5. The name, part 1.

This man had once had a name, but it was gone now like a sparkle upon the water, a pretty thing that hadn't lasted, a gleam amidst so many gleams that holding onto it was impossible. With the name had come an identity, partly of his own making, partly of others'. Like the river's water, it whispered distantly to him, but had no more significance than a single footstep or thought or muttered word on the bridge, or on either shore that it connected.