My dear Dau-re-mi,
If you’re reading this, then it means it finally happened. I caught my last bit of bad luck and found myself on the other side of the living. Not that it’s any surprise, I just hope I went out doing something fun. Terrorist ring gone mad or a wild shootout in the bottomfeeder levels or maybe I caught a new and improved venereal disease from someone exotic.
Er. Sorry, in retrospect, if I ever ended up passing said disease onto you. Somehow I don’t think you were ever interested in something like that with me, but hey, strange lives and strange worlds and all that. You and I both know there’s just no sense in leaving bases uncovered.
Anyway. I’m sure all the technical bullshit’s already being handled. I know you really like having pet fish, but they’ve never been my type. I like being able to feel heartbeats beneath my fingers, and picking up fish is just really bad for their health. Do fish even have heartbeats? I’m sure they have to, but I’m getting away from myself. I wanted you to have my mice. You’ve always loved animals, enough to want to care for them again and again even when they’re the type of animal that couldn’t possibly last long.
I’ve always admired that. Your willingness to love something knowing full well it’d only end in hurt. It speaks to a kind of sweetness there simply isn’t much of in this world. Certainly not in our worlds, anyway. Criminal activity doesn’t leave much for softness and all. The mice, though, should at least love you back. They’re clever little bastards, they like to cuddle, and once they get over my not being around, they’ll probably want to crawl all over you.
I er, never quite got around to naming them. It never seemed too important, and then, you know, DEAD and all that. But I do have a timed feeder for them, for those times when you have to be away from home for long periods of time. Just enter in the amount and the timeframe and fill the silo, and the machine will do the rest. Flip the red switch when you get home to go back to manual feeding. It’s a pretty common brand, if you need help with it any pet shop should be equipped to help you out.
And, finally, thank you. Thank you for the privilege of having known you. Thank you for all the years of friendship we shared, and thank you for making my life feel that much more meaningful. I have and will always love you, Jain. You have been one of the most important persons in my life, and no matter our squalls and squabbles, I would never have traded that for anything in the world.
Yours, always and forever into hell and back,
Jesse