“Close your eyes and really listen,” and so he did. It was a strange sensation. Ever since the voices started, he’d fallen out of the habit of really listening. He couldn’t help hearing the voices because they were there, but he learned he didn’t have to listen, and most of the time he tried not to. But this was different. He could hear the wind, and that was all—that was all—and it was so simple and beautiful, rising and falling, whistling and tapering off and then swelling again. It was real. It was the realest thing he’d ever heard, and when he opened his eyes, the Aleph was watching him.
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