Epilogue: Bethesda, February 1990 Summary

Prior, dressed warmly for the cold clear day, wearing thick glasses and walking with a cane, Hannah, who now dresses like a native New Yorker, and Louis and Belize are sitting beneath the angel at the fountain in Central Park. Louis is talking about the fall of communism in Eastern Europe, and is very enthusiastic about Gorbachev's political plans. For Louis, it is a revolution. Belize is more cautious, and comments that Gorbachev is not popular with his own people. Hannah wonders what will become of the Balkans.

Prior turns away and addresses the audience. He has been living with AIDS for five years, and has been living without Louis for four and a half of these years.

Louis is praising the Russians for "making a leap into the unknown. You can't wait around for theory," he says. They...