Table of Contents
For Mike Lyons and Alan Heppel.
If a man lies with another man as with a woman,
both of them have committed an abomination.
They shall surely be put to death.
Their blood guilt shall be upon them.
Leviticus 20:13 (Modern English Version)
There is no fear in love,
but perfect love casts out fear.
1 John 4:18 (English Standard Version)
PROPOSITION 54
For the California Ballot, November 1986
I. Text
Acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) is an infectious, contagious and communicable disease and the condition of being a carrier of the HTLV-III virus is an infectious, contagious and communicable condition and both shall be placed and maintained by the director of the Department of Health Services on the list of reportable diseases and conditions mandated by Health and Safety Code Section 3123, and all personnel of the Department of Health Services and all health officers shall fulfill all of the duties and obligations specified in each and all of the sections of said statutory division in a manner consistent with the intent of this Act, as shall all other persons identified in said provisions.
II. Analysis
Declares that AIDS is an infectious, contagious and communicable disease and that the condition of being a carrier of the HTLV-III virus is an infectious, contagious and communicable condition. Requires both be placed on the list of reportable diseases and conditions maintained by the director of the Department of Health Services. Provides that both are subject to quarantine and isolation statutes and regulations. Provides that Department of Health Services personnel and all health officers shall fulfill the duties and obligations set forth in specified statutory provisions to preserve the public health from AIDS.
ONE
The boy’s eyelids fluttered like butterfly wings as if restlessly scanning the dreamscape into which sleep had transported him. Keeping vigil beside the bed, Daniel thought people were wrong to describe death as sleeping; sleep was an activity of the living, filled, like Wyatt’s, with squirms and fidgets, groans and sighs, frowns and smiles. He was pinned to the narrow bed by IVs and monitoring devices emitting beeps and buzzes above the rasp of his troubled breathing. Daniel drew a deep breath and slowly exhaled as if, by example, he could encourage Wyatt to clear the sickness from his lungs. He entwined his fingers with the boy’s— the warm hand was limp and unresponsive to Daniel’s touch. He should pray, he thought, but what more could he say to God that God had not already heard? Still, he whispered, Father, please . . .
The faint pressure of a hand on his shoulder silenced him. Gwen held out a foam cup of milky coffee to him. He took it, gratefully. She resumed her watch on the other side of the bed. Behind her, the windy San Francisco night growled faintly against the window. The brisk, jarring, urgent noises of the ward had subsided to a thrum, creating a peculiar intimacy in the small room, as if they were the only three people in the world.
“Did he wake up at all?”
He shook his head. “I think he’s out for the night.”
She smiled wanly. “He hasn’t slept through the night since he was admitted, and he wakes up confused and scared.”
Her shift had ended, but she was still in her nurse’s scrubs. He wondered when she’d last slept.
“He’s lucky he’s here where you work instead of with strangers,” Daniel said. “Your nurse friends have been dropping in all night to check on him.”
“Everyone’s rooting for him.”
“It’s hard to believe this is where we ended up,” he said.
She lifted Wyatt’s hand delicately and rubbed her thumb along his palm as if imparting her life force into him. The gesture sparked an old memory, and Daniel asked, “Did you ever read his fortune?”
She glanced at him in bewilderment.
“Don’t you remember? The first time we met, you read my palm.”
She smiled, and for a moment he saw in her tired face the beautiful Black girl who had taken his hand, turned it palm up, and studied it intently on a chilly day in Golden Gate Park almost twenty years earlier in the Summer of Love.
••••
“This is your wisdom line,” Gwen had told him, gravely, tracing a line in his palm. “You’re a seeker.”
The sun was a white disc