Page 25 of The Silent Mountain Man

"Who do you think we are?"

"I…don't understand."

"I still feel like I haven't figured myself out yet. I'm not an emo teenager anymore, and I have learned some things about myself. I have a great job, friends, a life, a car up until recently, but I still don't feel like I'm there yet, you know? Like I'm a complete and fully formed adult."

"Is anyone?" I thread my fingers through his. "I don't think anyone ever gets there. That's not the point of life."

"What is then?"

"The point of life?"

He nods.

"I just came about sixty billion gallons, and you're asking me a question that humankind has pondered since the dawn of time?"

A beat of silence, and then he grins. "I am."

"Maybe we don't have to figure it out?" I suggest, because I'm pretty sure he won't let me off without answering. "Both life and who we are. Maybe we're just meant to experience the stuff we go through, try our best to be good people, and live as happily as we can."

That grin is back on his lips.

"Are you laughing at me for rambling so much?"

"I'm not laughing. I'm enjoying it. Maybe you're not a silent mountain man, after all?"

"I'm not the wild, long-haired kid anymore, either. I can assure you of that."

"So who is Harrick… Shit. I don't even know your last name. Or your middle name. Wait. Do you have a middle name?"

"I don't."

"And what's your last name?"

"Tarzan. Harrick Tarzan."

Eddie rolls his eyes. "Bullshit."

"I'm not kidding."

"It is not. No one has a name like that."

"I do."

"Prove it."

"You want me to show you my driver's license?"

"Yes."

With an exaggerated sigh, I peel myself off the floor and walk over to the side table in the entryway to fetch my wallet.

I return to Eddie, who's sitting up now, watching his face as I slide the license out of my wallet. I rejoin him on the floor and make it look like I'm about to hand it over, then I pull it away at the last minute, twirling it between my fingers.

"What do I get if I'm right? If my surname really is Tarzan?"

He eyes me suspiciously. "What do you want?"

"I'm pretty satisfied with what we just did." As evidenced by the cum stains on the floor all around us. "I'd be happy with doing that a few times a week."

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