in which the story asks, but?

but what if the girl does have ears?

does she make different choices?

she still feels, she still smells, she still touches, but she hears words. words bite and sting and are invisible tentacles that worm in through the nose up to the brain and do not die. 

with words, the vampire choice is now easy. she does not see him without the safe one there. he avoids, he does not suck, when the safe one is there. 

she does not stay with the vampire alone. there are no escapes and it is generally important. 

but words, words make the safe one different. the safe one feels of caring and compassion and need. but the need has words. the need speaks of the vampire. the need speaks of their entwined seams. the safe one does not understand about seams.

the need is implied beneath words and inside words. the safe one asks for help and camaraderie. the girl who did not have ears did not hear this. the safe one was safe.

but now, now it worms into her brain and it does not die. 

how is the safe one not always safe? she says.

she was never all safe, i tell her. she stares up with pearl tears and pulls me to her from the weak sun. she is mired in the place of the beginning home, in the place of the weak sun, and she has ears and she does not understand and she needs me. 

i understood when i lived in the land of sun, she says. the safe one became safe when i lived in the land of green, when i got my ears but i did not understand how to hear. i am here under this weak sun now and i do not understand. 

listening is the same as feeling, i say. you understand harmonics and sharp and soft and noise. there is the fundamental frequency, which is the words, and the harmonics, which are the other meanings behind the words.

but the worm words, she says. ears don't have blinders. why don't they? i can't stop it all coming in. vampire acts like i expect and with words that match his thrums, but sometimes he says opposite things. safe one says loving things and commiserating things but then words that sting. i do not understand. 

not everyone is safe or unsafe, i say. everyone has harmonics despite their fundamental frequency. vampire has the nostalgia frequency that is so seductive. you have learned that one. 

but, she says. 

i don't understand this one, she says. 

you must listen to all of the frequencies. 

you mean the one that has need? she says.

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i hold her in my autumn sunlight, in my weak winter sun, show her where to sever the seams and watch her learn to listen.