It’s a good thing that I wasn’t surprised by Scarlett’s arrival because she reminds me more of Valentino than I expected. Her energy matches his from when Valentino and I were first at the hospital last night—I mean, the other night, time is weird. Valentino was trying to accept his fate, and Scarlett is now doing the same. That’s going to take a long time.

Her hair is pulled back into a ponytail, and her face is clean of makeup, and she’s paler than she appeared on FaceTime.

“I’ll give you two some privacy,” Dalma says, closing the door behind her.

I try sitting up, but I don’t have the strength yet. “Hi. When’d you get in?”

Scarlett doesn’t say anything for a long time. Then when she does speak, she doesn’t even answer the question. She only says, “Thanks.”

“Oh, don’t thank me for shit. Your brother is the hero here.”

I don’t correct myself by marking Valentino in the past tense.

“You were there for Val when I couldn’t be,” Scarlett says as she drags a chair over to my bed and sits. She fishes Valentino’s camera out of her bag. “Valentino said this camera business was your idea.”

“He deserved to be seen. I’m sorry you couldn’t be there to capture the memories yourself.”

“I would’ve loved that. I feel robbed.”

“You were robbed.”

He was the model, she was the photographer—two halves of the same coin, making each other look great.

“Thanks for documenting his final day.” Scarlett switches on the camera, and for a second, I’m scared it won’t work, like it would’ve taken the same damage as my phone. She scrolls back to the beginning of the gallery. “Can you walk me through memory lane?”

I haven’t had the heart—yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, I know, let me live my life—to go through the pictures myself yet. This was going to be one of the last things I lived with Valentino. Instead, I’ll go down memory lane with his sister, sparing no detail.

This will be the first of many times I honor Valentino.

August 6, 2010

Joaquin Rosa

2:07 a.m.

Death-Cast did not call Joaquin Rosa because he is not dying today. Neither is his company.

What some believed to be an experiment doomed from the start has been recognized as a successful program.