Joe's 90th Birthday Party at Mono Lake    18" x 24"    Oil on Canvas

I called Jean and told her that I have finished a very special painting for Joe. Jean asked me to present the painting to Joe in person. I told her that I will go to their house right away.

When I got to Joe’s house, Jean was waiting at the door and let me in. 

Once get inside, I saw Joe sitting on a wheelchair with the same expression as the one at the birthday party; a sad feeling hit me immediately. I tried my best to come up with a smile, took my painting to face Joe and told him: “Joe, that is you, remember?”  

Joe had some response, his eyeballs were moving… looked at the painting, and made some noise sounded like ”Woo.. Woo”  

Jean was nearby, smiling to me and said: “This is the first word he said for a long time! I know he means Good, good.”  

I was not so sure that Joe means “good, good”.  I think Jean said that just wanted me to feel good.  

After some words with Jean discussing about Joe’s conditions, I hugged Joe and Jean then left.

*  *  *

Two months later, I received a sad news from Jean that Joe had passed away, and that the family members had already decided to hold the funeral service at the same Mono Lake site.  My first thought was: Oh no, not Mono Lake again. But this was Joe’s family decision, I should not say anything but to respect their decision.

I had problems go to sleep after Joe’s death. In the morning of scheduled Joe’s funeral service, my body temperature reached 100 and raising. I called Jean to let her know that I will not be able to attend Joe’s service at Mono Lake. She was still in a very sad mourning tone, yet very kindly told me to take Advil or Motrin, drink plenty of water, and complete rest.

Taking Jean’s advice, I prepared a big jar of water on the nightstand next to my bed, took two tablets of Advil, got ready for a full resting. 

Lie down on the bed, my mind kept thinking about my life with Joe, feeling guilty not being able to attend the service. .. It took me for a long while to finally feel comfortable that my fever was gone.  I decided to get up to breathe some fresh air. 

When I got to the backyard. I was puzzled to see that I was in front of a giant lake. Out of curiosity I decided to take a lakeside walk. 

Soon I noticed that not far away something was moving under the water. Then all of a sudden I saw a guy jumping out of the water and started running away from me. His whole body was coated with muddy dirt.  When he turned his head facing me momentarily, I recognized that it was Joe! 

I raised my voice calling him: ”Joe, where are you going?” 

He turned his head, look at me, and said: “I am hosting a party”. 

I yelled at him: ”Joe,  wait for me. I have questions to ask you” 

Joe answered: “I am running out of time, I will send you an email later to show you where I am going.” 

I did not give up, sped up my path and swing my arms trying to catch him. Suddenly something hit me and caused me to fall off into the water. I quickly jumped up and wiped my wet eyes to realize that I just had a nightmare dream. The big jar fell off from the nightstand, hit my head, and spilt water all over my body 

I got up quickly to change my wet clothe. After the trauma I couldn’t get back to sleep. I went to my desk to go through emails which had been piling up for three days since I got sick. 

As usual, most of the emails were junk except one strange email address: joe90@monolake.com.  Suddenly, I remembered the last word Joe told me in the dream. Goose bumps started popping out all over my body, my hands kept shaking... 

Somehow I managed to hit the key, and horrified when I saw: