Photo © Jeff Schonberg

4. Jesse, Hank and Petey at the Hospital:   I tried to explain to Jesse what the nurses had just explained to me about the hepatitis C virus killing Petey. He lay unconscious between us, tubes rhythmically sucking air in and out of his lungs. Hank was gently stroking Petey's hair, pushing it softly across his forehead. When I finished talking, Hank’s gentle massage over Petey’s brow ceased and instead the tips of his fingers began scratching his partner’s scalp, tangling the hair that he had previously been neatening. Hank suddenly bent over his dying friend and begged in a broken whisper, "Promise to hang on, my Bubbah." He began repeating over and over: "Please be all right. Promise to make it out of here." Jesse meanwhile prayed at the bedside embracing Hank’s back which was now shaking with sobs, "May the Lord protect our Petey."

(Fieldnote: February, 1999)

Six weeks later Petey made it out of the ICU, a walking skeleton. He went back to Hank’s camp for a fix of heroin. Wobbling a bit, but almost without missing a beat he took back his spot panhandling at the exit to the Burger King drive thru. Within two days he was making enough to support both his habit and part of Hank’s. Within three weeks he was supplementing his heroin injections with a bottle of Cisco Berry fortified wine.

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