It never stops, does it? So, yesterday Billy found out that the recent Austrian vote only barely in favour of a liberal candidate versus a far-right one, is being annulled and there is supposedly a re-vote being held. Billy is originally from Austria (in fact his birth name is “Franz Josef”), and that vote was stressing him out big time, partially because it was literally ‘too close to home‘, and he is having some serious issues with his ultra right-wing family, but if you ask him for details he will most of the time just roll his eyes and say “I needed to breathe”.
Billy is a sweetheart, but, or maybe there is a connection, he takes things too serious if you ask me, but I am not Billy, so I have no right to place judgement.
I guess most people at the hotel, as far as they even have time to be bothered, just wish he had an easier time. As is, because he is different, he is an easy target for some not very nice people, the kind of which unfortunately are often plenty of them around, although nobody ever asks for them to exist, and instead of setting them straight Billy just sorts things out by himself, typically that is done by binging tons of food and throwing it all up afterwards in a private place, because Billy is very concerned about being unpleasant for other people. I guess he thinks that’s easier that way.

Billy is skinny, lanky, has a high voice and speaks with a noticeable foreign accent. Above all things he is highly insecure. So on top of that, yesterday at work in the wave of current events he ran into some bullies who told him straight out “Go back to your country!” Someone said he also got a letter from home or something, apparently not a very nice one, so much for going back to his country, anyways, in connection to all that somehow his head as so often started spinning. What happened then was, he went in a massive eating binge, (it must have been massive, as usually he does not throw up in his room although there is a toilet, but instead goes outside to more reclusive locations where nobody can see, hear or smell it and get on his case, because he gets enough of that already.)

But yesterday he didn’t have time to go elsewhere and spent all day in his room, eating stuff, throwing up and so on, which people who were in and have a room close to him could hear, in this case Laila, who’s room is across the hall from Billy’s.

Usually Laila, God bless her heart, is busy studying things like sociology, politics and feminism, more than just ‘some of the time’ talking more about it than actually actively getting something done connected to it, but for fairness now she has also Alexander, who keeps her busy and exhausted, a good thing in this case, because Alexander had been napping and so she was in and able to hear that Billy needed help (even more than he does as already is.)

When I came back in the evening, they told me Laila had heard something and gone over to Billy’s room where he called for help, but he had locked the door and could not open, so she had to get a spare key from Vincent.
Billy had been throwing up all afternoon long and at some point started throwing up blood, and quite a bit of it. He was rushed to the hospital and it turned out he had ruptured his stomach, so he had to stay there and apparently it was serious.

Back at the hotel his room was a total mess, food and food wrapping was piled up on his table, some had spilled all over the place on the floor and carpet and in the bathroom were throw-up and blood.

Vincent and some people cleaned up, Starfish, who usually gets the helper’s job, was out someplace with Chiaki and came back only in the evening when it was all over, so he wasn’t there, among the cleaning people were surprisingly Larry, who usually reacts to serious life events with no more than a sarcastic comment, and Laila of all people, who I have never seen do anything only remotely reminding of household chores because she usually finds herself to emancipated and is terrified of ending up a ‘house wife’ if she just as much as touches a broom and a rag, but I suppose in this case we all felt really bad for Billy and worried, and that was the best we could do for the moment, besides cleaning up this disaster scene had something of a ritualistic healing ritual to it.
Me, too, helped with the cleaning, which also gave me the chance to take some pictures as well as a bit of bad consciousness, because I wasn’t sure if Billy would have agreed to it, but the other time in the empty warehouse he had told me, “maybe next time”, and this seemed maybe the only next time I possibly might get.

I say so much as: I have never seen anything like it. There were piles of food, some eaten and only crumbs left, some half eaten, some barely touched, and some that clearly had been swallowed and thrown up again, everything spread on the table in heaps, and under it and on the floor. There was pasta, peanut butter, jello, lettuce, noodle salad, some watermelon, sausages, bacon, mayonnaise, and a number of items not really identifiable anymore, candies spilled all over, frozen yoghurt melting and dripping from the table onto the floor, and several bottles of fizzy seltzer water; under the table no better: a large cream cake, a whole box of Sunshine Cupcakes, a roast chicken, a large gift box with a pink ribbon filled with vanilla-banana toffees, jam, half eaten cookies, whipped cream and all sorts of emptied out boxes, containers and wrapping paper Billy obviously had just thrown onto the floor, not being too concerned about it.

 

Josiane Keller “Billy’s binge 1” (2016)

Josiane Keller “Billy’s binge 2” (2016)

Josiane Keller “Billy’s binge 3” (2016)

Josiane Keller “Billy’s binge 4” (2016)

Josiane Keller “Billy’s binge 5 – roast chicken on the floor” (2016)

Josiane Keller “Billy’s binge 6 – cookie crumbs” (2016)

Josiane Keller “Billy’s binge 7 – gift card” (2016)

Josiane Keller “Billy’s binge 8 – hefty smile” (2016)

Josiane Keller “Billy’s binge 9 – melted frozen yoghurt” (2016)

Josiane Keller “Billy’s binge 10 – box of Sunshine Cupcakes” (2016)

Josiane Keller “Billy’s binge 11 – bottles seltzer water” (2016)

Josiane Keller “Billy’s binge 12 – cake on the floor” (2016)

Josiane Keller “Billy’s binge 13 – box of toffee” (2016)

Josiane Keller “Billy’s binge 14 – table top” (2016)

Josiane Keller “Billy’s binge 15 – cupcake 1” (2016)

Josiane Keller “Billy’s binge 16 – cupcake 2” (2016)

Josiane Keller “Billy’s binge 17 – spilled candies” (2016)

Josiane Keller “Billy’s binge 18 – chicken and jello” (2016)

Josiane Keller “Billy’s binge 19 – Sunshine Cupcakes and Live Savers” (2016)

Josiane Keller “Billy’s binge 20 – table top with jello” (2016)

Josiane Keller “Billy’s binge 21 – system is monitored” (2016)

Josiane Keller “Billy’s binge 22 – Life Savers in throw-up” (2016)

Josiane Keller “Billy’s binge 23 – toilet with blood” (2016)

Josiane Keller “Billy’s binge 24 – toilet paper with blood” (2016)

Josiane Keller “Billy’s binge 25 – strong man in the mirror” (2016)

Josiane Keller “Billy’s binge 26 – strong man on top of the closet” (2016)

Josiane Keller “Billy’s binge 27 – Billy’s room in bathroom mirror” (2016)

Josiane Keller “Billy’s binge 28 – fly on the toilet” (2016)

Josiane Keller “Billy’s binge 29 – table top with yoghurt cups” (2016)

Josiane Keller “Billy’s binge 30 – sofa with poster” (2016)

Josiane Keller “Billy’s binge 31 – strong man close-up” (2016)

Josiane Keller “Billy’s binge 32 – under the table” (2016)

Josiane Keller “Billy’s binge 33 – Billy’s chair” (2016)

Josiane Keller “Billy’s binge 34 – closet filled with newspapers and letters” (2016)

Josiane Keller “Billy’s binge 35 – strong man throwing a rock from top of Billy’s closet” (2016)

Since his room is usually very orderly it made me think of the many times he must be doing this ritual of getting things very dirty and afterwards sparkling clean again and if he possibly partially also did it for the effect of cleansing, maybe cleansing himself from inside out.

About two hours later the place looked normal again, almost as if nothing had happened, besides a smell of throw-up, although we had opened all the windows to let fresh air in. In the process we also found out that Billy has a closet stuffed to the brim with newspapers and mostly unopened letters from home, because it stood open when we went in his room.
I seriously worry about Billy, hope this one will go alright after all. I think all of us, even the selfish types, are thinking right now about how to talk to him and trying to help, if that is possible at all, so far this had not been a major concern, because Billy had always kept his affairs out of everyone’s face, deliberately so. The question is: how long will the good intentions last?

Besides our worries about Billy, apparently the photographer who is supposed to come here was attacked by a wild tiger that injured his hand and that incident delays his arrival, (what an interesting life this person must have, getting to take shots of tigers in nature, where most of us are stuck in neurotic city life!) When it rains it pours…