analog

Simon looked down at the animal, its dark eyes peeking out from within its furry face. Gazing back up to the skyline, Simon chuckled a bit and muttered, "yeah, my fucking mind."
"Hell of a thing to lose," the wolf said, walking beside Simon as though they were friends taking a stroll, "but maybe it's for the best. Were you really using it?"
Simon ignored the words coming from the wolf, and chalked the experience up to sun exposure. He was making up talking wolves, an old love interest, a past... he so desperately wanted a past. One memory- anything, really. To entertain himself, he turned to the wolf once more, asking, "you don't happen to know where this road goes, do you?" The wolf replied, "I can't tell you where your life will take you, any more than I can tell you where this road goes. Is your future a place? Is it the name of a town on a map? Or is it you, in that place, interacting with it, as who you are?"
Simon shuffled a bit as he walked, kicking up dirt. "That's all great and poetic, but I don't know who the fuck I am."
The wolf stopped walking, and looked up at Simon. Simon saw him stop, and looked back at him, puzzled. "Are you telling me that you're nothing more than a name? Is there no value to a person by themselves without a moniker? I can't walk with you if you're going to be so blind to the world. You've lost your mind, as you say, but you expect a name to tell you who you are? You're Simon, aren't you?"
"Of course."
"Are you really? Or is Simon Pritchard just the name on the letter you found with you?"
Simon looked away from the wolf. He was angry, confused, hot, and conversing with an animal. Nothing was adding up. He took out the letter and unfolded it. The heat, the sweat, and the wet ink all came together in his back pocket to create a very beautiful, but totally illegible mess of black smudges on the paper. The name at the top was completely wiped off. He now wasn't even sure of the name he'd read so many hours ago before he embarked on his journey.
"Forget the name, human. You have no use for it, anyway. It doesn't change who you are, and it won't make you be anyone, either. I could call you Bruce. There. Feel anything? Is your world coming together now? How about this... this road leads to a town called Tryehoek. Does it all make sense now? No. Knowing where this road goes does you no good at all. So stop asking stupid questions."
The man decided to keep calling himself Simon. It seemed like a good name, anyway, he might as well adopt it. He started walking again, the wolf following him, and wondered why an imaginary wolf was giving him so much shit.
"They're not stupid questions," Simon finally chimed in, "I'm just pissed off and want to know what's going on."

"Well, I'll start by saying I made up the town of Tryehoek. Truth is, I have no idea where this road goes. I'm from the other end of the road from where you started, from where I found you."

"You... found me?" Simon wondered why a wolf would have any interest in an unconscious human, other than as a free buffet. He suddenly realized he's glad to be alive. He thought this over a moment, and was curious why that hadn't occured to him previously.

"Well yeah, why do you think i'm following you? I've never been down this way, thought you'd want some company."

"Ok... that's cool I guess. But I can't just call you wolf, so what is your name, then?"