Dark and, at times, amusing fiction from award-winning author Dave Zeltserman

Friday, September 16, 2011

Julius Katz's funeral

Yesterday afternoon I went to Julius's grave site funeral. It was a private affair and attended by about 200 Julius's close friends, including several dozen famous chefs who flew in from all over the world, with his only family being his younger sister, Julie, who I'll talk about later. It rained during most of the service, at times coming down in an angry downpour, which somehow seemed fitting. Lily Rosten wasn't there. From what I heard she collapsed on being given the news of Julius's death and has been hospitalized. After the services, Julius's favorite restaurant Le Che Cru, hosted what was meant to be a celebration for Julius's life for this gathering, and all these famous chefs went back to the kitchen to try to outdo each other. I'm sure the food was spectacular, but it was hard to notice since I had no appetite, but the wine was good, and I enjoyed listening to stories about Julius's childhood and other stories from later in his life. I wish Lily could've been there.

Julius in the past had told me about his sister, Julie. She's 32--ten years younger than Julius, and kind of "troubleshooter for difficult problems", and while Julius "dabbled" (5th degree black belt in Shaolin Kung Fu dabbling??) in martial arts as a way to keep fit, Julie takes it much more seriously and studied intensely in Japan for six years. He didn't tell me how stunningly beautiful she is, but even with her in mourning, she was beyond breathtaking. Julie and I talked privately later. She wanted any notes that Julius and Archie might've provided me, which I gave her, and she promised that she was going to track down whoever did this to Julius and see that justice is done, although I don't she meant seeing this person arrested. She seemed genuinely surprised when I told her the true nature of Archie--I guess like everyone else she thought Archie was a flesh and blood person and I was turning their true life cases into some sort of meta fiction, and she also promised to find Archie. Somehow I think Archie would be okay with her. I also had her read the last case I wrote up for Julius--the Quayle case which I titled "Archie Solves the Case", because I really don't know what to do with it given what has happened. Julie had maintained a stoic front through the service and afterwards, but as she read this case she broke down both laughing and crying, and wants me to publish it as a final tribute to Julius. I'm still not sure.

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