, drawing out a chair for me and inviting me to sit.

Then he apologizes and says that he can only just about handle basic text in my mother tongue, but that he has no experience of actually speaking it; he’s probably only ever seen one film from my country.

— But it was beautiful, he says. Very unusual. Very green grass. Big skies. Beautiful death.

I discover that Father Thomas watches films in their original language without subtitles.

— It’s very good practice, he says. Then I’ve got my books in the monastery, I’ve also got a room there. Here I can watch films. Some people have a cat, I watch movies.

Father Thomas stands up, pats me once on the shoulder, fetches the lemon vodka bottle, and fills the glasses.

— You’re welcome to come over if you fancy watching a film. I normally watch a movie every night. Over the past few weeks I’ve been looking at some forgotten directors.

He grabs a video case and brandishes it in the air:

— The special thing about this director is his deep sympathy for hapless people.