Cooper went to the funeral and played his part well, the grieving nephew. Kathy got his father to let him stay with her for a few weeks before going back to New York to work with him. During the time that he was with his cousin, he basically adopted her couch, and became aquatinted with late night TV shows, and managed to watch an entire season of MASH before realizing there was a war. After a few worried sentences to Kathy, she assured him that there was no war going on, and that MASH was set during the Korean War, which was over a long time ago. Still not convinced, Cooper switched to Matlock, a much safer show for him.
Cooper eventually pulled himself together enough work with his dad, and not be a blubbering disappointment. After he got the hang of the job, he showed that he was far from a disappointment, and actually became a value to the company, though still not his father. Cooper spends most of his time trying not to think about Josh, and not succeeding. In an effort to occupy himself, he worked to get closer to the inside of his family members and, as a result, no longer has to act sad at funerals.
Cooper and Pickle talked every night, but neither of them mentioned Josh's name once. All the other guys and him talked sporadically, but Cooper never turned down anyone's call, and he never cut the call off short, no matter what he was doing.
Josh drank himself into oblivion six nights in a row. He stopped for awhile, then ran into his dorm screaming that he was such an idiot. The responses that he got all agreed with him, and he vented the anger and helplessness by trying to make his liver deteriorate, fortunately he ran out of money and his friend made him go back to his room, which was now occupied by a wax-eating stranger, who had given Josh a bottle full of some black liquid when he heard about the paradox of Josh and Cooper.
Josh paged Kathy obsessively, and she always called him. Josh even became used to her seemingly sudden mood swings. Like Cooper and Pickle, Josh and Kathy never mentioned Coopers name to each other, but they were close anyway. Kathy convinced Josh that he was being a daft sod, and persuaded him to pull himself together. He immediately did, and was once again top in his class, which was no surprise since he found solace in psychology. He had an uneasy treaty with life and happiness, but one that he tried to follow.
