Ya. Um. Not Jonathan Larson, duh.

April Eriksson - September First, Nineteen Eighty Eight
Angel Dumott Schunard- October Twenty-Ninth, Nineteen Ninety
Mimi Marquez- January Seventh, Nineteen Ninety-One
Roger Davis- February Fourteenth, Nineteen Ninety-One
Maureen Johnson- December Twenty-Fourth, Nineteen Ninety-Six
Joanne Jefferson- December Twenty-Fourth, Nineteen Ninety-Six
Thomas Collins- May Sixth, Two Thousand and Six.

Within a week of Mimi's death we admitted him to the hospital. It wasn't his idea, it wasn't the answer in mine, but we had to. He wouldn't eat, barely slept, and had acquired the worst cold I had ever seen. They kept him there until the end, he followed the same downward spiral that Mimi had gone down only weeks before.

He had parents, and siblings, they had called for him when he left, but I don't remember any other time before that.

It felt like a show down, his family on one end of the room, us, on the other. Benny was the first to speak, "Have you given consideration as to where Roger should rest?" He was also in a nice suit and so spoke without hesitation. His mother stared at us like we were freaks, cocking her head slightly to the left.

"What?"

"It's just that, a lot of his friends and his girl friend is buried here."

"Did they have…" His father indicated towards the wall.
"AIDS? Yes." All of us remained silent throughout the entire conversation, even Joanne, our other spokesperson stayed still.

"How did he? He never told us."

"Does it matter anymore?" Benny raised an eyebrow at the question.
"No. It doesn't." Replied the father, defeated.

"I know its what he would've wanted Mr. Davis, he loved Mimi."

His mother's head popped up at the name, "Who's Mimi?"

"His girlfriend ma-am."

"I thought he was dating a girl with a name like May or June."

"April died back in '88."

"Oh." She replied, shocked.

Before the funeral started, all of his family, including us was in the back room, drinking water and talking to each other. Everyone that was wearing Armani basically ignored us, except of course Benny and Joanne. I was going over some final planes with Collins when his sister approached me. She was probably the same age that Mimi would have been, but she looked younger and older than her at the same time. "A lot of people die here. Don't they." Collins raised his eyebrows and walked over to the punch bowl again, leaving me with her.

"Umm. Yes."

"Why? Besides Rog, I don't know anybody who died." Her voice slightly broke at his name.

"A lot of people are sick, your brother was one of them."

"I still don't understand. Are you 'sick'"

"Me, no! I don't have, I mean I never. No."

"Oh."

"Your brother was an amazing guy, his life was just, harder than most. He loved two women very much and they both died very young, trust me, he led a lot of life. Don't feel sad, he saw the country. Did you know that? He drove from here all the way to New Mexico, saw places I can't even imagine."

"That is something he would do." She said with a smile.

His parents allowed us to put two vases on his casket, we had won the battle with them, he would be buried beside Mimi and Angel, but the victory came at a price. We had to pay for the lot. We split it up three ways, with Maureen and Joanne taking a third, Collins and I taking another third and Benny covering his part alone. It might have upset our plans a little, but it was worth it.

After the funeral the five of us went to the life café giving in to all of the ironies of the situation. Collins and I looked at each other, deciding how to break the news of our plans to the others. Collins started. "You guys don't know this but, well we all had this crazy idea about setting up a restaurant. Out west." A wave a shock ran through the other three. With a swallow I stepped in.

"We can get a car for real cheep and I'm going to get a loan from my parents. It's really possible. It wouldn't be anything big but, its not like we have any big reason to stay here anymore."

"And we are?" asked Maureen.

"On the other side of the city. You don't need us. We don't really need you. I mean we won't lose touch, we can meet up for holidays and stuff like that."

Collins continued, "There are always teaching gigs almost everywhere so even if it went under we could get jobs, I as a teacher obviously and Mark doing camera work somewhere."

Benny stared at the two of us intently, of all of us he would know if it was realistic or not, so it was his approval that we hoped for. "Do you think you can actually run a business, by yourselves?"

"It's worth a shot." I shrugged.

"It's worth more than a shot!" Joanne smiled, "There is nothing out here, hell, we wouldn't be here if it wasn't for the firm. Who knows? In five years we might be right behind you."

"The mass exodus from NY." Collins replied with a smile.

Benny stood up and held his beer high, "To, to the New Yorkers!" We all followed suit.