The Great Believers

Fiona tells Richard about the ways the landscape of Chicago’s Boystown has changed over the years. Boystown has gentrified, and the neighborhood now houses heterosexual families in addition to gay people. Richard wisely reflects:

I’m sure I’d roll my eyes at the gentrification, but listen, honey […] enjoy it while it lasts. […] You’re not always advancing. I know it feels that way right now, but it’s fragile. You might look back in fifty years and say, That was the last good time (344).

Richard tells Fiona to go down and wait by the door for a surprise. A few minutes later, she sees Julian. They embrace each other, and Fiona is thrilled but shocked to see him alive after all these years. She’d always assumed he’d died of AIDS.

Asher brings Yale intermittent updates on Charlie’s physical health. To cope, Charlie has been doing a lot of cocaine, and Asher is deeply frustrated that he’s wasting his money on drugs (rather than social justice). While high, Charlie sometimes writes odd rambling letters to Yale with titles like, “Dreams I’ve Had About You” and “Ways I’ll Kill Myself If The Republicans Win This Fall” (349). Yale believes Charlie’s sending these rambling letters to others as well.