Eight-legged Odyssey

She stared at the wall.

As far as walls went, it was a perfectly good one. Straight and white and smooth. Cleaner than she had seen in a while.

She stared at the wall and tried to remember her name.

Names were important. Names meant something. She had a name and it meant...something...but it eluded her now. She could remember that she knew what her name was, but not what it was.

But then again, did names really mean anything? She had always thought so, but that was before she became an eight-legged spider thing. Who knew if names still meant the same thing when you lost your humanity? After all, even after the change she didn't feel any less human than she had before. Or rather, less un-humanly spidery than she had been before the change. Still, names felt like they should be important no matter what you were. Even if you were a spider thing that tried to recollect your previous human existence! That's how names work!

On the other hand, maybe that whole "names are important" thing was just something people said for the sake of saying it. The way people say things like "I'll take my coffee black" or "I'd do anything for love". Maybe people just said "names are important" because there is nothing else to say in situations like these and they're just trying to fill the silence with words? Consider the following instance - when someone says "I love you" after sex, and everyone knows that no one actually loves anyone after sex (unless both people are post-coital vampires). Maybe that's all this "names are important" business was? A coping mechanism for dealing with strange situations? A way of making strange situations seem normal by saying that they're not normal? What if everyone who hadn't changed into an eight-legged spider thing just said "name's...name?" And then, when they got bored of their own answers, they started saying whatever came to mind? Maybe that's why most people who haven't changed into an eight-legged spider thing don't remember their names anymore! Maybe it's because no one ever remembers their names anymore! Everything is just kind of...whatever now because we're all just trying to get through this together! It's all about survival! And pleasure! And joy! And lust and love and hate and fear and anger and sadness and...and...and...and...and hope! Hey, I think I'm getting better at this!

Suddenly, she noticed the ticking of her watch. Oh no! It was time for work already!? She had to go! Good luck everyone! Don't let them see you if it can be avoided! She would try to bring some supplies back when she returned! See you later! Bye!!

She stared at the wall again. What time was it now? Wasn't time supposed to move faster when you weren't paying attention to it? Or maybe time moved slower when you weren't paying attention to it, so you didn't notice how slowly time could pass when you weren't distracted? Either way - where had all the time gone!? How long had she been staring at this wall now? Hours! Days! Weeks! Months! Years! Decades! Centuries! Millennia! This wall wasn't exactly doing anything interesting, so how long had she been staring at it now?! Was this whole ordeal going to continue indefinitely or...?

What if there was some sort of quantum effect happening here? What if she never ended up moving from this spot because every time she blinked she shifted between multiple realities where everything kept happening over again until she was finally forced to blink away from her current reality into another one where nothing existed except for this plain wall? So while everyone else kept living out their lives endlessly repeating themselves, she was trapped in an eternal loop of staring at the wall, her memories fragmented across multiple realities.

As these thoughts swirled in her mind, the wall seemed to take on a new significance. It was no longer just a reminder of her lost name and human existence, but now also represented the infinite possibilities that lay before her in this strange new world where they all stared at meaningless walls for all eternity, bound together by the one universal truth that none of them would ever remember their names again.