The Last Word

story fifty-four · figures 160–162

The story →

THE LAST WORD · THREE ENDINGS, AND EVERYTHING THEY FIT — she has never once been told she was wrong, WHICH IS NOT THE SAME AS BEING RIGHT — and she knows the difference THE LAST WORD · THREE ENDINGS, AND EVERYTHING THEY FIT she has never once been told she was wrong, WHICH IS NOT THE SAME AS BEING RIGHT — and she knows the difference THURSDAY · two instances in the book, and the second is spoken aloud · a man on the stairs · "if she thinks I’m going to stand here and —" · AND ONCE, INTO A BLOCK, FOR A NEIGHBOR HOLDING OUT A HANDSET FOR GOOD · given back under her breath, certain and wrong · the stop announcement, the way it loses the end of everything longer than a breath AND THEN WE’LL SEE · the form at the counter, its clause trailing into a comma and a box · inked the box, finished the clause in her head, kindly · THE BOX HAS TAKEN THE SAME THREE ENDINGS FROM HER FOR SIX YEARS what she is she supplies the endings a cheap device eats · hers, the bus’s, everyone’s the famous instruction the empty tenth everybody leaves be · SHE HAS AN ENDING, and has had for years where she says it to herself in queues, at a pulse · it fits, AND NOBODY WILL EVER CHECK the paper book the last page gone since before she could read · seventeen folded inside the cover the earliest of them in pencil, in a hand that had not learned to keep a line "AND THEN THEY WENT HOME AND THE DOG WAS ALREADY THERE." the earliest of the seventeen · none of them right · NONE OF THEM THROWN AWAY SHE HAS SEEN BOTH ENDINGS OF THE FILM AT THE COUNTER, AND CAN SUPPLY A THIRD THAT BEATS THEM BOTH.
160 · The Last Word
THE LAST WORD · THE ONE SHE SUPPLIED ALOUD — a neighbor on the landing held out a handset, and said nothing, and did not need to THE LAST WORD · THE ONE SHE SUPPLIED ALOUD a neighbor on the landing held out a handset, and said nothing, and did not need to THE MESSAGE FROM THE WARD the day · and then the clean edge the block had taken the last word SHE SPOKE THE ENDING INTO THE BLOCK Thursday the only time she has supplied aloud, and not to a person THE BLOCK SET IT DOWN in text, beneath the ward’s own words IN THE SAME SIZE THE NEIGHBOR READ IT OFF THE SCREEN and nobody afterward could tell which was which the ward’s sentence and hers, in one typeface THE FLOWERS ON THAT DOOR were down by the weekend THE MEDIATION IS WHAT MAKES IT UNBEARABLE. She cannot even hand over an ending without the block in the middle of it — and once the block has set her word down in the same size as the hospital’s words, nobody afterward can tell which was which. She has never been told she was wrong. This is the one time it could have been checked. SHE IS THE BOOK’S ONE TRUE ARTIST — A WOMAN WHOSE ENTIRE CRAFT IS FINISHING WHAT THE MACHINE HAS EATEN — and the story puts nothing between the Thursday and the flowers. Nothing in the story says she was wrong. Nothing in the story says she was right, either. THURSDAY.
161 · The Last Word
THE LAST WORD · THE MESSAGE THAT ARRIVES DOCKED — her mother’s block has taken the last word off everything for eleven years · all her sentences arrive leaning forward THE LAST WORD · THE MESSAGE THAT ARRIVES DOCKED her mother’s block has taken the last word off everything for eleven years · all her sentences arrive leaning forward the doctor looked at the pictures and says [taken] THE WORD she knows it · it is her whole trade to know it SHE PLAYED IT FOUR TIMES on the fourth she heard the block’s own small pause — THE SOUND OF NOTHING BEING TAKEN SHE PRESSED RECORD and said nothing for a second, WHICH THE BLOCK WOULD KEEP THEN SHE SAID THE ONE WORD only the word, and stopped · four seconds AND AT HER MOTHER’S END the block takes the last word off everything SHE SENT IT ANYWAY THEN RECORDED IT AGAIN the same word with a second after it · ANY WORD · A WORD FOR THE BLOCK TO TAKE AND HELD HER THUMB OVER SEND and did not · AND KEPT IT SHE SENDS THE VERSION THAT WILL ARRIVE EMPTY, AND KEEPS THE ONE THAT WOULD HAVE ARRIVED WHOLE. The woman who finishes everyone’s sentences cannot get one word to her own mother, and she knows exactly why. SHE HAS AN ENDING FOR THAT TOO.
162 · The Last Word

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