I couldn’t lie to myself, claiming that I was happy for them. Never had I seen David Claire smile so much: cherry-red cheeks, dazzling life in his after-sixty somewhat blind eyes, and a zip in his step. Isaiah had done something wild to him that no other man had in the last three years since I had known him. I noted that David had altered just as much as Isaiah. A positive and enlightening transition had occurred in both their lives. Something unexpected. Something untamed. Something wonderfully extraordinary that sometimes happens between two men. How couldn’t I be happy for the pair?
* * * *
July 15. Sticky hot. Blistering sun. Perhaps unbearable. Nothing that I liked about summertime. I missed winter and snow and ice and the cold wind and the frozen tundra and…
During the last seven
