Two ways
to begin.
Two rewrites of the opening — the first twenty seconds, before the fable. Read them out loud, it is written for the ear.
Version one.
0:00 → 0:20The feeling has no name — and the stone is the one that kept it.
Why does a stone change the way you stand?
That feeling. I know it well, and it has no name.
The stone knows it. It has remembered far longer than we have.
Someone told me where it began, a long time ago.
Let me tell you that story.
Version two.
0:00 → 0:20Closer to what you already read, with the line you disliked turned around.
What is it about wearing a stone?
That feeling. I have never had a word for it.
The stone has. It has carried the answer far longer than we have.
Someone told me where it began, a long time ago.
Let me tell you that story.
It saves as you type, and nothing reaches us until you press send. A female voice, English, with a Parisian accent — as agreed. This is the last thing holding the recording.