Page 233 of Johnny

ancient Near-East collection there and I know the guy who curates it. He’s the one who gave me the

translated cuneiform of the Epic of Gilgamesh for my tattoos.

And actually, the real, real reason I wanted to take here there was so I could have a conversation with the dude about that cuneiform contract I took with me from the island.

“What’s this?” he says, taking the piece of paper.

We’re meeting in a stairwell just outside the gift shop where Megan is looking for shit to buy

before we head out.

“I’m not sure,” I say. “But can you translate it for me and give me a ring to let me know what it

says?”

And actually, the real, real, real reason I know this dude is because I found a box of letters in my

father’s personal shit after he died and he translated them for me.

They really were just the Epic of Gilgamesh. Which was a little bit weird because I’ve been into

that poem since I was a little kid and I had no idea my parents were in to it too. So I was thinking...

maybe… they communicated that way over the years?

Didn’t pan out though. If there was some secret hidden in those letters, I never did find it.

But I’m hoping—desperately hoping—that this contract really is a code or some secret message my

mother cooked up to explain things to me on the down low.

“Sure,” my nerdy friend, Clark, says.

I peek through the window of the stairwell, spy Megan exiting the store with a bag of over-priced

museum gift-shop crap, and then thrust a pre-paid phone at him. “Use this. My number’s been

preprogrammed.”

“Oh, yeah. Dude. You got it,” Clark says. And then he winks at me. Because he’s a nerd. And he

thinks that’s what you do when you’re on a secret mission.

But I don’t bust his balls about that. I kinda like the guy.

Then I slip out the stairwell when Megan has her back to me and slide my arm around her waist

from behind. Kiss her neck, and whisper, “Did you get enough crap? Or do you need more time?”

Which she finds adorable.

“More than enough. And I’ll thank you later for the no-limit black card.”

The Way didn’t take my money away. They didn’t take anyone’s money away.

And I get it. We didn’t really get out. But maybe this is as ‘out’ as we’ll ever be?

I decide to go with it until they fuck with me.