A man’s friend habitually goes to the zoo during typhoons to drink and see how the animals cope with the storm. Aside from that, his friend is like most people. He has a decent job and lives in a nice apartment alone. He has a new girlfriend every six months. The friend also owns a lot of nice things, including a fancy black suit and tie that the man borrows for funerals.

The man arrives at the friend’s apartment to borrow the suit for a funeral. The friend tells him about a cat he saw at the zoo. The man apologizes for borrowing the suit again but expresses that if he buys a suit for a funeral, he is saying that it is okay for people to die. The friend says it is not a problem as he is not using it. It was true, the friend had not worn the suit once since he bought it three years ago as no one he knows has died.

For the man, however, it was the so-called year of funerals. He is twenty-eight. His friends were around the same age. However, it was that year that a metaphysical massacre began. It felt as if some invisible thing was killing all of his friends.

His first friend to die was an English teacher. He committed suicide and left no note for his wife who was at her home giving birth. Over the next twelve months, four more people he knew died.

One died in an incident at an oil field in the Middle East; one had a heart attack; and two others died in traffic accidents. Unlike the friend who committed suicide, the man feels that these friends had no time to know they were dying until they died.

A few days after the final funeral, the man brings the suit and whisky to his friend. He expresses that he hopes that the suit does not smell like a funeral. His friend begins saying odd things like it doesn’t matter what the clothes are like, but what matters is what is in the clothes. They talk about how many funerals the man has been to. The friend compares it to a pyramid curse. They drink a lot. His friend comments that he must be thinking about things too often in the night as he appears a bit glum. The friend explains that when he is thinking about things in the middle of the night, he cleans until he is tired and forgets what he was thinking about.

The man notices that the apartment is very clean and orderly. They talk about coping mechanisms. They watch tv. The man comments that you can make the world of the people on the tv stop any time you turn it off. They talk about ways of thinking about things. They had champagne and talked about a zoo in Paris.

At a New Year’s Eve party for his job, the man was introduced to a woman. He tried to retreat to a corner after meeting her, but she followed him. She was pretty. She says that the man looks exactly like someone she knew once. She says that he died and that she killed him. She explains that it was not murder or morally wrong, but she did kill him. She then asks him a slew of weird and unrelated questions. She concludes that he will live a long time and then says goodbye.

Somewhere in a mining shaft, presumably in New York, miners blow out candles and remain silent to save oxygen. They hear axes and the sound of life. They waited for hours. It was as if this was all happening in a faraway world; a long time ago; or in the distant future. Outside, people were digging and trying to reach them.