I am the spider who couldn't get up.

Again. And again.

Oh, probably the next time you know.

This time, I’m going to reach the top, no matter what.

So once more, I stick out my legs to climb the wall. One step, two step, three step, four step, it’s working out this time! As soon I landed the fifth step,

My journey reset for the hundredth time.

No way I’m trying again. I have a patience limit too! One can try for 10 times or 20, but my failed hundred attempts pile before me as a mock to my resilience.

Not anymore.

Perhaps, not every wall is made to climb.

I shook my head and moved to a new location, new wall, new hopes.

A deep breath and…

One step, two, three…. ten! It’s working! I knew it was the wall aha!

Or it wasn’t?

I could feel my grip loosening. Look for a rough surface to grab onto, ahh! I can’t give up this time, I have come too far. So much struggle, endurance brought me here. Why is it have to be me? Lord help me! I want to climb the wall.

But neither lord listened, nor the wall.

I fell with a loud thud. It aches. I tried, and tried, and tried. continuously. One step then another, I kept practicing. And this is what it gives? My parents…

my parents have expectations. They don’t name it, yet I know it exists somewhere deep within. My hard work, sleepless nights, all in vain?

I am Failure. I can’t do it anymore. No, it isn’t the wall. IT WASN’T THE WALL.

Never had I imagined my hopes to be crushed. Totally crushed…

It was always Me. me, me…

World around me blurred, and I don’t bother anymore. Let it be. I wish to be dissolved in the rain, or to be melted on the land. Just take my sorrows from my body. Oh, how I wish I wouldn’t be a spider at all.

WHY DID I HAVE TO BE A SPIDER?

Damn the world, damn the wall, damn everyone!!!

A fellow traveler beetle was passing by. Must be thinking about my miserable state.

‘Hey fellow man, why crying?’

‘I failed mr. beetle’

‘In what?’

‘Climbing the wall’

Mr. beetle laughed. he laughed till he choked. then addressing me, he pulled out a large mirror.

‘Oh dear, you aren’t meant to’

I looked at my reflection.

Oh.

Earthworm.

— C.G.