Just some idle talk

A man stood in front of me. He asked, "what do you want?"

I saw images in my head.
I stood in front of a huge crowd. My throat was aching but I did not mind. I had to tell them. I shouted as loud as I could.
"Who the fuck do you think am I".
I did not hear an answer. I had not expected one. I had not asked a question.

He asked again, "what do you want?"
"I don't know."
He did not seem to hear me. I waited for some reaction. None came.
"What do you want?"
"An identity."
"For whom?"
I thought this man was mad. I said, "for myself."
"What would you give to have an identity for yourself?"
"Can you give it to me?"
"What would you give to have an identity for yourself?"
"Are you mad?", I wanted to ask. I said, "my life."
"If you give your life, how will you have an identity?"
"I meant that I am ready to do anything that I am capable of. Can you give it to me?"
"No one else can. It's your identity."
"If no one can give it to me, then why the hell are you wasting my time?"
"You can. Only you."
"Ha ha haa. Then you have no work here", I said. He smiled.
"If you were not being skeptical about what you just said, I might have left."
"And why is that?"
"Because you just answered, at least partly, your own question."
"And how's that?"
"No one has any work here. No one has any role to play in giving you an identity. No one else but you."
"Ha ha again. If no one knows me appreciates me likes me, then I am a no one, then I have no identity."
"You seem to be saying that what others think of you defines you."
"Yeah. So what?"
"Is it possible that others think something of you and you are actually something else?"
"You mean, for example, I am trying to be good and others think that I am bad? Or vice versa?"
"Exactly."
"Yeah I think it's possible."
"So if others are allowed to build your identity, they might get it wrong?"
"Possibly."
"Because they are not the best judge of you?"
"Correct."
"Who is the best judge of you?"
"Well, me."
(to be continued...)