Mark and Mike

Fire Island, N.Y., September 1981

"We’re looking up into the camera and someone must have said something funny, because Mark and I are both laughing, eyes crinkled and expressions that are achingly openhearted. It’s so clear, looking at that picture, that we were smitten." (p. 7)

Mark and Mike

Puerto Rico, November 1982

"We were in bliss with all the native flowers, orchids of all colors and brilliantly colored birds. We had dinners in Old San Juan and were outdoors whenever possible. The warmth was narcotic. When we got back to our room we fell into bed and made love." (p. 65)

Kirk Kirkpatrick, John Batson, and Mark

On the Dancing Bear, May 1982

“The late afternoon and evening on a sailboat in good weather is as close to heaven as I imagine I will get in this life.”  (Mike, p. 35)

Betts Cassady, Mike, and Mark

Snowmass, Colo., August 1982

“Everything I love is here: you, good friends, being in nature, no worries. I miss my Peace Corps buddies and wish I’d gone to more reunions, but my memories are good ones.” (Mark, p. 48)

Aunt Pearl; Eddie and Ida Halberstadt

Queens, N.Y. (undated)

“I enjoyed myself enormously, although I found some of their behavior unnerving.  Not only did they talk very loudly, they interrupted each other constantly, and everyone had an opinion on everything. A strong opinion.”  (Mike, p. 29)

Mike and Mark

near Provincetown, Mass., fall 1982

“Our discussion brought some immediate results for Mark. He made phone calls to people he knew in Florida and lined up two jobs, one moving a sailboat from Fort Lauderdale to St. Thomas, the other crewing on a large yacht. . . . there was movement in the right direction. I began to feel cautiously optimistic.”  (Mike, p. 70)

Mark and Mike

Boston, Mass., October 1983

“Scientists reported that patients with KS lived an average of seventeen months, patients with PCP for seven months. It was hard to reconcile that information with the image of Mark on the Exercycle in his hospital room . . . He grinned as he dismounted the bike and held up his fingers in a victory sign.”  (p. 107)

Mark and Mitch Katz

Lieutenant Island, Mass., June 1984

"Mitch, Mark’s buddy from the AIDS Action Committee, came by Monday after lunch on his way back to Boston from Provincetown. Mark’s breath had become labored again. I made iced tea and went outside to an adirondack chair so they could talk alone."  (p. 134)

Mark, Ida, and Ed Halberstadt

Boston, Mass., July 1984

“Darling, I just want to tell you how grateful we are that Mark has you. . . . You know what he told me? He told me he loved you, and that his home is with you.” She wiped her eyes with a tissue and said, “Mike, everyone needs someone in life, to have meals with, to read with. I’m so glad he has you.” (Ida, p. 107)

Mark

Lieutenant Island, Mass., June 1984

"The upper half of his face was now covered with a bright red rash and still peppered with tiny white warts. He was acutely self-conscious about how he looked, and the condition was made worse by direct sunlight. After a childhood of summer camps and then rentals on Fire Island, with Mark running bareheaded on beaches, the sun was no longer his friend." (p. 132)