Day 286: Wednesday, December 21, 2011

This morning I had to help Yosuke bring his paintings to some galleries. I was glad because this was actually the first time ever he asked me for help. While we were riding the train to Ikebukuro, I decided to hold back on telling him about Willy until after we were all finished.

While we were walking to a gallery, the writer of the Japanese magazine that I took photos for earlier this month called and asked me if it was okay for my profile to say “America’s funky photographer,” since he knew it sounded lame, so I told him I would get back to him with something better. While we were killing time at a bookstore before lunch, Yosuke finally came up with, “the American photo monster”, which made me fall on the floor laughing, so we ended up using it.

Later we had lunch on top of a department store and I told him about Willy, but to my surprise he didn’t seem to react as much as I had assumed. Afterwards while riding the bus together to my home, I also told him about my plans for doing a Willy exhibition for the neighborhood. He said it was a great idea and was much more meaningful than the group exhibition that we had dropped off paintings for earlier in the day.... He then excitedly told me about the designer Milton Glaser, who talked about how art can be like a gift because it brings people together and gives them things in common:

If you like Mozart and I like Mozart, we already have something in common, so the likelihood of us killing each other has been diminished…

When we got to my house, I noticed that the family portrait on our gate was finally falling off. After Yosuke left, I re-taped it back up as well as put a new one of Willy. Afterwards I caught up on two days of work and then finally informed close friends about what had happened. In the evening, I ate instant ramen- two nights in a row- and watched T.V. Later while I was tidying up, I discovered Willy’s final joke- she had peed under Yuki’s desk again, which must have been right before she died.

When I went to bed, I turned off the light and then finally felt how empty the house was now and, to be honest, was kind of scared. A few minutes later, I heard a noise in the kitchen and I knew it had to be the black stray cat sneaking in to eat the food left on Willy’s altar. Grateful with the excuse to get up, I went to check, but by the time I got to the kitchen, the cat was gone. I went over to the window above the sink and closed it some more, but left it open just enough so that Willy’s ghost could still come and go like she used to, and then went to bed with the light on.